Pay attention to HOW you pay for Disability Insurance

This is sort of a spinoff from something that came up in another topic on another board. It's a given that every young professional should have disability insurance. I'd actually like to see a show of hands in here for how many DON'T have disability insurance. I bought my disability insurance straight out of dental school, and I thoroughly researched it beforehand (so well, in fact, that one of the agents got in trouble with the state board for misrepresenting the policies of his competitor). Disability insurance cost me less than my car insurance. Just think about that for a second - you can insure your life-long income for less than you can insure a 20,000 car. Most don't think they will ever become disabled and postpone buying it for that reason. Yet while your need for car insurance is only a car wreck away, your need for disability insurance may be that same car wreck away.
Back in the early '90s, I was able to get a fantastic own-occupation policy that I think would be hard to get today. I was able to initially insure about 70% of my income, but I had built in automatic increases of about 15% of my benefits that kicked in every 2 years for about 7 or 8 terms, regardless of income (unless I refused them). I also had built in options that were income-dependent. I went on disability for the first time following my neck surgery. Even after going on disability for that, I was still able to increase my benefits by about 50%, despite it being a near certainty that I would return to long-term disability, which I was forced to do. The lesson here is to pay close attention to any available riders to your policy, and take full advantage of what is offered.
The most important factor was that I paid for my policy out of pocket with post-tax dollars. I ran my practice as a sub-s corp, and if I had paid for the policy through my company, my benefits would have been taxable. However, I chose to pay with my after-tax income. This cost me a few hundred extra dollars each year. However, doing so made my benefits tax free. Those extra few hundreds each year ended up saving me tens of thousands per year for the next 20 years.
I'm not an insurance salesman, but I am passionate about this subject because I've been through it. Don't put it off. Insure your income - your earning potential is your most valuable asset. And thoroughly research every available option before you buy. Here's a link for reference:
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