re: Anybody have any experience with Northwestern Mutual?

I understand. Lets say something happened that you couldn't work in the ER, but you still could perform some of your principle duties that were involved in that job, most "own occ" policies won't pay full benefits, just partial, and you would have to be gainfully employed to receive these benefits. Their policy allows you to have the choice of whether or not you want to continue working and receive partial benefits, or receive full disability benefits.

I guess the best way to look at the difference in NW's Med Occ definition and anybody else's "own occ" definition is this:

If you think that when you become disabled, losing your ability to do ALL principle duties of your current occupation, but believe you can still be gainfully employed elsewhere and earn a comparable income (or greater than 20%), a traditional "own occ" policy is best.

But, if you can still do some of your principal duties and want to option to cease gainful employment and be eligible for full benefits, the NW Med Occ policy is better. In this scenario, an "own occ" policy would make you be gainfully employed to receive partial benefits.

I think that is where people are getting confused with their policies. Regardless, get the policy that fits your situation.

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Whose?

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NW's

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Losing the ability to perform one principle duty would make me unfit to practice emergency medicine. Unlike other doctors, I can't restrict specific aspects of my practice. I must be able to perform all duties every shift. Won't be able to be another type of doc or make similar income in another career.
You're saying NM has better policy for this specific situation? Because I was always skeptical about not having my specific field noted in the policy.

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Well, it would depend on what your principle duties are, and I would have to do a little more research into your specific field, as I haven't done a whole lot of work with emergency room docs, but what it sounds like is that if you became disabled due to sickness or injury, it is most likely that you wouldn't be able to perform any of your duties. If you think you would be able to earn over 20% of your current income in another field after the disability, then I would say NW's MED OCC definition wouldn't be best.

Where your situation does become tricky is what happens if you are disabled and still able to perform some of your principle duties. You probably wouldn't be able to work, but from my understanding, most own occ definitions would consider this just partially disabled, and you would have to be gainfully employed to receive partial benefits. That is where I would need to do some more research for you, because that is definitely a unique situation.

Hope I could clarify some things up a little bit.