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5 Reasons to get a Disability Insurance quote

  • Disability chance when you are 35 years old – 50%
  • We compare for you more than 20+ insurers
  • The cheapest rates across Canada
  • Secure enough income replacement for you and your family
  • You can qualify up to the age of 70
Critical Illness Insurance

Welcome to your disability insurance quoting guide:

Welcome to your guide for disability insurance quote. This page will give you a good understanding of disability insurance, will inform you of savings opportunities in disability insurance, and also provide a number of other useful tips based on our publications. We will also help you to find the best disability insurance quote across more than 20 top Canadian insurers.

Over 3.6 million Canadians have a disability (that’s one in eight, or roughly 13% of the population) and it only increases with age. Let the statistics do the talking:

  • 1 in 3 people, on average, will be disabled for 90 days or longer, at least once before age 65
  • The average length of a disability that lasts over 90 days is 2.9 years.

If you look at Ontario, the statistics are more alarming:

  • More than 15% of Ontarians have a disability (1.85 million people) – which is 1 out of 7 Ontarians
  • More than 40% of senior Ontarians (age 65 or older) have a disability

This trend is going up and it is expected that over the course of the next 20 years, 1 out of 5 Ontarians (20%) will be faced with a disability. This highlights the importance of disability insurance that starts with a disability insurance quote in Ontario. Click here if you are interested in finding out approximate monthly disability insurance costs for your age and profile.

What is Disability Insurance?

Disability insurance typically provides you with financial security by replacing a part of your earnings when an accident or illness causes you to become disabled and unable to work or earn an income.

An example below shows that if you used to earn $4,000 monthly prior to your disability, you can expect disability payments in the range between 50% ($2,000/month ) and 85% ($3,400/month) of your current salary, depending on the insurance policy you choose. Typically, disability insurance is limited to a maximum of 85% of your salary/income. Get an online disability insurance quote by clicking the green button if you want to compare costs for different disability insurance policies.

This way you can still continue to pay your bills, ensure that your family is financially secured and that your kids can get a proper education.

Depending on the definition of disability chosen by the insured, they may receive payments to recover their lost income due to total or partial disability, and whether they are unable to work at their primary occupation before the injury or whether they can work at secondary occupation.

5 Things that matter when getting disability insurance

When searching for a disability insurance quote – consumers should look for the five features below. It should be noted that many of these features are only available for a select number of occupations, i.e. professionals such as lawyers, doctors, engineers or company executives.

  1. Non-cancelable coverage. This means the insurance company cannot cancel your coverage or adjust your premiums on a class-wide basis. This ensures that the coverage will remain in effect until the insured turns 65. The premiums are guaranteed to never increase.
  2. ‘Own occupation’ definition. This allows a professional that has a significant investment in their occupation, including years of training and acquired experience, to work in another occupation while they are totally disabled and still receive their disability benefits. The ‘own occupation’ rider modifies the definition of total disability under a basic plan, so you’ll be considered totally disabled even if the insured is engaged in another gainful occupation.
  3. Residual disability benefit. This benefit allows those who are not totally disabled to receive a residual disability payment. The insured can choose between receiving a partial disability payment for loss of time or duties, or the residual disability benefit – if they suffer a loss of income. The insured can choose the greater of the two.
  4. Cost of living benefit. This is usually a rider that can be added to most disability policies, which makes sure the monthly benefit stays in line with inflation.
  5. A future income option. This allows the insured to increase his or her coverage at different points in the future without evidence of insurability, however, it does require that the insured provide income evidence to justify the increase.

Disability Insurance – what you must know

“…Disability insurance basically pays out a monthly income in the event that the person becomes injured or sick. It’s going to pay you that money to help offset your bills – things like your living expenses, your rent, all your day-to-day costs.

It’s going to pay you that monthly income and the idea is, it replaces the income that you’d be earning when you are normally working…”

Disability Insurance Rates: Examples

Disability insurance rates depend on many variables and they are more complicated to estimate than e.g. life insurance rates. We put for you several examples based on key factors.

  • Monthly benefit: Amount of monthly payments you would receive from an insurance company.
  • Min. income to qualify: Minimal income amount that you need to show to an insurance company to qualify for a policy.
  • % of income benefit: Share of your regular income that you will be able to get back in form of disability benefits. It is important to remember that you would get less than your full salary.
Disability Insurance rate, Female
Monthly benefitMin. income to qualify% of income benefitMonthly rates for Age, 30Monthly rates for Age, 55
$1,500$23,00078%$55$110
$3,000$50,00072%$106$215
$5,500$108,60061%$190$390
$8,000$183,44052%$275$565
Disability Insurance rate, Male
Monthly benefitMin. income to qualify% of income benefitMonthly rates for Age, 30Monthly rates for Age, 55
$1,500$23,00078%$34$105
$3,000$50,00072%$64$205
$5,500$108,60061%$113$373
$8,000$183,44052%$163$540

All rates are for September 2021.

How can you get a better disability insurance quote?

Your job is not dangerous: Not being involved into dangerous jobs like a member of the police bomb squad will help to avoid additional disability insurance premiums.

Bundle your life insurance products: Do you need Life and Disability Insurance? Many life insurance companies will offer you a discount if you bundle them together.

Payment frequency: In comparison to monthly payments, annual payments often save  life insurance companies administrative costs (e.g. sending bills) and therefore they may reward you with lower disability insurance rates.

No dangerous sports: Some companies can increase your disability insurance premiums if you are involved into dangerous or extreme sports (e.g. sky diving, rock climbing).

If you are healthy, you pay less: If you are in a good health when you apply for a disability insurance policy, insurers might reward that with lower premiums.

Your driving record: Make sure that you have a good driving record before applying – a bad driving record can be punished by some life insurance providers.

Compare quotes from different providers: Disability insurance quotes can vary a lot across various insurers. Make sure to work with an experienced insurance broker to find the best rate as opposed to an insurance agent who sells insurance policies of one insurance provider only.

Other tips: Contacting an experienced, licensed broker (see a button below) will help you to find other ways to reduce insurance premiums of your disability insurance premiums. Discussion with broker is entirely free and there is absolutely no obligations to buy.

Disability Insurance: elimination period and Benefits period explained

“…When you buy an individual disability policy, they don’t usually break it down into short term and long term. They have what’s called an elimination period, which is generally anywhere from 30 days up to 120 days. The shorter the elimination period, the more expensive the premium.

Then they have a benefit period, which would be two years, five years or up generally up to age 65; so, the longer the benefit period, the higher the premium.

Those would be two of the variables that swing together to determine your premium, along with the monthly indemnity, which is the amount of benefit you receive if you become disabled.
…”

Disability insurance replaces a percentage of your income if you become disabled due to an accident or illness. The definition of what defines a disability can vary among insurers, so it is important to understand the coverage and conditions before selecting a policy. Disability insurance can provide both short-term and long-term coverage.
Not many Canadians can withstand a prolonged income interruption. Disability insurance provides a portion of your income when an accident or serious illness prevents you from working. This is important because it not only provides money to help pay expenses (food, mortgage, transportation), there is an added benefit in peace of mind knowing you have the time – and the means – to recover without falling into serious debt.
Anyone who cannot afford an income interruption should have disability insurance. It is especially important for small business owners and the self-employed who typically do not have a reduced/light work option to fall back on, which is often something available to employees.
Disability insurance pays after the elimination, or waiting, period. This is a set number of weeks (varies among policy conditions) where the insurance company assess the claim, or a time set to dovetail with employment insurance (EI). The elimination period for some individual policies can be adjusted (the longer the wait, the lower the premium, typically). Know your elimination period and plan to self insure with savings during that time. While the elimination period can be short (as seen with short-term disability claims), do not expect an immediate payout. A typical length of this waiting period is 90 days though it can be shorter or longer.
The disability insurance elimination, or waiting, period is the time between a claim and the benefit. Many personal policies have a 17-week elimination period so that long term benefits can start after employment insurance (EI). The elimination period, if not funded by EI, is also called the time of “self insurance” as you must rely on your emergency funds or savings to cover expenses during that time.
It is not possible to have 100% income coverage. Most plans pay an average of 40% – 85% of your gross income. Calculate how much income you need to maintain the essentials of living (not including vacations, discretionary spending, extra curricular activities) and aim to cover that amount. Note that you may be limited by the coverage caps of your policy.
Policies vary but no policy covers more than 85% of your income, and group disability coverage typically covers around 60% or less (which is why it’s ideal to look into a top up if you have group insurance). You also cannot stack policies to try to exceed 85%.
Your disability benefit is tax-free only if you pay the premium yourself. When your premium is paid by an employer, the benefit is taxable.
Short term disability, or STD, provides a portion of your salary for a short duration of time, which is typically up to six months.
Long term disability (LTD) comes into play after short term disability and covers periods of disability that last longer than (typically) six months.
Disability insurance is available directly from insurers, through insurance brokerage firms, and through group insurance providers (employee benefits, association coverage). Banks offer some forms of insurance; mortgage insurance can be offered as a combination of life, disability, and critical illness insurance. Click here to get a free Disability Insurance quote tailored to your situation.
The cost of disability insurance in Canada varies quite widely based on a number of factors that include but are not limited to: type of occupation, choice of “any” or “own” occupation, health and other risk factors including the riskiness of your job, duration of the elimination period, and more. Some insurers also have bundled products (mortgage insurance, Manulife Synergy, for example) and this further affects the premium. The best way to determine disability insurance costs in Canada is to discuss your situation with an agent or broker. Be prepared to answer detailed questions about your income, debts, ongoing expenses such as childcare, if you care for aging parents, the availability of income from your spouse/partner, existing group coverage, and more. All these factors affect the cost of your disability insurance, and no two situations are the same.
Disability insurance, as with every other form of insurance, is based around your needs and risks. It is important to calculate how much is needed to cover essentials and to try to obtain the maximum allowance. For example, if you would need 60% of your income covered but your work only offers 40%, you would require a top up. Disability insurance is also tied to “own occupation,” which covers you if the disability prevents you from working in your own field; or “any occupation,” which covers you if the disability prevents you from working in any job at all. Both have very different premiums – it is cheaper to go with the policy that doesn’t have to pay out if you can work any type of job, even if it’s not in the industry of your choice. What constitutes an insurable disability also differs among insurers, and those definitions are incredibly strict. Ensure you know what your policy entails, so you are not unpleasantly surprised when making a claim. Our insurance specialists can help you to get affordable Disability Insurance coverage tailored to your needs.
Disability insurance for your mortgage pays your mortgage payments for the time listed in the policy, if you become disabled and cannot work. Unlike individual disability insurance, the beneficiary is the bank or lending institution. Disability insurance for mortgages is typically offered as part of, or along with, mortgage life insurance (which pays the mortgage to the bank in the event of the life insured’s death).
Disability insurance is very important for self-employed individuals since they lack employee coverage and often have incomes that are vital to the household. If you are an entrepreneur or self employed, you can obtain disability insurance directly from an insurance agency or through a broker.
Disability insurance is vital for business owners. Imagine working hard to build your company, only to go under due to an unexpected physical or mental illness. In addition to helping you cover expenses during your period of disability, the benefit (depending on the type of disability policy) can help with business expenses, help find new talent to fill the gap, or even fund a buy/sell agreement. There are different structures of business disability insurance. Discuss your options with an agent or broker.