Part of our guide: Disability Income Insurance: Solutions, Tools and Guides →
A client’s income is often their single biggest asset — bigger than their home, their portfolio, even their business. Most advisors make sure everything else is insured. Here’s how to make sure income itself doesn’t go unprotected.
Key takeaways
- Most clients assume employer group LTD is enough protection — it usually isn’t, especially for higher earners.
- Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) is sized to total income, travels with the client, and layers on top of group coverage.
- The moment a client’s income and career risk peak is often the same moment employer-tied coverage disappears.
Group long-term disability often replaces only 40-60% of income, excludes bonuses and incentive pay, and disappears the moment a client changes jobs.
The gap in group long-term disability coverage
Many employers offer group long-term disability (LTD) coverage, and many clients assume that’s enough. It usually isn’t. Group LTD is typically taxable, often only replaces 40-60% of income, and frequently excludes bonuses and incentive pay entirely — even though those can make up a large share of a client’s total compensation.
For higher-income earners, the gap is even wider. Group LTD benefits are often capped at a flat dollar amount that falls well short of what’s needed to replace a real monthly income. And because the coverage is tied to the employer, it typically disappears the moment a client changes jobs — at exactly the point in their career when their income, and their exposure, is highest.
What Individual Disability Insurance actually covers
Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) is built to close that gap. Just as life insurance pays a beneficiary for a loss, IDI pays a monthly benefit — tailored to a policyowner’s total income, not just their base salary — if a serious illness or injury keeps them from working. It travels with the client, not the employer, and it can be layered on top of group LTD to cover the income group coverage leaves out.
Why now is the right moment to raise it
Clients are more open than ever to conversations about protecting their income and their families against the unexpected. That makes this a natural moment for advisors to introduce IDI, not as an abstract product, but as a direct answer to a concern clients are already thinking about.
How to talk to clients about it
The clearest way to make the case is to point out that expenses don’t pause just because income does. Mortgages, car payments, loans, and everyday costs keep coming due whether or not a client can work — and a disabling illness or injury often adds new expenses on top of the old ones. IDI protects the income clients are already using to cover those costs, maintain their lifestyle, and support their families.
By raising income protection proactively, advisors don’t just fill a coverage gap — they demonstrate the kind of comprehensive planning that keeps clients loyal for the long run. If you have a client relying solely on group LTD, or a high earner whose real income exposure has never been fully addressed, that’s a case we can help you design.
Frequently asked questions
What is Individual Disability Insurance (IDI)?
IDI is a policy that pays a monthly benefit, tied to a client’s total income, if they’re unable to work due to a qualifying illness or injury. Unlike group LTD, it belongs to the individual and stays in place even if they change jobs.
Why isn’t group long-term disability enough on its own?
Group LTD is often taxable, typically caps out at 40-60% of income, frequently excludes bonuses and incentive pay, and ends when the client leaves their employer — leaving a meaningful gap for many earners, especially higher-income clients.
Reviewed by Tim Fuller on 2026-09-23
Tim Fuller
President, SRS Inc.
Tim leads SRS Inc., a full-service IMO (Independent Marketing Organization) and BGA (Brokerage General Agency) connecting independent financial professionals with life, annuity, disability income, and long-term care solutions from 60+ carrier partners — with the impaired-risk and complex-case expertise to place business other IMOs and BGAs turn away.
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