During every stage of the application process, the applicant must focus on one primary goal. That concerns the insurance company’s desire for evidence. The completed application should provide the insurer with an overwhelming amount of evidence, all of which help to support the applicant’s request for benefits.
Steps that aid an accumulation of evidence
Read the insurance policy and the group benefits booklet. The benefits booklet should be available to anyone that has reason to ask an employer, a union or a professional organization. It ought to contain the answers to questions such as this: Do I have disability benefits? What are the weekly payments? What is the waiting period?
Seek information on the formula used to calculate the amount of money given to someone that is receiving long term disability (LTD) payments. At the same time, learn the length of the benefit period for someone that is receiving LTD payments. Also, do some research, regarding the insurance company’s definition of disability. Find out if the policy contains the phrase “any occupation” or “own occupation.”
Prepare to apply while still working. Understand that you are more certain of receiving a “yes” answer to your request, if you have exceeded by far the insurer’s definition of “total disability.” If you have a pre-existing condition, it helps to have your records showing a gradual decline in the level of your on-the-job performance.
Try to take a medical leave, before seeking long term disability benefits. In that way, you should manage to retain your workplace benefits. Stop working when your doctor can support your decision and discuss the details of your claim with an injury lawyer in Sault Ste Marie.
How do the above steps yield overwhelming evidence of the fact that you qualify for LTD benefits?
You should have obtained a wealth of evidence just by reading the policy and the group booklet. Ideally, you should have a doctor’s excuse to present to your employer.
You should let your medical record offer evidence of a gradual decline in the level of your on-job performance. Hopefully, that decline has been linked to the development of medical problems.
You will not have to rely on the extent to which statements made by the insurance company representatives prove true. You will know just how truthful such a representative has been.
You have acquired a feel for how to proceed, if you become the victim of an accident, or develop a certain set of symptoms. Consequently, you reduce the chances that you will be asked to perform one of these actions: to quit, to resign or to take a severance package. You cannot be tricked into believing that some statement, one that is contained in your policy, proves that you do not qualify for LTD payments.