Having disability insurance is one of the easiest ways to protect your income as an architect. Disability insurance pays benefits for as long as you’re injured or sick and can’t work (up to the limits of your policy, and can even pay out for decades if never able to go back to work as an architect.
If your work offers short-term disability insurance as a benefit you should opt-in, but it’s even better protection to buy your own long-term disability insurance policy. You can find an affordable policy that fits your needs by comparing quotes from multiple companies.
Why architects need disability insurance
Think of disability insurance like insurance for your income: if you can’t work because of an illness or injury, disability insurance replaces your income with a monthly benefit. Short-term disability insurance covers absences of up to a year maximum, while long-term disability insurance can pay out for years or even decades, depending on the severity of your illness or injury.
If you’re an architect, it’s worth having disability insurance to protect your income and ensure you’ll be able to keep up with your regular expenses if you’re unexpectedly injured or sick and can’t work.
Disability insurance covers most disabling conditions that might keep you from working, including:
Severe anxiety or depression
Torn ligaments
Broken bones
Stroke or heart attack
Cancer and other serious illnesses
Complications from pregnancy or childbirth
Your disability benefits go directly to you and work like your regular income, so you can use them on things like rent or mortgage payments, credit card bills, auto loans, groceries, childcare, and other day-to-day expenses.
When should you get disability insurance?
Disability insurance gets more expensive with age, so it’s a good idea to get coverage early in life — as long as you can afford a policy. When you first buy your policy you can lock in your rates (unless you change your coverage), which makes it easy to budget for over the long term.
It’s a good idea to get a disability insurance policy with a future increase option so that you can add more coverage later on without going through another lengthy medical review.
What type of disability insurance do architects need?
As an architect it’s important to have disability insurance, but it’s even more important to have the right kind of coverage. We recommend a long-term, own-occupation policy.
Long-term disability insurance provides the most protection because it’s designed for worst-case scenarios. A long-term policy can pay out benefits for years, or even decades if a disability prevents you from ever returning to work.
Check your policy’s “definition of disability,” — this basically lets you know when and how you’re eligible to receive benefits. With an own-occupation policy, you’re eligible for benefits as long as you can’t work in your specialized role. You can still, though, receive benefits if you’re able to work in another profession.
So if a serious illness leaves you unable to return to work as an architect but you’re able to find part-time work consulting, you’d still be able to get disability insurance payments under the terms of an own-occupation policy.
Read more about how long-term disability insurance works
What if you already get disability insurance through work?
If your employer offers disability insurance, it’s worth getting. You can opt in to coverage when you start a new job or sign up for health insurance and other benefits during open enrollment. Most of the time, work-provided group disability insurance is free or partially paid for by your employer.
Work-provided disability insurance is a valuable way to protect your income, but has limitations that make it important to get your own policy.
The disability insurance you get through work is usually short-term coverage, meaning you’ll only be able to collect benefits for up to a year at the most. You won’t be able to rely on this kind of protection for a longer lasting disability, and it’s tied to your job, so you can’t take it with you if you change firms.
Are riders worth it for architects?
There are a handful of useful disability insurance riders (meaning add-ons or features of your coverage) that you should consider if you’re an architect. Some are free to add and some cost extra, but may be worth it.
Future increase option: Lets you to add more coverage later on without going through the lengthy application process again.
Guaranteed renewable/non-cancelable: Pay your premiums on time and your rates won’t go up.
Own-occupation: You’re eligible for benefits if an illness or injury keeps you from going back to work as an architect, even if you can work in another job.
Partial or residual disability: You can receive a partial benefit if a disability makes it hard to do only part of your job.
Student loan rider: Helps you continue paying off your student loan balance when you can’t work, worth adding if you have outstanding debt from graduate school.
How much does disability insurance cost for architects?
Disability insurance usually costs 1% to 3% of your income. Using median income data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we found that architects can expect to pay between $78 and $233 a month for disability insurance. [1]
That said, what exactly you’ll pay for disability insurance depends on a range of personal factors, like your age, health, job, lifestyle, and the amount of coverage you get.
Read more about the cost of disability insurance
Best disability insurance companies for architects
The best disability insurance companies if you’re an architect will have experience working with people with higher-than-average incomes. Look for an insurance company that offers the coverage you need (including riders) at an affordable price.
Some of our top companies for architects include:
BBB rating | AM Best rating | What we like about it … | |
|---|---|---|---|
A+ | A | Includes a survivor benefit for your beneficiary. | |
A+ | AA+ | Offers lifetime continuous benefits for total disabilities, even after the policy expires. | |
A | A++ | Offers a future insurability rider that's good until your 60th birthday. | |
A+ | A+ | Offers a lump-sum payment of $62,400 in addition to regular benefits if you're presumptively disabled. | |
A+ | A | Includes a family care benefit if you have to take time off to care for a sick loved one. |
How to get disability insurance
No matter what kind of architect you are, you can get disability insurance by following these steps:
