Long Term Disability
Long Term Disability (or "LTD") claims generally refer to the claims for monthly income benefits through an insurance company that your employer has purchased for you. The typical insurance companies include Sun Life, Great-West Life, Canada Life, London Life and many others.
After the Short Term Disability period (typically the first 4 months), most of these policies pay you about 66.7% of your usual monthly income until age 65. The payments may be taxable or non-taxable, and indexed to inflation, depending on the terms of the policies.
The first significant note to highlight to you is that your disability may come from many illnesses or car accidents, combined altogether. For example if you had a fall three years ago and hurt your back. You were off work for six months, then you went back to work for two years but still having problems with your back. Then a car accident occurs and you hurt your back more. You become disable. Short term and LTD policies do not require that your disability come from one source only. Disability can come from many sources. This helps your lawyer significantly because your lawyer does not have to worry about what particular accident or illness causes your disability. You may claim no matter what caused your disability. So, on this issue of "causation", an LTD claim is an "easier" claim to prove.
The second note is a reminder that you need to be careful sometimes when you do not know whether you actually have LTD coverage at your work. The human resources department may tell you "no", and may repeatedly tell you "no" when you asked again. However, we recommend that there be a written letter to confirm to you that in fact you did not have LTD insurance. In one of our cases, a young man who worked at a factory was told by his supervisor that he did not have LTD coverage. Many immigrants and refugees working in factories many not get the most accurate advice from their companies because for some, English is not their first language. We required his employer to confirm in writing for the record. A few months later, the company started to pay him monthly LTD benefits, 67% of his income, to support his family with two young children. The company could not confirm in writing that he did not have insurance because that was not true. This is what lawyers call "get it on the record", meaning get something in writing. When it is in writing, there will be serious consequences for inaccurate denials. In writing, companies double check and are more careful and serious before they tell you to go away with a dismissive "no".
Long Term Disability (or "LTD") claims generally refer to the claims for monthly income benefits through an insurance company that your employer has purchased for you. The typical insurance companies include Sun Life, Great-West Life, Canada Life, London Life and many others.
After the Short Term Disability period (typically the first 4 months), most of these policies pay you about 66.7% of your usual monthly income until age 65. The payments may be taxable or non-taxable, and indexed to inflation, depending on the terms of the policies.
The first significant note to highlight to you is that your disability may come from many illnesses or car accidents, combined altogether. For example if you had a fall three years ago and hurt your back. You were off work for six months, then you went back to work for two years but still having problems with your back. Then a car accident occurs and you hurt your back more. You become disable. Short term and LTD policies do not require that your disability come from one source only. Disability can come from many sources. This helps your lawyer significantly because your lawyer does not have to worry about what particular accident or illness causes your disability. You may claim no matter what caused your disability. So, on this issue of "causation", an LTD claim is an "easier" claim to prove.
The second note is a reminder that you need to be careful sometimes when you do not know whether you actually have LTD coverage at your work. The human resources department may tell you "no", and may repeatedly tell you "no" when you asked again. However, we recommend that there be a written letter to confirm to you that in fact you did not have LTD insurance. In one of our cases, a young man who worked at a factory was told by his supervisor that he did not have LTD coverage. Many immigrants and refugees working in factories many not get the most accurate advice from their companies because for some, English is not their first language. We required his employer to confirm in writing for the record. A few months later, the company started to pay him monthly LTD benefits, 67% of his income, to support his family with two young children. The company could not confirm in writing that he did not have insurance because that was not true. This is what lawyers call "get it on the record", meaning get something in writing. When it is in writing, there will be serious consequences for inaccurate denials. In writing, companies double check and are more careful and serious before they tell you to go away with a dismissive "no".