Does your disability coverage still fit your needs?

This is the monthly amount you would receive if you became disabled. It is set out in your policy.

If your income has grown since you applied, your coverage may not grow with it automatically. The usual target is 60 to 70% of gross income, since benefits from a personally owned policy are normally tax-free.

Mortgage, line of credit, car loan, clinic buy-in, everyday family expenses: they all keep coming whether you are working or not.

The waiting period is the time between the start of a disability and your first benefit payment. You choose it when you apply: a longer wait lowers your premium, but calls for a larger cash reserve.

Pre-existing conditions, sports, mental health: exclusions and limitations vary widely from one policy to the next.

A move to another province, a change of specialty or type of practice: portable coverage follows you; coverage tied to a group or a place of practice does not.

Some policies include a guaranteed increase option you can use without new evidence of health. Without one, any increase depends on your health at the time you ask for it.

Your benefit period is set out in your policy. A disability at 45 could mean twenty years of lost income, so the gap between a two-year benefit and one that runs to 65 is substantial.

A guaranteed premium is predictable. A non-guaranteed premium can be adjusted under the terms of the policy or the plan. What matters is not just today's price, but what could change later.

Or after a major change: a new practice setting, an income shift of 10% or more, incorporation, buying into a clinic, a birth, a separation, a new mortgage.