Personal Disability Insurance
To evaluate and compare personal DI programs, it helps to know their provisions. A personal DI policy will pay a monthly benefit specified in dollars and usually limited to a percentage of your salary - perhaps 60-70%. This benefit begins after a waiting (or elimination) period of lost income due to disability, which typically varies from 60 to 180 days. Once the waiting period has been satisfied, monthly payments will continue as long as the disability keeps you out of work, up to a maximum benefit period. This period may be a fixed number of years or else until you reach age 65.
Some personal DI programs also offer a "cost of living adjustment," which provides for an annual increase in the benefit to keep pace with inflation, and a renewability guarantee, which promises that the program can't be substantially changed and premiums won't greatly increase in the future.