Disability Insurance Decoder Skill

Disability insurance is the coverage most likely to be needed and least likely to be read — and its entire value hides in definitions. "60% of income" can mean 60%, or it can mean 60% of base-only, minus Social Security, minus state benefits, taxed — call it 31%. Whether you're "disabled" at all depends on two words: own occupation or any occupation, and on which date that definition quietly changes. This skill reads the definitions like a claims adjuster will.

What This Skill Produces

• The definition decode: own-occ vs. any-occ (and the switch date), "total" vs. "residual" disability, pre-existing look-back windows
• The real benefit math: stated % → after offsets → after taxes (premium-payer rule) → real monthly number
• Ranked red flags: offset clauses, benefit-period limits for mental-health/musculoskeletal claims, the 24-month own-occ switch
• The reliance checklist — what to confirm with HR or the insurer before treating this coverage as a plan

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The policy or plan documents — the certificate/summary plan description; the definitions section is the one that matters. Decode what's provided, list what's missing.
• Their income shape — base vs. bonus/commission split (many plans cover base only — a 40%-commission earner has half the coverage they think).
• Who pays the premium and how — employer-paid pre-tax vs. self-paid post-tax generally flips whether benefits are taxed; flag as jurisdiction/plan-dependent.
• Their occupation — the own-occ vs. any-occ distinction bites hardest for specialized professionals.

Framework: Severity Scale

• 🔴 Can cost you real money — any-occupation definitions (benefits stop if you can do any job you're suited for — quote the exact wording), the own-occ-for-24-months-then-any-occ switch (the industry's quietest clause; find the date), offset stacking (Social Security, state disability, workers' comp all subtracted — the stated 60% is a ceiling, not a floor), base-salary-only coverage for variable-comp earners, 24-month benefit caps on mental-health and self-reported-symptom claims, pre-existing exclusion look-backs that catch recent diagnoses.