As a physician, you have worked hard to achieve much in your life. As you plan for your future, you think of investment strategies and savings plans. If something should happen to you, financial protection for your loved ones is of paramount importance.

One of the best ways to offer immediate financial protection is to obtain a term life insurance policy, whereas many savings plans and investment strategies require time to build value. Once you are approved for a term life insurance policy, your amount of coverage is in place, and immediately helps to provide protection. Term life insurance provides financial protection for your family when they need it the most.

Rock climbers have confidence that their safety equipment will catch them if they fall; otherwise they would never take the risk of climbing. But they don’t secure their anchors, knots and carabiners once, then ignore them for the duration of their climb. To be safe, they check their safety equipment periodically; both as their position changes, and as time passes.

The long hours of study, the grueling night shifts, the heavy burden of student loans. As a female physician it’s obvious that you have paid your dues to get where you are today. And it goes without saying that you have worked just as hard as your male counterparts to achieve your goals.

So if you were told that your rates would be higher for long term disability insurance than those paid by male physicians – for the same level of coverage – you might be somewhat surprised and more than a little disappointed.

As a physician, you see the importance of having disability insurance in place. Whether you are an independent physician and must purchase your own disability insurance, or you are employed and only receive coverage through your employer, you see the value in protecting your income.

Still, some physicians (whether independent or employed) may not have enough disability insurance to adequately protect their finances. If you become sick or injured and are unable to work, will your current disability coverage adequately protect you? Will your family have enough income to sustain the standard of living that you have achieved together?

If you’re like many physicians, employed by a medical group, hospital or medical center, you may be unaware of how much your long-term disability policy actually covers. Most policies paid for by an employer are limited to 50 to 60 percent of a physician’s base salary, excluding bonuses — leaving a gap in coverage that falls short of what’s required to meet ordinary living expenses. To illustrate this point, we'd like to give you a hypothetical example of how you could be caught off guard by inadequate disability coverage:

After years of training in your medical specialty and a rising income to protect, many physicians are looking for true "own-occupation" disability protection with sought-after riders, not offered by employer-sponsored coverage. To help members secure quality coverage, TMA Insurance Trust has teamed up with Guardian, one of the foremost disability insurance leaders.

We value the life-saving work you do and understand that practicing medicine isn’t just a job. It’s a way of life - one that impacts you and everyone in your life. That’s why TMA Insurance Trust is continually looking for new ways to support member physicians and their families.

As a physician, your income puts you in the top 5% of all Americans. Your earning potential makes you a target for every financial advisor and insurance agent in the business. However, not all advisors have your best interests at heart. Insurance advisors do not take a Hippocratic oath and even many well-intentioned agents do not understand the unique needs of physicians. As a result, some physicians end up without enough coverage in the areas they really need and too much of the types they don’t need. How can you be sure if an agent is recommending what is really best for you?