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?

Teenagers and college grads expect to “have it all together” by their 30s. It’s ok to be a kid in your 20s — even in med school — but when the infamous 3-0 rolls around, it’s time to focus on building a solid foundation, climbing the ladder, and settling down to start a family.

Physicians are among the highest earners, but many don’t feel like it. Having already managed large debt burdens on compressed budgets by the time they pay off their student loans and build up to a sizeable income, many physicians learn the value of setting financial goals and seeking professional advice early on.

There’s an old episode of “The X-Files” in which insurance salesman Clyde Bruckman, played by Peter Boyle of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” sits with a young couple at their kitchen table trying to sell them an insurance policy.