Currently, MassMutual is one of the most highly rated carriers offering individual disability insurance in the United States. Serving mainly white-collar professions, MassMutual is also one of the more recognizable names in the disability universe. However, one should avoid buying a policy just because he or she is familiar with the company. The right policy for you may not be the best disability insurance policy for your friend or neighbor. If you’d like a customized disability insurance quote, complete the form on the left, and we’ll be in touch.
Who is MassMutual?
MassMutual has been helping customers since 1851. Their long history means that the company has seen quite a few national and global events (wars, depression, recessions, etc.) Moreover, through all of those challenges, they continue to be one of the premier disability insurance carriers.
As a mutual company, MassMutual must operate for the benefit of their policy owners, not the stockholders. They have a diverse suite of offerings, most notably their whole life, their long-term care products, and most importantly to you (reading this site), disability insurance.
Having access to MassMutual is critical for any specialty disability insurance agency.
MassMutual Financials
Having the ability to pay claims when necessary is really the most important characteristic of an insurance company.
MassMutual has some of the strongest financials in the industry, boasting an A++ (1st out of 16 rankings) rating from A.M. Best. They’ve paid dividends to every eligible participating policyholder since 1869. They currently manage over $750 billion in assets. They paid out over $5 billion in insurance and annuity benefits in 2017 alone.
As of June 1st, 2018, MassMutual was ranked 93rd on the 2018 FORTUNE 500 list, which is a ranking of America’s largest corporations by revenue which represents 2/3rds of the U.S. GDP.
Suffice it to say that MassMutual is one of the strongest companies from which you can buy disability insurance.
Products Offered
As mentioned earlier, Mass Mutual has a variety of insurance products. Annuities, life insurance, long-term care, and other financial products are all in their wheelhouse, and they seem to excel in most of these areas.
Since this is a website focused on disability insurance, we’ll take a deeper look into what MassMutual offers and what makes them competitive (and what doesn’t).
Like many companies that offer disability insurance, Mass Mutual has several variations of their core products. While some carriers focus on a broad spectrum of professions and occupations, MassMutual is focused on the higher end, offering great coverage for those in more white-collar professions.
MassMutual Individual Disability Insurance Policies
As with most disability insurance companies, MassMutual has group disability coverage, business overhead expense and individual policies.
Their “core” individual disability insurance policy is comprehensive and can be a solid policy for any person with an appropriate occupation.
Like most white collar focused disability insurance policies, MassMutual disability insurance is non-cancelable and guaranteed renewable. That means they can’t raise your rates (non-cancelable) nor can they change anything about the policy (guaranteed renewable), as long as you pay your premiums.
They also offer a host of riders, some of which are very valuable.
Their policy allows for the purchase of an own-occupation rider, which makes a MassMutual disability policy true or pure “own-occ.” Besides the riders commonly found of many disability insurance policies (such as automatic benefit increases, COLA-cost of living adjustment, partial disability riders), they also offer a social insurance rider and RetireGuard, which is a rider that helps replace the insured’s retirement plan contributions if he or she becomes disabled.
Mass Mutual Pros
Mass Mutual disability insurance has several advantages over its competitors. Mainly, a few features that make underwriting easier and other features that make their policies less expensive.
Simplified Underwriting
Like many disability insurance companies, MassMutual offers a simplified underwriting program called Express DI. Besides, this allows applicants who meet certain criteria to apply for individual disability coverage and/or business overhead expense with fewer requirements.
You need to be 45 years of age or younger, make at least 30k annually, and be at least a 3A/3P occupation class to qualify for this program.
Examples of a 3A occupation class with
A 3P occupation would be a general dentist or an orthopedic surgeon.
Express DI allows the applicant to purchase up to $5,000 per month in benefits for individual DI and up to $10,000 per month for business overhead expense coverage.
Future Insurability Option
Having the ability to increase your coverage without medical underwriting is very attractive. MassMutual’s future insurability option allows the policy owner to increase the amount of monthly disability coverage as the insured’s income increases.
The “pool” can be accessed each year OR during a significant life change. That would include events such as having a child, buying a home, or getting married. It can also be accessed if you change jobs which results in losing your group coverage.
Although this rider costs money based on how large of a “pool” you’d like access to, it is a great option for people who expect to have larger jumps in earnings over the courses of their careers.
Multi-Life Discounts
Several carriers offer multi-life discounts. Normally, that involves the agent writing more than one policy (often 3+) for multiple employees from the same employer. This entitles all of the policy-owners at that employer to a 15-35% discount (depending on the carriers/number of lives).
What’s also important is that discounts are normally applied to unisex pricing. That means that women, who typically pay much more for disability insurance than men, can get enormous price reductions (40-60%) by utilizing a multi-life discount.
Mass Mutual’s discount is unique in that the agent writing the policy need not be the one who initiated the discount.
For example, if a carrier had a multi-life discount available, normally you’d need to write your policy with the agent who wrote the original policies to qualify. With MassMutual, it is the business (company) that dictates who gets the discount, regardless of the agent.
This means there are literally thousands of discounts available at MassMutual, especially for medical professionals, no matter which agent writes your policy.
One reason our agency asks where you work is to check and see if you’re eligible for a discount. It can save you a lot money, and that’s our job, finding you the best disability insurance policy for your needs at a reasonable price.
MassMutual Dividends
Although several carriers who offer disability insurance in the individual market are mutual companies (Mutual of Omaha, Guardian, Ohio National), MassMutual is one of the only options when it comes to dividend-paying disability insurance.
Dividends are essentially a portion of the insurer’s profits paid to policy owners. Whole life insurance is probably one of the most well known financial instrument that pays dividends.
MassMutual is unique because they also pay dividends (in cash) to the premium payors of their disability insurance policies. Dividends are not guaranteed and are available in most states after the 5th year (and after the 6th year in California and Florida).
While we don’t suggest that you purchase a policy just for the dividends, it is a nice ancillary feature if it turns out that MassMutual is the best disability insurance for you.
MassMutual Cons
There isn’t a lot of bad to say about MassMutual.
Their pricing is middle of the road, so they’re by no means a discount provider.
Also, they do limit mental/nervous disorders to 24 months. There are many disability insurance policies with that type of limitation for certain professions. However, MassMutual imposes it on all insureds.
Summary
MassMutual disability insurance is one of the premier policies in today’s market for white collar professionals.
It has a lot of flexibility, several great underwriting programs, and comes backed by the claims paying ability of an A++ insurance provider.
If you think that a MassMutual policy is right for you, please complete the quote form on the left and indicate “MassMutual” in the comments section. Alternatively, you can just contact us directly if you’d like to discuss it further.
We’ll analyze to determine the best disability insurance company for you and your needs. If your profession fits their wheelhouse, you can rest assured that MassMutual will be one of the quotes.
