Breeze Long Term Disability Insurance Review: Is It Worth it?

At some point, there’s a good chance that you might experience illness or injury and be unable to work. If this is the case, how would you replace your income?

One option is to get disability insurance. The idea behind disability insurance is that you pay your premiums, and when you become temporarily unable to work, you receive a payout from the insurer. This replaces a portion of your income, allowing you to meet expenses.

Breeze is a company that offers disability insurance online, providing you with the ability to get help with long-term disability payments if needed.

What is Breeze?

Breeze is a completely online company offering long-term disability insurance. This coverage can replace a percentage of your lost income if you become unable to work due to illness or injury. Breeze uses Assurity Life Insurance Company as its underwriter. Assurity has been around since 1890 and has a high rating from AM Best.

Breeze specializes in long-term disability insurance with affordable rates. It’s important to note that this is long-term disability insurance because it means you might need to wait a little longer before accessing your benefits. However, if you’re in a position where you might not be able to work for several months or longer, having disability insurance can help you with income replacement.

What Does Breeze Cover?

Disability insurance works when you pay a premium, and then, when you experience an inability to work, you receive a payout designed to make up for a portion of your lost income. Some of the benefits that come with Breeze coverage include:

• Vocational rehab
• Home modification (if needed to accommodate a disability)
• Partial disability
• Presumptive disability
• Organ donor benefit
• Survivor benefit

You can also pay for versions that include coverage if you’re unable to work in your own occupation, and not just total inability to work in any occupation. Depending on your situation, adding an optional rider might make sense.

Realize, too, that your coverage will depend on your occupation. Breeze has a number of occupational titles that it includes, including specific career tracks like doctors, nurses, contractors, executives, engineers, dentists and self-employed.

How Much Does Breeze Cost?

Just like any insurance policy, there are costs involved with Breeze disability insurance. Policies start at around $9 per month. However, you might have to pay more depending on a number of factors, including the type of coverage you get.

Some of the factors that influence the cost of disability insurance include:

• Age
• Gender
• Occupation (and how likely you are to be injured)
• How much of your income is paid out as a benefit
• The total benefit amount
• How long the benefit period lasts
• Whether you have a longer elimination period

When you get disability insurance, the cost takes into account how long you have to wait before you start receiving benefits (elimination period), as well as how much you get each month and how long the payouts last.

In the end, the cost is going to be based on a number of factors and you won’t know your premium until after you get a quote.

How to Sign Up with Breeze

Breeze makes it fairly easy to get a quote and apply for disability insurance online. According to the website, Breeze can provide a quote within seconds and for most people, completing the application takes about 15 minutes.

To get a quote, you provide the following information:

• Birthdate
• Gender
• Whether you’re an employee, own a business or are an independent contractor
• Job category (technical, professional, light labor or labor)
• Hours worked per week
• Net income
• ZIP code
• Health questions
• How you want to use disability insurance (including for maternity leave)

Once you provide that information, Breeze will offer different options. For example, you might be recommended a 90-day waiting/elimination period and a maximum 10-year benefit period.

You’ll then be presented with different monthly payout options and a monthly premium cost. As a 40-year-old woman with my own business, I was offered a policy with a $1,900 monthly payout for a monthly premium of $41. If you want a higher payout, though, you would expect to pay a higher amount.

For most applicants, a medical exam isn’t necessary, although if you get to the point where you want a much bigger monthly payout as a benefit, you might need to get a medical exam before getting your policy.

Customer Service

In general, Breeze has good customer service. You can use the online chat function to get help with your questions. On top of that, there is a phone number you can call to talk to someone about disability insurance and your needs. There is no office you can visit, however, so if you like the idea of sitting down with someone, you won’t get that face-to-face help.

Security

Like most financial services, Breeze focuses on using best practices to secure your personal data and make sure that the site is secure. Also, because the insurance is underwritten by Assurity, there is a reasonable expectation that the company will be in business and able to meet policy obligations.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to fill out the application online
• Online chat to help you through the process
• Affordable rates
• Flexible coverage options

Cons

• Only offers long-term disability (not short-term disability)
• An online company so you can’t sit down with someone
• Depending on the situation, you might be able to get cheaper rates elsewhere

Alternatives

Depending on your situation, you might have access to disability insurance through your workplace. If you’re an employee, you might be able to get a limited amount of coverage as part of your benefits package. That can make a big difference in the long run, with regard to how much coverage you have. However, if you think you need more coverage, getting a policy through Breeze can be helpful.

You can also get a number of quotes on disability insurance by using Policygenius. While Policygenius isn’t an insurer, it can help you find quotes from different insurers, allowing you to compare premium costs and coverage amounts. Plus, it can help you find short-term disability insurance since Breeze doesn’t offer short-term disability options.

Who Is It For?

Breeze disability insurance can be a good choice for working Americans who are concerned about income replacement if they become injured or face an illness that makes it difficult for them to work for an extended period of time.

Even if you have disability coverage through your work, it might not be adequate for your needs. Breeze can cover the gap and make sure that you at least get some of your income replaced if you can’t work. This can provide you some peace of mind, especially if your emergency fund might not be up to the task of covering a long-term disability.

Summary

Breeze disability insurance offers an affordable option for those who are looking for long-term disability coverage. With an easy online application and the ability to choose flexible coverage that can meet your needs, Breeze can be one way to secure peace of mind in the event that you become unable to perform your job due to illness or injury.

So what are you waiting for, get a quote and start saving on your disability insurance TODAY