Dad-to-Dad Discussion

By Mike Fish, June 2012

June is a time to celebrate both dads and grads. This month my twin daughters are finishing their sophomore year in high school, and I’m looking forward to the college visits that will begin next year.

While they have plenty of time before entering the workforce, I know many recent college grads will be taking their first full-time jobs and perhaps choosing benefits for the first time, too.

Thinking of both grads and dads, here are benefits tips from one dad to another:

Dads, you are a resource for your adult children when they're making their benefits selections. Twenty-seven percent of Gen Y workers said their parents are a top advisor when it comes to benefits decisions, according to The Hartford’s 2012 Benefits For Tomorrow Study. That means you might get a phone call or text when your children are reviewing their benefits packages for their new jobs.

If your children are college grads, there’s a good chance that they have student loan debt. Graduates receiving a bachelor's degree this year had average student-loan debt of $28,720, according to the college financial information website FinAid.org.

Student loan debt rose 7.7 percent from a year earlier and has more than tripled since the first quarter of 2003, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Disability insurance can help protect your children's independence by providing funds to help cover expenses, such as college loans, if they're unable to work due to an illness or off-the-job injury.

You can also help protect your own financial security by recommending disability insurance to children who are working. Chances are, if they get hurt or sick and don’t have this coverage, they’ll lean on you financially until they get back on the job. Thirty percent of Gen Y workers in our study said if they could not work for six weeks or more, they would ask their family for help, including moving back home or asking for a loan.

Protect Yourself

Don’t forget to protect yourself with disability insurance. You might think the coverage only helps protect your lifestyle now, but it can help protect your golden years, too. If you don’t have this protection and can’t work due to a disability, you’re likely to dip into what you have saved for retirement. In fact, our study found 71 percent of U.S. workers without disability insurance would use savings, retirement accounts, and credit cards to cover expenses if a disability kept them off the job for six weeks or more.

You might be surprised by the price tag for disability insurance. Forty-five percent of our survey participants overestimated the average cost by hundreds of dollars. Disability insurance obtained through your employer costs on average about dollar a day, depending on the amount of coverage selected. That means for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day, many of you can help protect your lifestyle from the impacts of an unexpected health issue.

No matter where you are in your life, you can find out more about disability insurance and other benefits at The Hartford’s MyTomorrow web site.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Congratulations to the graduates of 2012!

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