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Originally Posted by CRPStweet
Thx Zookester! I have just been approved for LTD payment through my prior employment policy. It was a long road, but my claim is approved! And yes I understand the LTD carriers group will help me now, at no cost to me. The attorney of their choice would get paid by my insurance carrier because it helps the LTD insurance carrier to get me approved for ss, so they get the offset of payment from social security. However, I wanted to know if anyone has heard any cautions about going this route. I am just concerned because if you get something for free, the old saying is "you get what you paid for". I must decide very soon if I want to use the service offered by the LTD insurance carrier or hire my own attorney that I pay for myself. Money is a concern but the most important thing is that I get social security benefits approved. Zookester, have you, or anyone else here, been in my situation and could you share if yours was a positive or negative outcome by using the LTD carrier's group and their attorneys? Many tx!
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I'm glad you got approved for the LTD congrats on that aspect!
Here is a few things to consider. Often your LTD benefit amount is much higher than what you would get from SSD and if that is the case with you then it would make sense to file for SSD on your own without any attorney. Or if you would rather have an attorney do it for the sake of hassle then I would definitely choose the one offered through your plan. (please read your plan through carefully and if you don't have a copy of it then you would need to ask for it in writing.) If on the other hand your LTD is much less than what you would receive through SSD then for speed it might be better to use an attorney. As you mentioned the LTD carrier has motivation to help you get approved so this shouldn't cause any issues the bonus is that from what you said you wouldn't have to pay them out of any benefit amount.
FYI - you will regularly need to provide your LTD carrier with updated medical records and other forms of documentation to support your claim even after being approved. This can vary from every 3 months to 6 months or more depending on the carrier and the language of your policy. So, my advice is to keep copies of all your medical records, medication lists and a journal of your limitations affecting daily living as you go along to make that request easier to fulfill when the time comes.
Hope that helps,
Tessa