SPONSORED CONTENT
By Guy Patterson
You’ve worked hard to grow your practice. AOAExcel, in partnership with AGIA Insurance Services, can help you secure your family’s finances— even if the worst occurs.
Healthcare professionals understand that an unexpected event, such as disability and terminal illness, can happen to anyone. The hard work doctors of optometry have put into their practices can be financially safeguarded from these uncertainties with the help of the right insurance. Thanks to a partnership between AOAExcel and AGIA Insurance Services, members of the American Optometric Association (AOA) can apply for affordable disability and life insurance.
Make the Right Choice
The first step in choosing the best insurance for you and your family is ensuring it could cover a comfortable cost of living. That means, for example, choosing a disability insurance that takes effect when you are not able to work as a doctor of optometry, and not an insurance that only takes effect when you are not able to work in any occupation. This is called an “own occupation” benefit.
The second step is making sure you get the most economical pricing. Membership in an organization like the AOA enables members to enjoy a volume-based rate.
In addition to the savings members can gain in group disability insurance coverage, the group term life insurance and individual life insurance programs AOAExcel offers to AOA members through AGIA Insurance Services has paid back dividends to insured members.1
The group disability and life insurance plans administered through AGIA are sponsored by the AOA. That means the AOA negotiates policy provisions on behalf of all its members. The AOA has greater leverage because it consists of a large group of insureds.
Financial Coverage You Can Count On
An AOA member in the 35-39 age group who is a non-smoker, with a waiting period of 90 days (three months) can apply for up to $5,000 per month in disability insurance benefits for a $45.43 monthly premium. Employed ODs can also use this policy to supplement any other coverage they may already have.
For an OD who is a non-smoker in that same 35-39 age group, life insurance coverage can be purchased at 70 cents per month for every $10,000 of coverage. That means that for $7 per month, an AOA member in that age group could have $100,000 of life insurance coverage.
Easy to Access & Convenient
The insurance coverage options available to AOA members through AOAExcel can be reviewed online*. Members can also apply for coverage online at www.AOAInsurance.com.
If the unexpected does happen, and you or a family member need disability or life insurance coverage to go into effect, it’s as simple a process as calling the AGIA Customer Service line for AOA members, at (866) 331-0180. For disability insurance claims, you will also need submit a doctor’s records to prove that your disability makes it impossible for you to work as an OD. In the case of life insurance, the survivor listed on the policy will need to produce a death certificate, and can expect to receive payment within 10 days.
Protect What You’ve Worked For
You’ve invested time and energy into your career and your practice. Don’t let that go to waste in an unforeseen event. The insurance benefits available to you through AOAExcel, and its partner AGIA Insurance Services, ensures you and your family will be protected for years to come.
Guy S. Patterson is vice president and managing director of account management for AGIA Insurance Services. For more information, please contact Guy at gpatterson@AGIA.com.
The group Disability Income and Term Life insurance are underwritten by New York Life Insurance Company NY, NY 10010 on policy form GMR.
1Dividends are not guaranteed.
*including features, costs, eligibility, renewability, limitations and exclusions.
John Wigle CA Insurance License Number: 0482924
John Wigle AR Insurance License Number: 46424
AO-21166
