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About Grayson Financial Group

Grayson Financial Group is the most trusted name in the no-fee financial planning industry. When it comes to getting big firm infrastructure with boutique agency service we are pioneering new ground in making protection and savings attainable for all of our clients. By providing multiple methods to contact our agents including text, email, and phone as well as live video planning sessions we have a method of communication to suit every one of our clients needs. We acknowledge and encourage that our clients are now highly researched and educated in the age of the Internet search engine. It is our goal to nurture that instinct and work with our clients to make the best decisions for you and your family’s future.

Why Choose Us?

After starting his advising career at one of the largest and most successful firms in the country Grayson Financial Group’s founder and CEO, Doug Grayson was faced with a glaring gap in the planning industry. He was deeply concerned at the lack of proper attention being given to small business owners, artists, entertainers, and people who work with their hands as well as many other blue and white-collar professions. Doug quickly realized that the American School system provides no formal financial education for things like protection, savings and growth. Further people are given no compass to navigate the plethora of products they are faced with when making these decisions. This leads most people to the dangerous practice of chasing a rate of return, in the stock and other markets, as well as self insuring. This gap in financial knowledge puts you at risk for a lifetime of financial peril and uninformed decisions that we at Grayson Financial Group are determined to change.

Our Promise

Our philosophy is that EVERYONE in the country no matter where they are entitled to good financial planning with no fee. Our goal is to be our clients’ most trusted confidant when it comes to things like shopping for financial products and making educated decisions. The cornerstones of financial planning are protection, savings and growth in that order and we are ready to facilitate your custom plan now. Contact us now to get started and become part of our family so you can protect yours.

DISABILITY INSURANCE 101

You, disabled? What are your chances?

What are the most common causes of disability?

common-cause-of-disability — Injuries at work? Freak accidents? It’s true, they happen. But the truth might surprise you.

● Illnesses like cancer, heart attack or diabetes cause the majority of long-term disabilities. Back pain, injuries, and arthritis are also significant causes.
● Most are not work-related, and therefore not covered by workers’ compensation.
● Lifestyle choices and personal behavior that lead to obesity are becoming major contributing factors.
● Musculoskeletal disorders are the #1 cause of disabilities. Examples include; arthritis, back pain, spine/joint disorders, fibromytis, etc.

Disability statistics

Millions of working Americans are facing a growing crisis: a lack of adequate disability insurance coverage. Today, the absence of emergency savings, rising medical costs, and an overall trend of fewer employers offering benefits to workers has created a critical blind spot for many American workers and their families. Without some kind of income protection, more Americans are experiencing severe financial difficulty if they need to miss work due to illness, injury, or pregnancy. (Last update March 28, 2018)

A lack of adequate disability coverage

At least 51 million working adults in the United States are without disability insurance other than the basic coverage available through Social Security¹.
Only 48 percent of American adults indicate they have enough savings to cover three months of living expenses in the event they’re not earning any income².
Almost half of American adults indicate they can’t pay an unexpected $400 bill without having to take out a loan or sell something to do so³.

Chances of missing work due to illness, injury, or pregnancy are greater than most realize

More than one in four of today’s 20-year-olds can expect to be out of work for at least a year because of a disabling condition before they reach the normal retirement age⁴.
5.6 percent of working Americans will experience a short-term disability (six months or less) due to illness, injury, or pregnancy on average every year⁵. Almost all of these are non-occupational in origin⁶.

The most common reasons for long-term disability claims are⁸:

Musculoskeletal disorders (29%)
Cancer (15%)
Pregnancy (9.4%)
Mental health issues including depression and anxiety (9.1%)
Injuries such as fractures, sprains, and strains of muscles and ligaments (9%)

The consequences are alarming

A 2014 study of consumer bankruptcy filings identified the following as primary reasons: medical bills (26%), lost job (20%), illness or injury on part of self or family member (15%)⁹.
A 2013 study of bankruptcy filings in Washington state found that cancer patients were 2.65 times more likely to go bankrupt than people without cancer, with younger (under age 50) cancer patients having the highest rates of bankruptcy¹⁰.

Workers’ Compensation and Social Security do not cover most of these challenges

Workers’ Compensation only covers time away from work if the disabling illness or injury was directly work-related. In 2016, only one percent of American workers missed work because of an occupational illness or injury¹¹.
From 2006 to 2015, only 34 percent of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claimants had their applications approved: 23% at the initial application stage and the remainder after a reconsideration or appeals process¹².

It generally takes three to five months from time of application for SSDI benefits to get an initial decision¹³. The backlog of appeals cases was more than one million in 2017, with associated processing time averaging more than 18 months¹⁴.
The average SSDI benefit as of January 2018 was $1,197 a month¹⁵. That equates to $14,364 annually — barely above the poverty guideline of $12,140 for a one-person household, and below the guideline of $16,640 for a two-person household¹⁶.

REFERENCES:

American Council of Life Insurers, unpublished data from study released in September 2017 as Assessing Americans’ Financial and Retirement Security. ACLI found that 54.3% of non-retired households (51.3 million in total) did not report having disability insurance. Assuming there is at least one adult in each household, this means the number of “uncovered” adults is at least equal to the number of “uncovered” households.
Federal Reserve, Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2016 (PDF), page 26.
Ibid
Social Security Administration, Disability and Death Probability Tables for Insured Workers Born in 1997, Table A.
Integrated Benefits Institute, Health and Productivity Benchmarking 2016 (released November 2017), Short-Term Disability, All Employers. Group average for new claims per 100 covered lives.
Group MarketShare, a disability-benefits market research firm, reports that 96% of in-force group short-term disability plans provide cover- age for non-occupational disabilities only.
Integrated Benefits Institute, Health and Productivity Benchmarking 2016 (released November 2017), Short-Term Disability, All Employers. Condition-specific results.
Integrated Benefits Institute, Health and Productivity Benchmarking 2016 (released November 2017), Long-Term Disability, All Employers. Condition-specific results.
Austin, Daniel A., Medical Debt as a Cause of Consumer Bankruptcy (2014). Maine Law Review, Volume 67, No. 1, pp. 1 – 23 (2014); Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper No. 204-2014. Available at SSRN. See especially Table 1.
Ramsey, S. D., Blough, D. K., Kirchho , A. C., Fedorenko, C. R., Snell, K. S., Kreizenbeck, K. L., … Overstreet, K. A. (2013). Washington Cancer Patients Found To Be At Greater Risk For Bankruptcy Than People Without A Cancer Diagnosis. Health Affairs (Project Hope), 32(6), 1143–1152.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (Annual) 2016, Table1 Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry and case types, cases with days away from work.
Social Security Administration, Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2016. Chart 11.
Social Security Administration, Factsheet
Allsup, State-by-State Disability Backlog, May 2017
Social Security Administration, Monthly Statistical Snapshot, February 2018
ASPE, Poverty Guidelines 2018

LIFE INSURANCE 101

SINGLE PEOPLE

Most single people don’t need life insurance because no one depends on them financially, but there are exceptions. If you provide financial support for aging parents or siblings, or have substantial debt you wouldn’t want to pass on to surviving family members if you were to die prematurely, you may want to consider it.

YOUNG FAMILIES

Life insurance can provide your family members the resources to maintain their lifestyle when you die. It can replace some or all of your income, pay off debts, cover funeral costs and can even help fund longer-range needs like college tuition or retirement. Insure your spouse or partner as well, even if he or she doesn’t work outside the home. A stay-at-home parent provides vital household services—childcare, house upkeep and transportation to name a few—that would be expensive to replace.

ESTABLISHED FAMILIES

What would happen if you died suddenly? Would you children have to drop out of school? Would your spouse or partner be forced to drastically cut back on the family’s lifestyle? And what about retirement plans? Life insurance proceeds can allow them to pay off the mortgage, continue to pay for college, and if invested wisely, provide a stream of income to your spouse or partner for the future.

RETIREES

It may seem counterintuitive that empty nesters or retirees need life insurance, but some still have dependents, such as disabled adult children. Many also still have financial obligations, such as the mortgage on a home or second home, that could become a burden if a spouse died or becomes disabled. More importantly, if you died today, your spouse could outlive you by decades. Would they have to make drastic lifestyle changes to make ends meet? Your death could reduce the Social Security benefits they’d been counting on. It could also bring unplanned medical and funeral expenses.

Life insurance coverage can preserve the retirement plan you worked so hard to put in place and ensure your estate will be passed on, intact, to your survivors. A policy’s death benefit can help foot the estate tax bill from Uncle Sam and provide a legacy for your children and grandchildren, even if you use up most of your assets during your lifetime. For all these reasons, if you’ve been thinking about dropping your life insurance coverage, you may want to reconsider.

| LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE |

Long-term care insurance usually takes effect when you cannot perform at least two activities of daily living such as bathing, eating or dressing. The cost of this insurance rises as you grow older, but if you don’t have it and can afford it, you should consider it. The cost of home health care aide, an assisted living facility or a nursing home can quickly deplete your life’s savings. Medicaid, a government program, only kicks in once your assets are significantly depleted, and you may not get exactly the care you’re hoping for.

| SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS |

One of the first things any business owner needs to consider is how to protect against events that may threaten the future of the business, like the death or disability of a proprietor, partner or key employee.