If you use your hands for your work and earn money, you might think you need hands insurance.

Well, hands insurance does exist. However, unless you are a music star, a movie star, or an athlete, there is an easier way to insure your hands.

You probably don’t need to specifically insure your hands.

In this article, we discuss:

• Your Hands As A Major Financial Asset
• How To Insure Your Hands
• A Better Option To Insure Your Hands
• Final Thoughts About Insuring Your Hands

Let’s jump right into it and discuss your hands as an asset.

Your Hands: A Major Financial Asset

Take a look at your hands. What do you see? Ok, so you need to trim the fingernails, apply some lotion, and put a band-aid on that cut.

Jokes aside. What do you really see? Next to your brain, we see the means to your achieving financial independence. Think about it. You can’t find a profession where you don’t use your hands. If you are a dentist or surgeon, you use your hands.

Are you a chef? You use your hands.

If you are an electrician, plumber, carpenter, or some other tradesperson, you definitely use your hands.

I am using my hands right now to type this article.

Massage therapists, truck drivers, dental hygienists, fishermen…you name it…

The professions go on and on. We use our hands for everything, and we take them for granted.

What if you no longer had use of your hands? Or fingers? Or wrists?

It would be very difficult for most of us to continue to work, right?

How To Insure Your Hands

You can insure your hands.

Insuring a body part can be an expensive proposition.

There is only one carrier that I know of that will insure body parts, and that is Lloyd’s of London.

They are very unique. I won’t go into much detail about them, but they can insure hands. Google them. You can see they have insured musicians, athletes, etc.

The Problem With Insuring Your Hands

However, insuring your hands or some other type of body part likely is an expensive proposition. Moreover, it is very limited coverage. From what I understand, you must have a complete loss of your hands in order to receive a benefit. Additionally, there is likely an elimination period before you are eligible to receive that benefit.

But, hands insurance is a limited insurance policy. What if you injure your wrist? Your wrist is important, right? Or your shoulder? Or, if you are diagnosed with a health condition that prevents you from working?

A hands insurance policy WON’T pay in these cases.

And, you’ve spent a lot of money to NOT receive a benefit.

Did you know that you have a higher probability of not working due to an illness?

These unfortunate incidents happen much more often than the loss of use of your hands.

Fortunately, for most of us, we can insure our hands – and everything else – through an affordable disability insurance policy. We discuss this next.

Hands Insurance: A Disability Insurance Policy Is A Better Option

We can insure our hands, and other body parts and organs, through a disability insurance policy. What is disability insurance? It is a policy that will pay you a monthly benefit if you become disabled, on or off the job, from sickness, illness, injury, or accident, and you can no longer work or no longer work full time.

In other words, it is a policy that is designed to protect your income.

So, if you injure your back and can’t work, a disability insurance policy will pay a benefit. If you are diagnosed with cancer or ALS, a disability insurance policy will pay.

Of course, a hands-only insurance policy will not.

Why is protecting your income important? Think about it. Now, think about this scenario. You just received your paycheck and need to pay some bills. What would you do if that paycheck was the last one you received for 6 months? How about a year? How about longer? What would you and your family do for money?

This is the purpose of disability insurance. It protects your income in case you can’t earn an income due to a disability.

How Much Does Disability Insurance Cover?

Disability insurance covers around 60% of your salary if you are an employee. If you are a business owner, you can potentially receive 70% or more of your net income. (Related: see using the right income for disability insurance.)

How Much Does Disability Insurance Cost? 

OK, John, you say. You’ve made a great case for me to insure my hands with disability insurance. But, how much does this cost? I don’t want to be insurance-poor.

Good question. I hear you. None of us want to pay more than we have to.

While you may think the cost of disability insurance is expensive, it is not. Depending on your health, income, and circumstances, disability insurance usually costs around 2% of your gross income.

Stated another way, for every dollar benefit you insure, your cost is 2 cents. Think about that.

Disability insurance costs 2 cents for every $1 of benefit.

The premiums may cost between $0.50 and $3.00 per day. Certainly, you can find $3.00 per day or less to protect your income and your family’s future, right? That’s usually the cost of a cup of coffee.

If you don’t know how much disability insurance you need, use our disability worksheet. Just follow along and fill in the blanks. Your estimated disability insurance amount automatically calculates.

Disability Insurance Covers Your Hands

If you can’t do your job because you can’t use your hands, that is a disability. The carrier then pays you a benefit based on the provisions of your disability insurance policy.

Additionally, nearly all disability insurance carriers have a provision in their contracts called presumptive disability. This means you are presumed disabled if a certain situation occurs. These situations include loss of use of both hands, loss of use of both feet, and loss of use of a hand and foot (think: stroke). Some carriers include a situation of loss of use of one hand.

So, disability insurance will cover your hands. Additionally, it will cover anything else (accident or illness) that prevents you from working and earning an income.

What If You Really Want Hands Insurance?

If you really want hands insurance, contact Lloyd’s of London.

However, they don’t insure just anyone. As I mentioned earlier, they traditionally insure actors, athletes, etc. These people have multi-millions at stake.

Additionally, I am sure before doing so, they must require these professionals to have an adequate amount of disability insurance. (Even if you lose the use of your hands.)

So, don’t be surprised if they tell you this.

Even if you are a specialty surgeon or dentist, you need an adequate amount of disability insurance in place. The own-occupation disability definition ensures that you will receive a benefit if you can’t do your job.

But, if hands insurance is what you want and only that, give them a call.

Now You Know You Can Insure Your Hands With A Comprehensive Disability Insurance Policy

Yes, you can insure your hands with hands insurance. However, the best way for nearly everyone to do that is through a disability insurance policy. A disability insurance policy will not only insure your hands, but also insure everything else in case you became sick or injured and cannot work long-term.

We take an educational approach to disability insurance. Because, frankly, it can be confusing. However, disability insurance is one of our specialties. We have helped many individuals obtain affordable disability insurance. Contact us or fill out the form below to learn more. As with everything we do, we have your best interests. It is the only way we know how to work with our clients.

If you want to look into hands insurance, contact Lloyd’s of London. If they tell you that you need a disability insurance policy, give us a call or email. We are happy to help.