Like doctors, dentists, engineers and other highly-paid professionals, attorneys desperately need individual disability insurance. While their work is admittedly cerebral and sedentary, it requires advanced cognitive thinking, consulting and reasoning – capabilities that are easily diminished by unexpected illnesses and the drugs used to treat them.
If an attorney has a stroke, is diagnosed with cancer or develops early dementia, they are often unable to work for an extended period of time. Likewise, attorneys are human. They enjoy riding bikes and motorcycles; hiking and skiing; and indulging in a wide range of other activities that can result in injuries. They also drive vehicles – often in heavy traffic.
The point is this: Life happens in an instant and attorneys, like most working people, are vulnerable to illnesses and injuries. They’re also reliant on their paychecks.
The Earning Power Investment
Lawyers have made significant investments into both their education and their businesses to work in their field. They have spent years in higher education, from a bachelor’s degree to a professional degree – a Juris Doctor (or J.D.); Some may go beyond the standard J.D. and earn the LLM Master of Laws, or Master of Comparative Laws, according to the American Bar association. There are also other degree programs focusing on research and academia – like the Doctor of Judicial Science (SJD) or the Doctor of Jurisprudence (JSD).
What is their earning potential?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) notes that in 2020, there were 804,200 individuals working as attorneys- and through 2030, the field may grow by more than 70,000. Attorneys’ pay varies depending on the industry they work in. The BLS notes that the median annual income for those who work in the legal services industry was $126,660; for those who work in the federal government, that average is higher, $152,220. But those who worked in state government earned an average of $91,450. This means that attorneys have massive future earning potential to protect, particularly young lawyers who plan to be in their careers for several decades more.
What is their educational investment?
Costs of earning a Juris Doctor degree (or one of the post-JD degrees) vary by educational institution obviously, but Credible reports that the average student earning a Juris Doctor can have $160,000 in student loan debt for their undergraduate and graduate degrees, and it can take up to 18 years to repay the average $118,400 in debt that an average law student accumulates. Credible notes that even without taking inflation into mind, since 1999-2000, average debt for graduates of law programs has grown from $75,900 for law school debt only, to $118,400 in 2019-2020.
Are you selling disability insurance to attorneys? If not, you should. Our Attorney Sales Kit give you the information you need to make the sale:
- The earning power investment
- Potential income protection solutions
- A multi life law firm case study
- The DI Decision Guide – What kinds of income protection should attorneys consider?
Get your Attorney Sales Kit today!
