By Scott B. Elkind, Esq.

One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going. - J.B. Priestly

Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages...It’s an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy life without chance. The last half consists of the chance without the capacity. - Mark Twain

Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old. - Jonathan Swift

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread for me - Jonathan Swift

You only grow old, not the other way around. With age comes wisdom along with wrinkles, lost muscle tone, arthritis, and other ever more unwanted conditions. The one thing which comes with age that no one wants is disability. The older you live the more likely you are to end up disabled.

Given my penchant for medical research, I started looking up articles concerning disability and aging. I had to stop after a short while as it is readily apparent that nearly every medical condition is associated with or is exacerbated by older age. To recount them all is simply too depressing an ordeal. The answer is that age is a losing battle. There are no real winners. The best philosophy always remains that you should live each day the best you can and try to take care of yourself in younger years in hope of enjoying the later ones. I have put this into practice in the last two years and have reshaped my person and outlook accordingly.

The main thing you cannot ever neglect is advance planning. What does this mean? It is more than having a will, but also a complete game plan. You need to ponder the difficult questions of what you would do to survive if you become disabled from working. Disability is indiscriminate and strike anyone at any time. Preparation is more than relying on your Social Security Disability (top individual current payment $1850/month). Adding private long term disability insurance is helpful, but that will only give you a cushion. How will your business run if you become disabled? What if you require long term care? Running a business without income or paying for long term care out of pocket are two very distressing economic situations, especially should they occur simultaneously.

I apologize for the gloom and doom outlook on life, but I live with these realities with my many clients on a daily basis. Very few of my clients have done the appropriate planning...nearly none despite the fact that I have helped executives, doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals. The truth is that we all hope for the best, but try even harder to avoid thinking about the bad things which can befall us. I can only ask that you plan for the future, both for the potential good and bad. The last thing you need is to have invested so much into your life and practice only to have it all taken away by an unexpected illness or accident. As I have said, I have seen the best and brightest hurt by disability which impairs every aspect of a person’s existence.

Even the best of planning will not guarantee the results you envision. This comes from being the “lawyer of last resort” called upon to help when a disabled person finds out how adversarial and cruel disability insurers and governmental pension systems can be.

Scott B. Elkind is a Principal with Elkind & Shea, The Disability Benefits Law Firm. His practices focuses on obtaining disability benefits for clients.