Disability Insurance Editing and Proofreading Services

A surgeon develops a tremor. Under one policy she is disabled, because she cannot perform the material duties of her own occupation. Under another she is not, because she could work as a medical director. The premiums differed by about eleven per cent, the difference was in a two-line definition, and nobody explained it at the point of sale.

We edit what disability insurers, brokers and administrators produce — policy definitions and their explanations, benefit and offset descriptions, claim forms and their guidance, medical evidence requests, claim decision letters, review and reassessment communications, and the material used to explain cover at the point of sale. Our editors work on a definition that decides whether a claim exists.

The definition of disability is the whole of this product, and its failure is a term of art used in a sales document as though it were plain English. Two policies that look identical pay in entirely different circumstances. We work through these so the definition is stated in the buyer's own working life — what it would mean for this person, in this job, to be unable to do it — since "own occupation" and "any occupation" are technical terms that most buyers translate wrongly and in their own favour; so the point at which a definition changes is made prominent, given that many policies switch from own to any occupation after a period and this is the single most misunderstood feature of the product; so the material duties test is explained with an example rather than defined, because a surgeon who can consult but not operate is the case that makes it concrete; so any occupational or activity-based test is set out with what would actually be assessed; so offsets are explained with worked arithmetic, as a benefit reduced by state payments and employer cover is frequently a fraction of what the buyer assumed; so the deferred period is expressed as a date somebody can plan around rather than as a number of weeks; so the evidence that will be required at claim is described at the point of sale, since discovering it during a breakdown is its own harm; and so the exclusions are given in the same type size as the benefit. Documents written this way sell a product people can rely on.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including policy documents, medical information and claims correspondence. We are editors rather than advisers, underwriters or clinicians, and we give no advice on cover and offer no view on any policy or claim. What we can do is make the definition mean the same thing to both parties.