Thrivent is a Fortune 500 company that offers several insurance and investment products, along with financial advice.
With a longstanding history in the industry, excellent financial strength, and positive customer experience ratings, it’s a solid choice for your disability income insurance.
- CEO: Teresa J. Rasmussen
- Year founded: 1902
- BBB score: A+
- AM Best rating: A++
- Phone number: 800-847-4836
- Services offered: Life, disability, and long-term care insurance; investments; annuities; banking products, and financial advice services
Thrivent Disability Insurance Fast Facts
Here are some fast facts about Thrivent’s disability policies.
- Disability insurance products: Short and long-term individual disability insurance
- Benefit periods: 12 months, 24 months, 60 months, 10 years, or until age 67
- Riders: Residual disability, future purchase option, supplemental disability income
Definition of Disability
Before you apply for a disability insurance policy, it’s important to understand the company’s definition of disability. Some insurers subscribe to an any-occupation definition of disability, which means you’ll only qualify for benefits if your disability prevents you from working any job.
Meanwhile, with an own-occupation policy, you may be eligible for your policy’s benefits if you’re unable to perform the duties of your specific job due to a disability. As a high-income earner, it’s wise to seek out an own-occupation policy.
To determine Thrivent’s definition of disability and ensure that one of their policies is the right fit, we recommend contacting one of their local financial advisors.
Built-in Benefits of Thrivent’s Disability Insurance
Thrivent doesn’t explicitly share what all its standard disability insurance policies cover. However, the company’s website states that most disability insurance policies cover long-term illnesses, serious health conditions, and accidental injuries that prevent you from working for an extended period of time.
This is standard for the industry, although some companies build in extra coverage like automatic benefit enhancements and unemployment waiver of premiums.
Again, you can contact a Thrivent advisor to learn more about the specific features included in its policies.
Thrivent Disability Riders
Riders are an excellent way to enhance your disability insurance policy’s coverage.
Thrivent doesn’t disclose all of its available riders; however, we obtained a Thrivent disability insurance application that listed the following optional policy add-ons:
Residual Disability
Residual disability riders can provide you with some coverage even if you don’t fully meet the policy’s disability requirements.
It can pay out a percentage of your replacement income after your partial disability coverage ends, until your policy’s term is up.
To qualify for a residual disability benefit, Thrivent notes that you usually have to demonstrate that you’re limited to making 20-80% of your income due to your disability.
Future Purchase Option
A future purchase option (FPO) lets you increase coverage every three years without submitting to additional medical underwriting.
This can be a valuable addition to your policy if you anticipate your income, cost of living, or other expenses increasing and find yourself needing a larger policy.
Cost of Living Indexing Benefit
A cost of living indexing benefit, commonly known as a cost of living rider, is another policy add-on that can increase your coverage in the future.
Rather than requiring you to request an increase in coverage, it ties your policy benefit amount to a cost of living index.
This rider can help ensure that your coverage keeps up with inflation so you still have the purchasing power to maintain your quality of life if you’re disabled one day.
Thrivent Disability Insurance Premiums
Thrivent disability insurance premiums typically cost 1% to 4% of your total income, but this varies based on many factors, including coverage amount, age, gender, specific position, and location.
The younger and healthier you are when you apply, the less premiums you’ll pay. However, if you have risky habits, a challenging job, or underlying health conditions, it could affect your premiums, no matter how young you are when you apply.
As always, we recommend getting quotes and comparing policy options from multiple disability insurance carriers to land on the right one.
Thrivent Disability Insurance Alternatives
Guardian
Guardian is one of our top recommendations for disability insurance for physicians. Like Thrivent, it has excellent financial strength and customer service ratings.
With Guardian, you can also enjoy enhanced true own-occupation coverage, which means you can still practice as a physician and earn disability income, as long as you can’t perform at your previous capacity.
The base policy includes unique features like a Hospice care benefit, plus several riders including a student loan protection rider that’s well suited to physicians.
MassMutual
Another top-rated insurer, MassMutual has a specialized Radius Choice policy for doctors and other high-income individuals.
The policy is available to applicants aged 18-64 in most states, with conditional renewals up to age 75. You can add more than a dozen riders and endorsements to the policy to make it your own and choose benefit periods ranging from two years up to age 70.
MassMutual also offers a handful of discounts that could reduce the cost of coverage. Unlike Thrivent, MassMutual provides extensive policy details on its website, so you can easily research your options before contacting a representative.
Pros and Cons
Here are a few of the pros and cons of purchasing disability insurance with Thrivent:
Pros
- Established company: Thrivent isn’t a newcomer to the industry. It has a solid track record, with excellent financial strength ratings, and an A+ rating and accreditation from the BBB.
- Extensive network of local advisors: Thrivent has a large network of financial advisors and a streamlined tool to help you connect with an agent in your area who can assist you in applying for a policy.
- Several financial products: In addition to disability insurance, Thrivent offers life insurance, long term care insurance, individual investment products, and banking solutions, allowing you to house several accounts and policies in one place.
Cons
- Limited policy information online: Thrivent doesn’t provide many details about its coverage, benefit amounts, waiting periods, riders, or eligibility, which a lot of its competitors do.
- No online claims submission: Thrivent doesn’t allow you to submit disability claims online. Instead, you’ll have to download a form, complete it, and send it by fax or mail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Thrivent owned by?
Thrivent is a member-owned fraternal organization. According to Thrivent, it has nearly 2.3 million clients and a network of over 1,900 financial advisors.
How stable is Thrivent Financial?
Based on its financial strength ratings, Thrivent Financial is a solvent company with a high likelihood of meeting its financial obligations. Thrivent maintains an A++ (superior) rating from AM Best, so you can depend on the company to pay out your disability benefits as promised.
Is Thrivent Financial a fiduciary company?
According to Thrivent, all of its advisors act in a fiduciary capacity. When you work with Thrivent, you can rest assured that any investing advice they provide you with is primarily in your best interest.
Does Thrivent serve non-Christians?
Thrivent is committed to providing financial services for Christians, but members and employees are not required to share the company’s faith.
While the company initially only accepted Lutherans as members, it extended its membership to other denominations in 2013 and eventually offered its products to individuals outside of the Christian faith.
