How To Avoid Disability Insurance Mistakes With Aaron Brooker

🎙️ 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝗰𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗿. 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗹𝗼𝗲.

💡 What if your biggest asset isn’t your portfolio… but your ability to earn as a physician—and one injury or illness could wipe out your financial freedom plan overnight?

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Aaron Brooker from LeverageRx—world traveler, former middle school educator, and dad of three—who now helps physicians protect their income with the right disability insurance.

We break down what “true own-occupation” actually means, why employer coverage is rarely enough, and the most common traps physicians fall into (usually because no one ever taught us this stuff in training). Aaron shares real-world examples—including a surgeon who injured his hand—and explains why disability insurance isn’t just for proceduralists… it matters for family medicine, psych, and everyone in between.

If you’re building wealth through real estate and entrepreneurship, this episode is a reminder: protect the engine before you upgrade the vehicle.

🔥 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻:
 ✔️ Why your physician income is your #1 wealth-building tool until assets replace it
 ✔️ The biggest mistake doctors make: assuming employer disability is “good enough”
 ✔️ What “true own-occupation” means—and why it can pay even if you work another job
 ✔️ Why waiting to buy can cost you (exclusions from back pain, anxiety meds, labs, etc.)
 ✔️ A simple napkin-math framework for how much coverage is “enough”
 ✔️ The best time to buy: residency/fellowship discounts + GSI (guaranteed options)
 ✔️ The key riders doctors should understand (and the ones that actually matter)
 ✔️ Partial/residual disability: the scenario most physicians don’t realize can happen
 ✔️ What disability looks like for practice owners (business overhead expense coverage)
 ✔️ Common “cheap policy” traps that look good now—but fail when you need them

🔥 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀:
 ✅ Your biggest asset isn’t your rentals or retirement account—it’s your ability to earn. Protect it.
 ✅ Employer disability often caps low and can be taxable… leaving a huge gap.
 ✅ “True own-occupation” is the game-changer: it protects your specific physician job.
✅ Buy earlier while you’re healthy—waiting can lead to exclusions or higher costs.
✅ The riders matter: non-cancelable/guaranteed renewable, residual, COLA, and future purchase options are huge.
✅ If you own a practice, consider policies that keep the lights on if you can’t work.
✅ Don’t fall for cut-rate coverage—disability insurance is one place you don’t want to “cheap out.”

Connect With Aaron Brooker:

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• Website

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Transcript

Aaron Brooker: We did have a doctor who like slammed his hand in, in a car and he, he went on a claim for that. Um, but it's easy to see why a surgeon who uses their hands all the time would, would want this type of coverage because you could receive total disability benefits on this policy and still work. But even a family medicine or psychiatrist, you know, you, you don't want to sell themselves short. Uh, that these policies could potentially pay those benefits while you're able to work somewhere else.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast, the show where we teach you how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. Now here's your host, Dr. Alex Schloe.

 Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcasts. And if you're a physician chasing financial freedom through real estate or entrepreneurship, your biggest asset isn't necessarily your portfolio. It's actually your ability to earn as a practicing physician. Financial freedom might be a few properties away, but disability can wipe out that plan.

Overnight if you're not protected. And so I'm really excited today to have Aaron Brooker on the podcast. Aaron is an incredible individual. He's a world traveler, a former educator dad of three young boys, super intentional when it comes to fatherhood, and uh, he works for leverage RX in regards to disability insurance, specifically working with physicians.

So really excited to have you on the podcast tonight. Aaron, how are things going?

Aaron Brooker: Alex, thanks for having me. Things are, you know, average. I'm, I'm happy to be here. That's above average. The everything else is just maintaining at a good level. You take the good with the bad.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks for sticking through some of the technology, uh, uh, issues that we had getting started, but I'm excited to have this podcast and, as you mentioned before the podcast got three young boys, we might see an appearance, so that'll be awesome if that happens. But, if not, it's all good.

Aaron Brooker: You know, there were, they've been informed to stay quiet. I'm not worried about that. Uh, you know, mostly I'm just hoping we make it through the rest of the podcast without any technology issues.

Dr. Alex Schloe: There you go. I think we can do that. I think we can do that. Well, I, I gave you a, a brief introduction. Do you mind telling folks a little bit about yourself as well as, uh, as kind of how you got started in this space?

Aaron Brooker: Alex, that was actually a great introduction. Thank you. Um, so, so I live in Nebraska. B born and raised in Nebraska. Been here the whole time and. Actually went to college to be an educator, a middle school educator, which, you know, you just don't know what's walking through the door. You're, you, you gotta be ready for a lot of things.

To be honest, I, I enjoyed education a lot because of the summers. And so I grind it through as a teacher for 14 years. And you know what they give you, if you do a good job teaching, uh, you, you get another committee to be in charge of and, and, you know, like. Two teachers quit. , Another teacher was having a baby.

I was doing everybody's job with long-term subs. It was the first year where I was like, just not proud of the, the product we were putting in front of these kids. And a sales opportunity opened up, you know, eight years ago, um, for, for disability insurance for physicians with a different agency here in town.

And I, and I gave that a go, did a good job, moved over to leverage RX a few years ago. And so for the last, you know, eight years, I've been dealing exclusively just as an online broker. With physician disability insurance.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome. And as I mentioned before, we got started here and pushed record, I don't know a whole lot about disability insurance. It's, it's definitely something that I overlooked and I'm sure a lot of folks who are listening to the podcast have probably overlooked as well and excited to talk more about that.

But you mentioned you're a world traveler and you mentioned Summer's office, a teacher. So I gotta ask, what was your favorite place that you ever traveled to?

Aaron Brooker: Uh, it's definitely Egypt is number one on the list. When, when I, you know, one, one summer I backpacked Europe with a buddy, and so we hit up, you know, I don't know, 12 or 13 countries, , which was not on the itinerary. We were hanging out in Greece and he said, you know, we, we should go to Egypt.

And I was like, we weren't planning on doing that, but somehow before the, you know, smartphone era, we bought plane tickets in the little island from. Athens to Cairo, got to Athens, you know, flew, like, I literally had a lonely Planet Tour guide of e Egypt, and that was what we showed up in Egypt with for two weeks and, and you made it work.

And so that was the, the most fun travel we had. My wife and I also, uh, we overland Safari from Cape Town to Kenya, so that was eight weeks, you know, nine countries in Africa. And so that's the bulk of the travel. I'm, I'm going to the Dr. Saturday here. I guess just a, a week kind of hiking along the mountains, though, know, something to be grateful for.

Have you, have you read, have you read? Die With Zero?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Bill Perkins. Great book. Uh, really interesting book. I was gonna bring this up later on in the podcast 'cause you had mentioned it. But it is a, it is an interesting book, especially in kind of the fire age of, of, financial independence, retire early and DI was zero kind of. How they work together, but also kind of conflict was really interesting.

And it's, I love his mentality of like, Hey, wow, we're young. Like we need to be doing all the traveling, all the experiences, you know, frankly spending the money that we earn, uh, to, to have those times and experiences and we can enjoy it when we're healthy enough to do the hiking trips and the backpacking trips and our kids still like us and so forth.

So a really great book. What were your thoughts? What were your insights from Die With? Zero.

Aaron Brooker: Well, we, we read that and my, my wife kind of felt like it was a green light to just take a lot more trips, you know, when we had opportunities too whi, which I'm not complaining about. Um, you know, the, I, part of what kind of drew me outta education was just a big interest in personal finance. And you know, like I realized there just had to be some more opportunities.

So I've been playing catch up, you know, for the last seven years. I feel like in some ways may maybe like some of the residents feel like, Hey, I've been in school for all this time and now finally there's a salary we can work with. But, but you know, the fire mentality says like, Hey, every dollar that you don't save is time.

You gotta work for somebody else, but die with zeros. Guys. Like, Hey, every dollar you don't spend is opportunities you missed out on. Right. You could have had. Nicer dinners or you could have taken more trips or you could have worked less, you know, when your kids were young. And so it's like the same si, like different sides of the same coin where you both have to be very intentional about your time and your budget and your money.

And, and that's what I kind of liked about it is like, man, hey, we're, we are probably missing out on some good opportunities right now because we're just laser focused on saving. And, and so it kind of like just opened up some freedom to feel okay about, um, experiences.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I agree that that's one thing that we as a family, don't have any trouble spending money on. And my buddy Brian Luebben, he hosts the Action Academy podcast. He said something a few years back. Called, he calls it the 10 year rule. And essentially it's like if there's a trip or an experience or or something you wanna buy, and in 10 years you're gonna be sitting around the bonfire telling that story and you can reasonably afford it, then you need to do it, you know?

And so it's kind of like right in the middle of DAVO zero and Fire. And so that's something that we've really tried to do is like, Hey, if we have an opportunity for incredible experience or trip, or. We bought a camper a few years back. That was, that was the best investment I've ever made. I've talked about that a lot on the podcast 'cause it's just such a cool experience.

But, uh, and we spent a month of the camper this summer. We spent a month in Europe this summer. And man, those are the best two months of the year. Uh, and so

Aaron Brooker: kind of camper?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, we have a small 19 foot camper. It's hard side. We're in Colorado, so hard side of campers are nice when it gets really cold or to keep some of the creatures out.

And so it was, we got it used off Facebook marketplace. My wife is an amazing designer and, and my, uh, my. My, mother-in-law flew out from Virginia, and next thing I know, my, my wife and my mother-in-law just like completely renovated this camper. It was awesome. And, so really grateful for that. And we've done tons of great trips and that we've, our goal is to spend at least 30 days in the camper every year.

And we've done that for the three years that we've had it, or 30 days. Yeah. It's been awesome.

Aaron Brooker: That, that takes work. I, I had, I had camper, I actually rented out motor homes for, for a period of time on outdoorsy. And you guys are dealing with rentals, man. Try, try sending somebody in a class, a motor home outta your driveway that's never camped before. That's not for the faint of heart, you know, like that, that's a different level of risk tolerance, but good, good for you.

My, um. We, we liked camp. My friend has a YouTube channel where he reviews small campers and he's quite successful at it.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Oh, that's

Aaron Brooker: Have you, have you read the book? Sorry, one last one. Um, intentional Father.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I don't think so. Is that the one by John Tyson?

Aaron Brooker: It is, yeah.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yes, I have. Yep. I have great book,

Aaron Brooker: Your, your kids are a little bit young for that, but it's just, it's just like kind of what you're already thinking. It's like, hey, C culture doesn't give our boys a really rite of passage the way some other cultures do. And so you have to, you know, kinda curate media and curate activities to just celebrate that, that growing up and maturing into manhood.

So I, I think camping's a great way to do that.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. Yeah. And it's so interesting the more time that we spend out there, you know, initially, like you can, you can tell at least myself, I'm, I'm definitely a type a like little bit of an anxious person and we first get out there, I'm like, oh man. Like I, I feel the weight of like all these things I think I should be doing.

And then I sit around the fire with my family. I'm like, by the second night. This is the dream. Like nothing else matters, you know? And, and, and we, we try to go places where we don't have cell phone service for that reason as well and just completely disconnect. And so it is great. But yeah, intentional Father John Tyson, that's a great book as well.

Uh, and I love, yeah, I love the Rite of Passage. And, I, I don't know if you've read Love Does by Bob Goff, but he also talks about when his, when his kids turn 10, they can do a trip, they can pick where they want to go and, and uh, his daughter was like, I want to go have tea. With the Queen of England. So they went to England and had tea.

They didn't have it with the Queen of England, but he did his best. And then, his son wanted to climb Half Dome, I believe in Yosemite, but his birthday was in February. So like went in a blizzard and they tried to climb Half Dome.

Aaron Brooker: Oh,

Dr. Alex Schloe: uh, so I've been talking to my son already. He is five. And I'm like, Hey buddy, when you turn 10, just me and you and we're gonna go on wherever, you know, whatever trip you want to do.

And, , ironically he mentioned Egypt. He's like, I want to go to Egypt and s say King Cobras. And I'm like, well, we'll work a little bit more, you know, on that and, where King Cobras live, but, uh, you never know. And so, we'll see what happens. But it's, it's, it's great to just, being a dad is the best.

Aaron Brooker: Good for you. That's, I love it. And sounds like you're doing it right.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah.

Aaron Brooker: We, we could turn this into a parenting podcast.

Dr. Alex Schloe: There you go. Hey. That's what really matters though, to be honest, um, for sure is, is, is, you know, kind of, that time we have with family and it all kind of boils back to financial freedom, right? And, the ability to buy back your time so you can have time with your family and have more of those experiences.

So it all relates we'll, uh, we'll tie it back in that way.

Aaron Brooker: I like it. I like it. Very good.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Aaron, you help physicians protect their income with disability policies and disability insurance. And, and for folks who are listening, this is educational only. This isn't personalized advice, but Aaron, do you mind just kind of telling us why, why should physicians think about disability insurance?


Aaron Brooker: Yeah, I mean, in broad strokes, I think you did a nice job on, on the intro of hitting it up and, um, people, you know, are focused on their nest egg and their retirements and their home is their biggest asset, but, but really. The engine that drives that boat is your ability to make money. And so physicians especially have spent all that time and energy just investing in themselves with school and, for degrees that that is a highly specialized degree.

You need to protect that investment correctly with what's called. A true own occupation policy. And so that's what I do is specialty specific policies that just kind of help physicians protect what they've worked hard on. Um, a lot of these policies are in addition to employer benefits, just because high income earners do, do not have enough coverage with only their employer benefits, they need their own policy to just kind of make sure things are fully protected.

You know, I have the advantage.

Dr. Alex Schloe: sense.

Aaron Brooker: In, in sales of, you know, doctors and dentists are just kind of told to buy these things. I mean, that's, that's kind of the talk in residency program and in fellowships is like, Hey, get this While you have discounts available, you're gonna need it. You're gonna be glad you have it.

Everybody's got a story of a doctor they know that became, you know, sick or injured or something happened and, and I'm looking around now and I've got, you know, a bunch of. 40, 45-year-old friends, they've worked their way up to middle management, they're making decent income. There's three kids and they're like, uh, do I have now, now I maybe need to start thinking about it.

'cause now I've got stuff to protect. Like the cliff was not there to realize, hey, my income was important. They just had to grind to get to that point. Doctors grind and then now they're at the cliff and they need to make sure everything's kind of shored up and safe. So.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's, that's exactly right. I mean, like I said before, your income is kind of your number one wealth building tool until assets can replace that. And so that disability insurance is, is super, super important. And you know, I look at it as, as a tool, you know, as you mentioned as well. Let's, let's talk about some of the differences.

So what, what are some of the, the differences are maybe mistakes that happen when physicians are looking for disability policies?

Aaron Brooker: The, the number one mistake is just assuming that your employer benefits are gonna be good enough. You know, like it's not bad to have an employer that gives you disability insurance. In fact, I think it's kind of nice to, to work somewhere that helps you subsidize your risk management plan that way. But employer benefits, I mean, you're gonna have to be really disabled to receive those benefits and a lot of people, you know, some of your listeners on W twos might not even realize their employer policy might might cap off at 10 or $15,000 per month.

I mean, your employer plan is also taxable, so. You know, if you were really disabled on that plan, you know, after taxes, you might end up with 90,000 bucks a year, a hundred thousand bucks a year, and that, that's a long ways off from kind of your, your monthly budget that's driving the ship. And so number one mistake is just relying on your employer benefits.

Number two, mistake is just waiting too long to get it. A lot of times, uh, people will come to me and they're changing jobs. The new place doesn't have disability insurance. Uh, you know, it's their own gig. It's 10 99 work, whatever it might be. But now we're shopping for a policy with no discounts or just health issues.

You know, there's, there's things that are not disabling, but you've been to the doctor for some back pain or some anxiety. Like those things can limit what these policies cover. And so it's important that you get it set up kind of younger. Uh, when you're younger and healthier.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That makes a lot of sense. Is there any specialty specific concerns like surgeons versus family med docs, or. Or folks who are more procedural compared to more outpatient clinic.

Aaron Brooker: You know, it's a nuanced question when people say these policies are specialty, specific, true oc, I mean, the, the reality is the way the definition reads is, is what you're being paid to do for the last six to 12 months is actually your own job. And it's, it's worded that way to protect people because people move into hospital administration.

There's procedures that are not yet invented that, that these policies are going to cover that we don't even know about. And so you don't have to continually update your policy. It, it is easy for, for you and me and everybody else to kind of understand why a surgeon wants this type of coverage is because something could happen to my hands.

We did have a doctor who like slammed his hand in, in a car and he, he went on a claim for that. Um, but it's easy to see why a surgeon who uses their hands all the time would, would want this type of coverage because you could receive total disability benefits on this policy and still work. I mean, that that happens and that's how people understand the policies.

But even a family medicine or psychiatrist, you know, you, you don't want to sell themselves short. Like there's a lot required in you to do your job in terms of like dictating, seeing patients being able to, you know, work long hours, uh, that these policies could potentially pay those benefits while you're able to work somewhere else.

But at the very least it just kind of shores up that gap from the gap between any employer disability you have and what your take home pay actually is, can get shored up with one of these policies.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. Uh, yeah, it sounds, sounds like definitely something worth folks looking at. Hey, what, what are your employer benefits? C Hey, does that come anywhere close to, to, to matching what your income is? And look at the fine print of what that would actually cover for you. And then these policies can certainly be a good adjunct from that perspective.

Uh, another question that's, you know, probably difficult to answer, but do you kind of have a goal for like, hey, how much coverage is quote unquote enough for a

Aaron Brooker: Yeah. Uh, you know, there's a lot of clients on some other financial blogs that, that come to me, you know, looking for this stuff. And so just, just so you get your listeners and you guys can just get some napkin math. I mean, let's just say you. You're dealing with a $300,000 contract, okay? Generally speaking, you can get about two thirds of your gross income protected.

You know, so, so being fully insured is having around $200,000 of disability insurance. N now if, if you're making. $600,000. I can't protect two thirds of that the same way. You know, like there, there's, they wanna leave some incentive to get people to go back to work. Right. And, and I should tell your listeners, 'cause you guys have savvy clients, like we're, we're talking about earned income.

Not, not, not your passive income from real estate. Like this is, this is earned income that you're, you know, getting paid for your time. So, um, a $300,000 contract. We can get about $200,000 protected. But you look at the employer plan and you know, we find out it pays $10,000 per month and it's taxable.

Well, I mean, that means you might end up with $90,000 a year from that employer plan, so that's gonna leave another $120,000 a year that you could buy with a private policy if, if you wanted to, and I think that's what your question was, is like what's the right amount? That's kind of a personal question because it's your own risk management plan.

I will tell you, you know, the policy is the most valuable now when you're young and you're healthy and you haven't fired yet. Like you've got the most income to lose at this point. And so I'll, I'll do whatever clients want. I probably, you know, at the risk of my boss, like hearing me, like I probably undersell some situations where, hey, if, if you don't wanna be fully unprotected, I, I'm okay with that.

I'm pretty risk tolerant myself, but, you know, it's generally wise to get the right amount of coverage. When you're the youngest healthiest. You know that policy can be in place and protect you, and you can then not have to worry about increasing it or adding it later. You're set up when you need it the most.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. That's, that's some great tips. How, how early can someone get this type of insurance? Is this something that you can get as an intern? Um, or do you have to be graduating from residency?

Aaron Brooker: I, if I, if I could talk to med school students, um, I, I would love to. I mean, residency is the right time to buy it, so, so folks are told to buy this during residency and fellowship because there's big discounts available. And so, you know, I, I would guess most of your listeners probably heard about buying it during training, and that's because.

You can get 20 and 30% discounts. I mean, they're stuck on the policy. They apply forever. Um, not to mention if you do have, you know, listeners in residency, like a lot of, a lot of programs have what's called a guaranteed standard option. And so there's policies that they will give people without any underwriting at all.

You, you could get a policy without having to do any health checks and it's good own occupation coverage that you can take with you forever. Okay, so one, the g the, it's called the GSI is great if you're in residency and fellowship. It's a wonderful option, but two, you're just younger and healthier and it's easier to get the coverage with the discount if you do it during training, if you decide to wait, you know, no, no harm, no foul.

It's just, you know, you can just have a lot harder time getting approved for a policy or be a little bit disappointed with the, the price or the outcome.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that makes sense. So it definitely sounds like the sooner the better. If you're, if you're thinking about it, been thinking about it, you know, don't wait much longer, uh, to at least take a look at this. 'cause we never know. You know, unfortunately, when disability may happen or when other health conditions may come up, that impact your ability to get that policy.

Are there any specific riders that physicians should consider?

Aaron Brooker: Yeah, I'll, let me, sorry, let me talk about riders in just a second. Just, just because we were just on the topic of like, underwriting, you know, just so people know, like these policies when they're not guaranteed, you know, the, the insurance company, they're gonna look at prescriptions, they're gonna look at medical records, you know, they, they get a chance to look at things before they are willing to cover you.

And, and so. It, it might be that you can get a good co a good policy. The policy is just gonna come with exclusions for pre-existing conditions. And, and so, you know, sometimes clients maybe had a season where they took some anxiety medicine or they're currently expecting, or they had some wonky labs and that, that can affect these policies if the timing isn't right for that sort of thing.

And so those are the types of things that getting it earlier avoids it's just disappointment like. I need a policy that covers my back because now I'm 45 years old and I know what a bad back injury kind of could feel like, and I could imagine a disability, you know, like I'm too, I'm too late if I'm expecting to get coverage at that point in my life.

So that, that's kinda what we're talking about with exclusions and underwriting. In terms of riders there, there's, there are a couple things that you should shop for, and this is pretty well documented online. Um, I think that you, I mean, physicians need to get what's called own occupation, and they, they need to get what's called true own occupation, which allows you to, you know, double dip, for lack of a better word.

You should look for a policy. It's called non cancelable guaranteed renewable. Uh, that's just an insurance term that kinda locks things in for your benefit. The insurance company, they can't do a rate hike if your policy is not non cancelable. The. Insurance company could go to the insurance commission and say, Hey, we're we're eating our shorts on these surgeons, or we're, you know, these 45 year olds have a lot of claims coming in.

We, we have to do a rate hike on this class of policy holders. And so if they get permission, they could raise your premiums. Well, well, if you purchase a non cancelable guaranteed renewable policy, your, your rates aren't gonna change. The other rider that I think you need is, is called a residual or a partial disability rider.

Um, this is a feature what, which is really important 'cause it pays for partial disabilities. And so you're still able to do your own job, I mean, work in your own capacity, just not at, not at the same extent. May, maybe you have to cut back on your RVs. Maybe you have two contracts, you can only do one., You're working a lot of overtime and now you're going back to just kind of like a regular work schedule.

If there is a partial loss of income or duties because of an illness or injury, these policies will pay partial benefits. And, and that is, that is money that employer policies don't pay. And so that's important to get on a policy. Uh, another one would be a cost of living adjustment rider. Which is inflation protection.

I mean, there are disabilities that are permanent. I mean, when, when you're in your thirties, like the only disability you can really imagine is like a car accident that takes you out of work for a really long time. You know? Um, and, and if that, that, that has happened. And if that happens and you're on a disability claim for 30 years.

The benefit's gonna grow, and you're not gonna be on a fixed income. So that's what the cola rider does. There's also a catastrophic rider, which is extra money for, for bad disabilities. You could get student loan repayments. I mean, there's a few things like that that you could add on. But, but the important ones are I, I mentioned, and they're pretty well documented. Last one would be what's called a future purchase writer. And that's your ability to, to buy more coverage later without a health check. And so there are a couple different versions of that, but that is really important for your young listeners. Like, Hey, I could just get this locked in. And then as my income goes up, or as my liabilities go up, when you know Dr.

Alex Schloe has three kids and some vacation properties may, maybe you want a little bit more coverage, you could bump your policy up and, and they're not gonna ask you any more health questions to do that.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's really great. Those are, those are some awesome tips for folks. I definitely make sure you're going back and listen to that section. For sure. Aaron, what are some common traps that you see folks get into, whether that's like, uh, specific group policies or portability or a, any issues that you see are common traps that you see for folks?

Aaron Brooker: You know it. I'm glad, I'm glad you asked that question. Just 'cause I've got one on recent, you know, memory is, um. The, the, the trap is you get what you pay for with disability insurance. And, and so it's seeing that this cost is actually, you know, real coverage that's real important. You know, they, I mean, they say, you know, one in six physicians are gonna use their disability at some point in their career.

And so the, the trap that people make is, you know, maybe cutting it a little too short. Um. Not buying enough coverage or, or buying cut rate coverage. Like I had a client who said, Hey, I'm ready to cancel the policy. I said, well, let's, let's talk about it first. Well, some other agent showed her a policy that only pays a claim for five years, has no cola rider.

She can't increase it like. You know, it looks like a and, and the premium gradually goes up. And so it looks like a good deal now where she's saving a, you know, a few hundred dollars a year, but in, you know, eight or 10 years from now, like, she's gonna be on the other side of this policy. And, and so I think that's the biggest trap is, you know, you're so focused on fire, you're so focused on, you know, cash flow that this expense is, is not really valued for what it is when, when we're kind of young and the liabilities are the highest.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that, that makes sense. What, if you can, is there kind of a ballpark number on, on what folks could expect this to cost? Say, I'm in residency, I'm healthy, uh, and I, I. Want, I'm a family medicine doc. What's a ballpark kind of cost for folks who are thinking about getting disability insurance at that point?

Aaron Brooker: You know, there, there are a few states like California, where this is expensive. I mean, this is also, um, mo more expensive for, lots more expensive for women than for men. Unfortunately, life insurance, the opposite is true. Disability insurance, like these policies are, are a little bit price. And, and then there's also a big difference between family medicine and emergency medicine.

And so, you know, it, it depends on what features you put on as a resident. You know, you could expect to spend anywhere from like a hundred to a, you know, $180 per month, kind of depending on a couple of those demographics. I mean, I will get a few policies that are close to $300 a month for a resident, and I usually just say. Maybe we should think about waiting till you have the contract in hand. Like I, you know, I was a teacher for a long time. I know the budget's tight. Like that's a big expense. Um, you know, as you, as you become an attending, if we're, if we're missing out on discounts, I mean, I, I would say, I would say the average, you know, $10,000 policy we're looking at is, you know, gonna, gonna be around $300 per month.

It just depends on a lot of factors. They usually say, you know, one to 3% of your income is, is about right for these policies.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. That's actually a lot cheaper than I thought that it would be. So, uh, that, that is great to hear. So yeah, definitely be thinking about that early on. I wish, you know, I was, I was thinking about this. I remember seeing on, my reminders on like my old iPhone. Look at, uh, look at disability insurance, true own occu occupation, disability insurance from when I was like an intern.

And I'll be honest, I never even, I never called, I never even thought about it again until now, and I wish I did. Uh, but, , I remember I probably still have it on my phone with the reminder from, I don't know, 8, 7, 8 years ago that said. Look at this. And I did not, so don't be, don't be me folks who are listening to this podcast.

Um, well, let's talk about, you know, physicians maybe that are like losing their employed roles or losing benefits. Does that impact these disability policies at all? If they're moving to a different job, moving to a different state, or maybe they lost benefits or employee benefits?

Aaron Brooker: There, there, there are a lot of ways to be optimal on that. And, and I mean the, the, the other mistake, I guess the other trap from, from your earlier question is, people will shop for the policy, uh, on, on their way out the door. Like I had a nice, I had a W2 job, you know, doing some procedural work and there were employee benefits.

I didn't need coverage. N now the new job is eat what you kill. And I've got no guarantees on somebody's income, and it's gonna be really hard for the insurance company to give them the amount of coverage that they're really hoping to get. And so th that'll, that'll be a situation where I'll see some mistakes get made.

'cause now I've got no discounts and no guaranteed income and we're not gonna be able to get the policy we were hoping for. You know when, when you get out, if everybody, if it was easy for everybody to do it, I mean, you would see everybody doing 10 99 work, right? The reality is that that's a hard thing to sort through.

You've gotta sort through the work, you gotta sort through the taxes, you gotta sort through the benefits and, and so you, you are unprotected and you've gotta make, you know, decisions. These private policies that I deal with, um. You know, Mo most people pay for them out of pocket. It's not a business expense.

You know, the government's gonna get you on one side or the other. And so if you pay for it out of pocket, then then the benefits come to you tax free. That's what, that's generally speaking. That's better. You could talk to your accountant about it. I think one of the questions with, with some of your listeners who are maybe, you know, setting up their own clinics or entrepreneurial, they're writing people's paychecks, you know, like there's a lot to sort through in, in that, where there are disability products that could help out.

Employees or businesses that I could get into if you want to not want me to.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that, that, that'll be great. That was gonna be my next question, is how does this look for folks who own their own practice? Maybe it's a direct primary care practice or maybe it's their own private practice. Yeah. What does that look like for folks and, and potentially offering that as a benefit?

Aaron Brooker: You know, I like the DPC model. We, we do DPC for my family. And so,

Dr. Alex Schloe: It's the best.

Aaron Brooker: I I, I love it. And we, you know, at, at the office, I'm seeing a lot more like nurse practitioners and, you know, PAs who are just kind of having to sort through the same thing we're talking about here. Um. So a couple things. If you missed out on training discounts, but you have a couple employees and your employees, their income is also valuable.

They may, they maybe don't make as much, but doesn't mean there's not people relying on their paychecks day in and day out, like they could benefit from these policies. And so what we'll sometimes do to maximize discounts as we could bring. You know, three or four or five employees that all work in the same area in, into a policy, and we can get like an employer discount that way.

And that's significant and that helps out, uh, with a lot of people's savings. And that way the, the, you know, primary physician can get a policy that's discounted and, and can maybe subsidize or help out his employees to protect themselves moving forward. The other way we can do this is, a business overhead expense policy.

And so there are policies that will help keep the lights on for your business. And so. You know, if, if there was a permanent disability, that's a little bit different. But if there's a situation where you, you, as the primary caregiver in this clinic or office are, are, are really the money maker of the, the, the office, like you could get a policy that'll pay for.

Um, lights to stay on payroll, other bills to just kind of give you a year or two to rest up and get better, right? Or, or maybe just bring somebody in and replace you. And so there's policies that'll help you keep your practice profitable during that rough season of life and, and just give you some on ramp to make a wise decision on what to do with your business while it's still actually making money because the policy propped it up.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Great. I didn't know that that existed. That's a really cool benefit for folk, especially some of these solo, you know, smaller practices. That can be certainly something worth considering. Uh, so thanks for sharing that. Aaron. What, what does it look like? Someone's listening to this podcast and they say, Hey, I, I, I wanna look into this.

What does it look like for them in terms of, you know, getting, going on leverage RX and um, figuring out a policy? How long does that process take? What can they expect from that perspective?

Aaron Brooker: So getting quotes is easy and, and you, you know, I, I encourage people go ahead and shop around you because my take on this is gonna be different than, than other people's takes. And one thing in the space, you can't really. You know, reproduces just, just experience and touches. And so you wanna find somebody that kind of understands your risk management plan and is willing to, to work with you in a plan that fits your budget.

But, um, the quotes between, you know, broker to broker should look fairly similar. I mean, everybody has the same toolbox, and so we're all getting quotes off of the same software, and that takes. You know, that takes me 10 minutes to go get you some quotes for coverage. It takes a little bit more time to understand what you're looking for and, and, you know, once you kind of dial in h how much protection suits your needs, um, you know, it's, it's 20 minutes to fill out applications.

Another, you know, it's 20, 40 minutes to answer some health questions. And, and then that's when, that's when I go to work and just, you know, if there's any medical records, if there's any questions the insurance company has, sometimes I need to collect income docs. I usually tell clients, you know, we can get you approved for a policy, you know, two, two to eight weeks.

You know, some of that just depends on how complicated, um, health insurance, or, I'm sorry, health records look. But that, that's kind of what you're looking at before you're kind of on the hook to purchase coverage.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. Yeah. Thank you for that summary. Well, Aaron, let's go ahead and kind of wrap things up. I got some kind of rapid fire questions for you, uh, that I didn't prepare you for, but I'm sure you'll crush it. So what are, what are three myths in the disability insurance space that you want to kill?

Aaron Brooker: Uh, the, the number one myth is the discount. Your training discounts do not expire the day you leave training. So there, there is a grace period, there is time to get a policy with training discounts, you know, e even after you kind of get settled into your first attending job. That, that is one myth. The second, I mean, the other ones we've kind of talked about where your employer benefits are enough, I mean, that's not true.

And then, the third myth would be, oh, that every, every policy's the same. You know, like that, that is, that is a mistake that a lot of people make, is they just assume, Hey, I bought this policy, be it from my, you know, in-laws cousin. He's new to the space, he's this agent at some financial firm. Um, I mean, I think the myth is that financial advisors all all look at this the same way.

The reality is, like I, I work with physicians day in, day out and, and do hundreds of cases a year. Like that experience is a lot different than the financial advisor that, you know, may maybe works with 10 or 15 doctors, you know, here and there. Like there's, there's just a difference in understanding the nuances of these policies.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. You're, you're a specialist when it comes to this and really know all the nuances, nuances in the detail, and that's, that's really important in a situation like this. And frankly in a situation where we don't, until this episode really as physicians understand what may. Makes a good policy, what should I be looking at?

What about the riders? What about all those sorts of minutiae and details that we don't learn about in medical school? Uh, similar to, you know, learning about anything financial, related in med school, we don't get either. And so, uh, really, really important to work with someone who is a specialist. Aaron, what is, or what are three action steps that you would recommend listeners to take this week?

Aaron Brooker: You know, I mean, the first step would be just kind of assessing your own plan. Like if that means asking HR how much coverage you have, uh, that, that would be step number one is, you know, I'm, I'm assuming most of your listeners probably have term life insurance. Like that's an easy risk to understand.

Right. And so, um, because you have term life insurance, you should also look at this. I mean, the chances of somebody dying are very small. Like the chances of you becoming disabled are, are one in six. So just kind of reevaluate your risk management plan and see what kind of coverage do I already have and do I need to add up, add any more coverage.

Step two would be just jumping online and learning more about this. I mean, there's tons of great resources online. If you came to leverage rx, like I, I love the teacher in me would really comes out and just kind of talking through these policies. And so learning more about it so you understand the ins and the outs to see if it's something that, that would work.

And then, you know, step three would be talking to your spouse or your business partners and saying like, Hey, how much coverage are we, um, willing to, to purchase? And, and I'd say moving forward with something like that.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That sounds great. Uh, Aaron, what is one thing that you're passionate about right now?

Aaron Brooker: Man, we, we started talking about the parent stuff and that is, you know, if I was like, chat GPT, I like just kind of consuming those books, taking that information, regurgitating it, figuring out what type of, tips and tidbits from it I can use, uh, in my own house. And so, you know, there's nothing more important than just being, being a good father.

And so that's kind of what I'm passionate about right now.

Dr. Alex Schloe: I love that. One more book suggestion, if you haven't read it. It's just called Parenting by, Paul, Michael Tripp. Uh, it's it's Christian base, really, really fantastic book. , I learned a lot. I just finished it up and, uh, learned a lot. It was, really enlightening and really highlighted. I need to work on patience some more.

So, I'm sure we can all probably work on that as parents, but, that's something that I'm working on in 2026, is just being a little bit more patient with my kids.

Aaron Brooker: Love it. Um, I'll tell you a good one. Have you read Ha Habits of the Household?

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yes. That's a great one. Absolutely. That's a, that is a great one and then, uh, also I was just thinking of another one, that I read.

Gosh, it's been a couple years ago. That was really good.

Aaron Brooker: I read, um, well. Shepherding A child's heart is one of one of the trip books. That's really good. The other one that we read that I thought was really helpful was, and it wasn't, wasn't so much in the Christian space what it was, feeding the hand, feeding the mouth that bites you, I think is what it's called.

Or feeding

Dr. Alex Schloe: a great title.

Aaron Brooker: you. Yeah. It's just

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's awesome.

Aaron Brooker: Yeah. And it's like, Hey, I got these kids that are, you know, a little bit rebellious and a little bit, um, of attitude and so how do I deal with them in a way that just respects their autonomy and gives them, you know. Essentially you just as parents, we're just trying to make sure our kids are in the, in the right lane, moving at the right speed so that they can, you know, get, get off the on ramp and be successful in life.

Right? And that's what this book kind of talks about is, you know, like not to take some of that stuff personally and just set some good boundaries so that your kids can figure out how the authority works and move forward with, with, you know, success. So.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. Yeah. Well, thanks for all those recommendations. I'm gonna add some of those to my list and, uh, I, I, yeah, I'll be thinking about that when I get the next, like, you're the, you're the meanest dad in the world, which I got the other day for the. From my 5-year-old son who thinks he's 13 and I was like, here he goes, here we go.

Now, now it begins. I'm the, I'm the meanest dad in the world.

Aaron Brooker: Yeah. Yeah. I said, you wanna see mean? I

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Brooker: I taught North Omaha. You want to see me? My, my skin is thick, son. I'm ready for this.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. Oh, I can only imagine the stories you have from teacher middle school. I remember, uh, all the shena shenanigans I got into in middle school and, I can't repeat 'em on the podcast.

Aaron Brooker: I love it. Uh, any more questions, Alex? I, I like those.

Dr. Alex Schloe: No, that was, that was great, Erin. I, I think, you know, next, next steps would be how can folks find you? How can they reach out to you if they want to know more, and if they wanna potentially, uh, work with you at Leverage Rx.

Aaron Brooker: You know, ju jumping on leverage RX and filling out a quote form is, is fairly simple. O obviously a, you know, quick 10, 10 to 20 minute phone call answers some, most of the questions we need to, to get accurate quotes in front of people. Um, and that's, that's, that's the first step. This is jump on leverage RX and we can answer all the questions you have.

I like that kind of, I like that sort of thing.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great. Well, yeah, we'll be sure to include those links in the show notes and really, really grateful to your team at Leverage Rx to, to give us kind of a personalized link for physicians and properties. So folks, go ahead and click the link in the show notes if you're interested. And, and learning more.

And Aaron, thank you so much for your time. Uh, thank you for being an intentional father and we, we need more and more intentional fathers out there. And, excited to swap some, some more parenting stories down the road. But appreciate everything you do for physicians and thanks for coming on the podcast tonight.

Aaron Brooker: Alex, thank you. Keep up the good work. Uh, lo love, I mean, so sorry, the, sorry to steal your clothes here, but, but just the idea of, of your community, like the, the impact that being a, a landlord can have in a positive way. Like it's, it's not just about like numbers and freedom, right? Like it's, you're actually serving the greater good in a way that brings dignity and can help people.

And so that's the kind of stuff that. I know when, when we had rental properties like we, we thought about, and I think it's, I think it's a wonderful opportunity to be a blessing and so keep doing what you're doing.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Uh, well with that, it's been Aaron Brooker and Dr. Alex Schloe on another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast, signing off.

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