For those of us who are thankfully not in a situation like this currently, it's still worth reading up on those benefits. Obviously the best time to deal with t

For those of us who are thankfully not in a situation like this currently, it's still worth reading up on those benefits. Obviously the best time to deal with those things is before you need them. Virtually all employer-provided long-term disability coverage terminates when you leave your job or shortly thereafter without the option to continue your coverage, so if you're pushed out or become unable to work before you formally meet the insurer's definition of "disabled" you're SOL. Also, most LTD plans (both group and individual) either exclude mental health conditions or place significant limits on the benefits you can claim for those conditions - e.g., they'll only pay out for one year, or up to a certain (low) dollar amount. For those reasons, I recommend that most middle- to high-income people carry individual (i.e., not employer-sponsored) long-term disability insurance. For a very rough indication on price, I got my policy when I was 28, and I pay ~$100/month for coverage that would give me $72k/year in (tax-free) income through age 67.