Food For Thought?

Just back from a two day seminar in Boston on current disability claims and legal issues, with lots of excellent speakers and topics for disability specialty companies like mine. One of the more thought provoking opinions heard there was the view that the discretionary clause (written about in prior blog entries on this site) has assumed an exaggerated level of importance, in the minds of those within the industry as well as those outside it, and has thus run its course. That opinion cited the increasingly negative image and bad press the discretionary clause creates for the disability industry, when in fact it is a potential factor only in the .6%-9.% or so of disability claims that are litigated, according to a Milliman study several years back.

Regardless of the position you stake out, the key assumptions and premises related to the discretionary clause issue need to be scrutinized and subject to critical review. Whatever your perspective or bias on this issue is, it seems nonetheless like a healthy step for views to be aired that depart from the orthodoxy of thinking that has prevailed on both sides of this issue for some time.