Best Disability Insurance for Medical Residents and Fellows (2026)

Presented by Jack Howard, Seaworthy Insurance.

If you're a resident or a fellow, you are in the best buying window of your entire medical career, at the exact moment you have the least money to spend on it. Every major disability carrier knows this, which is why all five run dedicated resident programs. They waive the income documentation everyone else has to provide, they disregard the group coverage your hospital gives you, and they attach discounts that generally stay on the policy for life. What they don't publish anywhere convenient is how those programs compare, so that's what this video does. I'll cover how much coverage a resident can get, what the discounts are worth, the future increase rights that let a small resident policy grow to attending income, the guaranteed standard issue offer you've probably seen at your hospital, and the timing argument that matters more than any of it.

I'm Jack with Seaworthy Insurance. We place disability insurance for physicians, dentists, CRNAs, tech workers, and other high-income professionals. Let's start with the numbers.

Under the dedicated resident programs, no income documentation at any of the five majors is required. The published limits run by training stage. During the residency years, as of the mid-2026 guides, it's $5,000 a month at Guardian, Principal, and The Standard, and $7,500 at MassMutual and Ameritas. In your final year or fellowship, Guardian and The Standard step up to $8,000. In your first two years of practice the range runs $7,500 to $8,500, with Ameritas's $8,500 the top published figure. Third and fourth year medical students can typically buy $1,500 to $2,500 a month. These are program rules, not guarantees, and health underwriting still applies.

Two features make these programs better than they sound. First, the group long-term disability plan your hospital provides doesn't count against you. All five majors disregard it when writing residents under these limits, and several extend that treatment through your first two years of practice. Outside these programs, group coverage shrinks what you can buy, so this is a real exception. Second, the exam friction is mostly gone. The Standard orders no blood work, urinalysis, or exams at any benefit amount for applicants 18 to 50 years old. Ameritas orders no exams or labs at all in that age range under its electronic application. Principal's resident program runs without labs, and MassMutual's express path covers residents up to age 40 with no financial documentation up to $10,000 a month. Health questions still apply everywhere, and what's on your medical record still drives the offer. Hold that thought, because it's where this video ends up.

Every one of the five majors runs a resident discount, and as of 2026 they range from 10 to 20 percent. Guardian gives 10 percent, available through 180 days after graduation. Principal runs a 20 percent multi-life discount applied in your graduation year. MassMutual's resident and student group programs commonly reach 20 percent depending on program size and state. Ameritas gives 15 percent with no minimum group size, so a single resident qualifies even if nobody else in the program applies, and it extends eligibility to attending staff physicians at teaching hospitals. The Standard's 15 percent runs from program acceptance until 180 days after training ends.

These discounts generally attach to the policy permanently once issued, which matters more than the percentage. That discount sets the price of a contract you may hold for thirty years, which is worth more than any promo rate. That's also why the application windows are worth knowing. You can generally apply 6 to 12 months before finishing training, several carriers will underwrite to your new attending salary with a signed contract in hand, and the training-program pricing extends 180 days to as much as 24 months after graduation depending on carrier.

A future increase provision locks in your insurability at your current health, then lets the benefit grow to your attending income later with no new medical underwriting. The carrier checks your income at the increase, and your health never gets re-examined. Of everything the resident programs offer, this is the piece worth the most.

Each carrier builds it differently. Guardian lets residents and fellows carry an increase pool of roughly three times their base coverage, where its standard is about two times, reaching $22,000 for fellows and new physicians. Ameritas pairs a $22,500 pool with up to two accelerated increases in the first three policy years. MassMutual's future increase option runs three times base coverage, exercisable annually through age 60. Principal's Maximize Your Benefit rider allows increases to its full financial limits in the first three policy years with no labs. And The Standard waives its usual rule that you buy 75 percent of what you qualify for, so a policy as small as $1,000 a month keeps full increase rights, with an accelerated increase available within 12 months after training.

Run the arithmetic on what that means. A resident who buys $5,000 a month at Guardian during training can carry rights to roughly $15,000 more into an attending contract, and none of it depends on what happens to their health between now and then. For specialties with steep attending incomes, that multiple is worth more than any discount in this video. And at the other end, a resident who truly can't budget more than a minimal premium can still lock the door open at The Standard for $1,000 a month of coverage. The rights you attach during training are worth more than the benefit you start with.

Many training programs have a guaranteed standard issue arrangement, GSI for short, offered through agents who work with that specific hospital. We don't place GSI, so this is a comparison, and it's worth understanding rather than dismissing. Under Guardian's resident GSI, the base benefit runs to about $8,000 a month with no medical underwriting at all, and up to $15,000 with financial underwriting only. If your health history would draw a rating or an exclusion on a fully underwritten application, that no-medical-underwriting door is the whole product, and GSI may be exactly the right tool for you.

For everyone else, know the structural limits before you sign. The ceiling stops at $15,000 even with financial underwriting, where fully underwritten coverage commonly reaches higher maximums for attending incomes. The rider menu tends to get trimmed, retirement protection, the stronger cost-of-living options, catastrophic coverage. Guardian allows the benefit to grow through a future increase option or a benefit purchase rider, one route, never both. And a GSI is a single carrier your hospital chose, so nothing about it gets comparison-shopped, while the resident discount it advertises isn't unique, since all five majors offer one. That's why many of our clients will lock in a second, discounted, fully underwritten policy in conjunction with a smaller GSI plan, keeping the no-underwriting door and the full rider menu at the same time. Whatever you decide, run the side-by-side before you sign, not after.

Everything so far is program mechanics. This chapter is the actual reason to act during training. In our 2026 audit of the policies we've placed, about 28 percent carry an exclusion or a rating, and mental and nervous conditions are the most common exclusion category. Those attach at application, based on what's in your medical record on that day, and they generally persist for the life of the policy.

Now think about what residency does to a medical record. Burnout treatment. A therapy course during a rough rotation. A back injury from call nights. Every one of those, once documented, follows you into every future application at every carrier. The resident who applies in year two with a clean chart keeps options that the attending applying at 34 no longer has. What you're really buying during training is your health record, frozen at its best, and it matters more than every discount and any program limit above.

One more thing for anyone heading into anesthesiology, emergency medicine, or pain management. A resident who has declared one of those specialties is classed as that specialty, and picks up its mandatory 24-month limitation on mental and nervous claims at most carriers, the same as an attending would. Undeclared residents typically sit at a middle physician tier until the specialty is declared. If that's your path, it's one more argument for applying earlier rather than later.

Okay, quick recap. All five major carriers, Guardian, Principal, MassMutual, The Standard, and Ameritas, run dedicated resident programs with no income documentation, published limits of roughly $5,000 to $8,500 a month depending on carrier and training stage, and your hospital's group coverage disregarded. Discounts run 10 to 20 percent as of 2026 and generally stay on the policy for life. Future increase rights are the real centerpiece, letting a resident-sized policy grow to attending income with no new medical underwriting. If your hospital offers GSI, check its ceiling and rider limits against fully underwritten quotes first, and remember that pairing a smaller GSI with a second, discounted individual policy is common. And the clean record is the whole game. In our 2026 book audit, about 28 percent of placed policies carry an exclusion or rating, those attach at application, and residency is exactly when charts accumulate. All of this is educational, and none of it is advice about your specific situation.

If you want the five resident programs run side by side for your specialty, your state, and your training stage, that's what we do at Seaworthy Insurance. We place disability insurance for physicians, dentists, CRNAs, tech workers, and other high-income professionals, and we've been doing it for more than 15 years. The full written comparison is linked in the description below. Thanks for watching.