My introduction to disability insurance happened on February 19, 1948–my 21st birthday. I had fallen deeply in love with a lady, Mary Jacqulyn Cecilia O’Meara, a dentist’s daughter who was employed at Mutual of Omaha, the nation’s largest exclusive accident and health insurance company. I was home, Council Bluffs, IA, from college at UCLA.
My plan was to be a journalist. It seemed to be my calling. The Los Angeles Times had offered me a job, promising a six month apprenticeship without pay before deciding on offering me a permanent position. My response was, “I appreciate your offer, but I cannot accept your terms.” I needed to return to my hometown of Council Bluffs where there were only two newspapers, the Omaha World Herald and the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. Neighboring Omaha had only two radio stations and no television stations, so the prospects of a job in journalism were very limited. My friend and future wife convinced me to interview for a job at Mutual of Omaha. I did. It was a highly emotional experience for I was told about the existence of disability insurance and its potential for the future.
My family suffered through the Great Depression like most Americans, but we additionally endured a terrible drought which began in Southwestern Iowa in 1933 and lasted four years. The corn crop failed, resulting in the loss of our farm, the farm equipment and our prized dairy herd. Out of necessity, we moved to a rented house that was little more than a chicken coop.
For the most part, life was tumultuous, but not unlike many of the other folks who lived up and down the dusty country roads. However, our ultimate financial undoing was my father’s disability. He suffered a severe bout of sciatica rheumatism that totally disabled him for many agonizing years.
My magnificent mother led our desperate family. She kept us alive by growing fruits and vegetables in a small garden and by working as a domestic for a meager income. But she found time to hand sew the beautiful organdy high school graduation gowns of my sisters who were also working for their own room and board. Being 13 years their junior, the odd jobs I landed were skimpy in wage, but served to get me through school and off to Los Angeles to live with my grandmother while attending UCLA. A modest track and field scholarship helped.
Dad finally regained his health, and he got a job as a night watchman in a truck body manufacturing shop. My parents, always driven by determination, managed to save enough out of their pitiful earnings to buy acreage of farmland. They eventually regained financial freedom and bought their first new car.
All the suffering and denial of my family could have been prevented by the great product called “disability insurance.” But no insurance agent ever told my father about it, and so he was left naked before the cold winds of adversity. No social security or other social insurance then existed. I experienced the painful economic demise of my family, and vowed to help prevent similar experiences happening to other American families.
After decades in the industry with an intense focus on disability insurance, my three sons joined me in business. We did well in selling to and serving insurance brokers and financial planners, and eventually partnered with Lloyd’s of London as we were granted the esteemed status of Coverholder. Slowly, we solved the problem of inadequate disability insurance available in the U.S. market by comingling traditional insurance with Lloyd’s plans.
We next went to work on making disability coverage available to nearly any occupation, even offshore oil drillers, entertainers and professional athletes. Today, income protection is available to almost anyone including singers, farmers, astronauts and executives. Even actors and actresses can be financially indemnified for the loss of their voice or the loss of their beauty when they can no longer command appropriate fees for their services.
The fundamental building block in life is the ability to work and earn money. When that is prematurely taken away, all is lost. Without an income, there is no way to pay for healthcare and health insurance, autos and auto insurance, houses and homeowner’s insurance, retirement, death and its consequences. What can thoroughly replace the loss of ability to earn a living? The answer is disability income insurance.
Slowly we have peeled back the superstitions surrounding disability income insurance and have created new coverage that can be used to create programs of disability insurance that can do incredible things at an affordable price to insure adequate income flow, build a solid retirement plan and cover business expenses as well. This knowledge and logic has captured my attention and held my passion for nearly 70 years. It has propelled my efforts to make disability insurance available to all persons who work to earn an income.
