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Disability Income Gap Calculator

Enter your pay and group long-term disability (LTD) details, or work through a client's plan. Estimate the monthly benefit using the tax assumption, benefit cap, and covered-pay definition, plus a conservative benchmark for discussing additional individual coverage. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter leaves it.

Pay
The group LTD plan

Check the plan document. $10,000 is common; leave blank if the plan has no cap.

Most plans cover base salary only.

This decides whether the benefit is taxable, so it moves the answer more than most people expect.

Taxes and coverage already in place

Combined federal and state, applied only to the taxable share of the benefit. Use a planning assumption appropriate to the client; this is not a tax calculation.

Assumed personally paid with after-tax dollars, so it arrives tax-free.

Check your own coverage or work through the numbers with a client. You can request help directly; a financial advisor is not required.

Request disability quotes

The plan document says 60%. The deposit says less.

A group LTD percentage alone does not tell you the benefit amount. Check which compensation the plan covers, its monthly cap, and how premiums are paid. A taxable benefit or a cap can leave the client with less income than the stated percentage suggests.

For example, $240,000 of base pay plus a $60,000 bonus, with a base-only 60% benefit capped at $10,000 a month, produces $7,500 after an assumed 25% tax on a fully taxable benefit. That is 30% of gross compensation. The calculator does not deduct SSDI or other offsets, or determine whether a claim qualifies.

Compare those estimates with the spending and savings contributions the household would need to maintain. A gap is a reason to review the plan and available resources; it is not automatically the amount of insurance to buy.

Read more about group disability gaps for high earners and how individual disability coverage works.

Sources: IRS guidance on disability-benefit taxation and Guardian’s explanation of supplemental disability coverage. Carrier examples describe that carrier’s offering; availability and policy terms vary.

How the calculator works

Plain arithmetic with stated assumptions, no prediction. Taxability follows who pays the premium, matching the federal treatment. The replacement figure is measured against gross pay, because estimating take-home would stack a second set of assumptions on top. The room for additional individual coverage comes from a conservative income-band benchmark recorded in September 2026. It subtracts the gross group benefit and existing individual benefit entered. It does not establish a carrier's maximum: issue and participation rules can allow more alongside taxable group coverage. Confirm availability against the applicable carrier guide.

We offer this calculator so you can see what a group plan may pay before deciding whether to request a review. Use it for your own coverage or with a client.

Common questions

Can I add individual disability insurance if I already have coverage through work?
It may be possible. An individual policy can supplement employer coverage, subject to the insurer's rules for income, existing benefits, occupation, health, and state availability. A calculator gap does not establish how much you can buy. We review the group plan and income documentation before comparing options.
What should I gather before requesting disability quotes?
Have your occupation and job duties, state, income breakdown, group LTD certificate, and any individual disability policy details available. Check whether your employer pays the premium and whether bonuses or commissions count as covered earnings. Income records and health information may be needed as the review progresses. The quote form is separate from this calculator.
Why doesn't a 60% plan actually replace 60%?
Start with the plan’s definition of covered earnings and its monthly maximum. Bonuses or commissions may be excluded, and a cap can reduce the benefit below the stated percentage. Premium funding determines whether some or all of the benefit is federally taxable. For a hypothetical plan paying 60% of covered earnings, with no cap applying, a fully taxable benefit and an assumed 25% effective tax rate leave 45% of covered earnings before other offsets. Different plan terms and tax assumptions produce different results.
Is a group disability benefit taxable?
It follows who pays the premium. When the employer pays it, or the employee pays it pre-tax through a cafeteria plan, the benefit is taxable. When the employee pays with after-tax dollars, the benefit arrives free of federal income tax. When the cost is split and the employee pays their share with after-tax dollars, the benefit is taxed in proportion to the employer's share. An employee share paid pre-tax through a cafeteria plan counts as employer-paid, which leaves the benefit fully taxable. State treatment can differ from federal.
Is anything I enter stored?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, stored, or logged, and no client name is asked for anywhere.
What about Social Security disability?
Most group LTD plans offset dollar for dollar against Social Security disability and similar benefits, so SSDI mostly substitutes for part of the group check rather than adding to it. Qualifying for SSDI is also genuinely hard, which is why we treat it as a backstop rather than a plan.
How is Aligned Path compensated?
By the carrier, when a policy is placed. Your firm pays us nothing, and there is no fee to you or your client for shopping a case. Carrier compensation is a real conflict, so we manage it with a process: cases are shopped across the lineup for fit, options are presented in plain language, and the client decides on their own timeline.

Found a gap worth closing? We shop the individual DI market across our lineup and tell you honestly when the group plan is enough on its own.

Read the disability insurance guide