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Disability Income Gap Calculator

Enter a client's pay and their group LTD details. In return: what the plan actually delivers each month after taxes, the cap, and the covered-pay definition, and how much individual coverage carriers would typically issue on top. No login, no client names. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

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.

Combined federal and state, applied only to the taxable share of the benefit. 20 to 25% fits most professionals.

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

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

Group long-term disability is the most misread benefit in the typical executive compensation package, and the misreading always runs in the same optimistic direction. In most plans the percentage applies to base salary alone, and bonus or variable comp sits outside covered pay unless the plan document says otherwise. The monthly cap quietly converts the percentage into a smaller one for anyone earning past it. And because the employer usually pays the premium, the benefit is taxable income to the client on the worst day of their working life.

None of this is hidden. It sits in the plan document and the tax code, and every piece is checkable arithmetic. This calculator just does the arithmetic in one place, so you can show a client what their coverage really replaces before they need it, not after.

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 typical carrier issue and participation limits, held conservative and current as of August 2026, reviewed quarterly.

Most brokerages would gate a tool like this behind a sales call. We give it away because an advisor who can quantify the gap sets honest expectations, and the cases that reach us are the ones genuinely worth shopping. If the calculator alone helps you advise the client, that is a fine outcome for us.

Common questions

Why doesn't a 60% plan actually replace 60%?
Three quiet subtractions. Most plans apply the percentage to base salary only, so bonus and variable pay fall outside covered pay. A monthly cap binds for higher earners, which turns the stated percentage into something smaller. And when the employer pays the premium, the benefit is taxable, which takes another slice. Stack all three and a 60% plan routinely delivers half that.
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.

How working with us goes