goldn light shines on a long, winding road.
Guide to Retirement

Plan now for Retirement

If you’re like most of us, you probably believe that retirement planning is something that you start thinking about when the end of your career is in sight. Nothing could be further from the truth. The secret to a successful retirement is getting started early: it’s never too early to start planning and saving for your retirement. 

Get started by selecting a topic below

6. Long-Term Disability

A. Introduction

This section covers Long-Term disability claims and disability retirement.

If you’re beginning your career with the department or catching up on your retirement planning, read “The Road to Retirement” section. It includes helpful checklists you can use throughout your career to ensure you’re continuously building toward the retirement you envision.

If you’re getting close to retirement and/or have decided to retire, read the “Getting Ready to Retire” and “Retiring” sections.

Unfortunately, some members are forced to temporarily stop working and/or retire earlier than planned due to a debilitating injury, illness, or other life-changing event. The “Injury, Illness, and Leave” and “Workers’ Compensation” sections address these challenging situations. 

We’ve also included a glossary and a list of contact information for our primary retirement-related benefit providers.

Your Long-Term Disability Benefits

An injury or illness that leaves you unable to return to work is challenging: physically, career-ending, psychologically, logistically, and financially. Those who’ve suffered career-ending disabilities will tell you that you have to begin this new, unexpected phase of your life by being kind to yourself. It’s a difficult transition.

As a member of Local 27, you are automatically enrolled in the Union’s Group Long-Term Disability (LTD) Insurance plan. The plan provides benefit coverage for work-related disabilities after a 180-day waiting period and coverage for non-occupational disabilities after a 30-day waiting period. Your maximum benefit amount is $7,000 before reduction by your deductible income.

The LTD plan will help you preserve your sick leave if you are off for more than eight shifts in non-occupational cases or more than 180 days in occupational claims. You should file a claim as soon as possible if you think you may be unable to work for an extended period. This will help ensure that you do not incur a gap in your pay if you are off for more than eight shifts. If you don’t use the available benefits, the claim will expire.

Contact the Disability Officer to initiate the LTD claims process.

For more information on your Long-Term Disability benefits and help filing a claim, contact the Department’s LTD insurance broker:

Douglas Evans

R. L. Evans Company, Inc.
Email: douge@rlevansco.com
Phone: 425.455.0501 ext 111 
Address: 3535 Factoria Blvd SE, Suite 120
Bellevue, WA 98006

You can also contact the claims department at Standard Insurance Company (the insurance carrier) at 800.368.1135.

Long-Term Rehabilitation

Our Long-Term Disability policy does not cover rehabilitation. However, it does include other benefits that may be useful during rehabilitation:

  • The policy includes a Reasonable Accommodation benefit of up to $25,000 payable to the City to reimburse the expenses they incur making the accommodations necessary to enable you to return to work. This usually includes things like specialized keyboards, chairs, or other required workplace equipment.
  • The policy also includes a Return to Work incentive. During the first 24 months following a covered disability, the coverage allows a member who returns to work part-time to keep their Return to Work earnings and their LTD benefit, up to the point when both are added together, the total doesn’t exceed 100% of the member’s pre-disability earnings.

For more information on these and other potentially applicable LTD benefits, contact the Disability Officer and/or Doug Evans.