Should I Enroll in Shell’s IPI?

Shell Annual Enrollment Webinars: 10/26/23 at 3:00 pm and 10/31/23 at 9:00 am.

Full Transcript

I was recently asked, is short-term disability insurance a good deal? That’s an excellent question. So, let’s talk about it.

During annual enrollment, you can sign up for Shell’s short-term disability insurance. This program is called the Income Protection Insurance Program, or IPI.

Now, there are two options with the IPI. You can enroll at quarter-pay, or you can enroll at half-pay. The premium varies based on many factors, including your years of service at Shell as well as your base pay. This is a supplemental insurance program, as Shell does provide some non-occupation disability coverage free of charge. There is a lot going on with this coverage, so let’s just dive straight into the hypothetical case study and look at John.

John has been working for Shell for 11 years and he has a base pay of $208,000 a year, or an average pay of $4,000 per week. Now, as John has, 11 years of service in the event that he became disabled, Shell already provides full pay of $4,000 per week of coverage for 12 weeks. If he’s still disabled after that 12-week period, this coverage drops down to half-pay or $2,000 a week for the remainder of the year.

Now, the IPI coverage then is a coverage that he could enroll in if he wanted to insure this gap. Let’s say John picks the quarter-pay coverage, and then let’s say John does become disabled. After 12 weeks, the IPI coverage then kicks in and so it will pay $1,000 a week for the remainder of the year, assuming he stays disabled throughout the rest of the year. If this is the case, his pay after week 12 would then be $2,000 from the Shell provided coverage plus $1,000 for the IPI. So, a total of $3,000 per week.

Now this coverage costs John about $500 per year, so it’s worth a discussion. John has an adequate emergency fund in place, and he is okay covering this gap. In the event that he became disabled. John decides to forgo this coverage going forward. Now, if John did not have that emergency fund in place, then the API covered is a must have.

If you’d like to learn more about disability insurance programs and Shell’s other insurance offerings. I encourage you to sign up for my webinar on annual enrollment.