What do clients typically find in the APB Financial Architect diagnostic?

Common findings include a disability income gap averaging $5,000 to $12,000 per month, life insurance shortfalls of $500,000 to $2 million when full obligations are accounted for, and portability risk on group benefits that would lapse with a job change.

What is portability risk in employer benefits?

Portability risk is the risk that employer-sponsored group life and disability coverage disappears when you change jobs, are laid off, or become self-employed. Most group policies are not individually portable - coverage terminates with employment. Professionals who rely entirely on group benefits face this gap without an individual policy in place.

What income protection gaps do NY and NJ professionals most commonly have?

Professionals in New York and New Jersey most commonly find three gaps: a disability income shortfall from group LTD caps that leaves $5,000 to $15,000 per month uncovered, life insurance sized for salary alone rather than total obligations, and no portable individual policy that survives a job change. The Financial Resilience Diagnostic maps all three.

What Other Clients Actually Found

Common findings from the Financial Resilience Diagnostic — across income levels, industries, and policy configurations.

Most people think they're covered

The households who come into the diagnostic most often have good incomes, active retirement accounts, group benefits, and at least some life insurance. On paper they look fine. The diagnostic finds the layer underneath that — what actually happens when the income stops.

The patterns below reflect what shows up consistently. The numbers are illustrative composites. The situations are real.

Composite findings from diagnostic sessions

Technology executive, $380K total comp

New York · Group LTD + employer life insurance

Group LTD replaced $120K of $380K total comp — about 31%. Bonus and equity (majority of comp) excluded from benefit calculation entirely. Individual life insurance in force, but the term period ended 4 years prior. Coverage gap: significant on both disability and life. The group life policy: also not portable.

Disability gap: ~$260K/yr · Life: under-insured by 12x income

Attorney at mid-size firm, $220K

New Jersey · Firm-provided group benefits only

Firm provides group LTD and group life — but the LTD is an "own-occupation" definition only for the first 24 months, then shifts to "any occupation." After two years of a disability, the definition of disabled becomes significantly harder to meet. No individual policy to back this up. Two children, mortgage, no portable coverage.

Definition risk: month 25 exposure · No portable backup

Small business owner, $175K owner draw

Maryland · No group benefits, individual policies purchased 2018

Individual disability policy from 2018 had a benefit cap of $8,000/month — reasonable at the time. Owner draw had grown to $175K. Gap between policy cap ($96K/yr) and actual income need: significant. Key-person coverage for the business: none. Buy-sell funded: no. Multiple layers of exposure stacked on one person.

Policy cap outdated by 6 years · No key-person or buy-sell structure

What comes up most often across sessions

8/10

Group LTD gap

LTD replaces base salary only; bonus, equity, and partnership income excluded

6/10

Portability risk

All disability coverage tied to employer — no individual policy if they leave the job

7/10

Life insurance mismatch

Death benefit sized for a prior income or lifestyle; not updated as earnings grew

5/10

Coordination gaps

Policies bought at different life stages don't integrate; overlaps and gaps coexist

The consistent finding: It's almost never a complete absence of coverage. It's coverage that was built at one income level, at one life stage, with one employer — and hasn't been reviewed as a system since. The diagnostic does that review.

Find out what the diagnostic finds in your situation

45 minutes. Written output. No charge for Phase 1.

Book at apbfinancialarchitect.com/hfrd