Group LTD with buy-up option: What It Pays, What It Misses and the Portable Fix

Buy-up lets employees purchase extra coverage through payroll — cheaper than individual but still contractually group-shaped. Read the flip date before buying up.

The plan structure

Portability is the hidden line: stays with the employer when you change jobs. Career movers pay for that flexibility in premium differences worth comparing early.

The gap this plan leaves

Group plans share three structural holes: the taxable benefit line, the any-occupation flip after 24 months, and income caps that strand anyone earning above the cap ceiling. Each hole has the same individual-policy fix.

The layered fix

Layer an individual own-occupation policy sized to the gap — typically enough individual coverage to bring total replacement to 65-70% of true earnings on an own-occ definition. The group plan keeps doing the cheap bulk work; the individual policy owns the quality definition.

Group LTD with buy-up option is a base layer, not a plan: size the individual layer against what it will not pay.