There is some confusion between Disability Income (DI) insurance and insurance coverage that provides a payout for Total & Permanent Disability (TPD). Despite already writing a post introducing DI insurance before, I believe that more clarification is good to clear the air regarding such a policy that few people, including industry practitioners, are aware of. TPD coverage is a lot more commonly explained as it is found in many insurance policies. DI insurance, on the other hand, is a very specific type of policy which coverage is markedly different from TPD but often conflated to be the same as they both seem to cover “disability”. Here’s a table that specifies the different types of disability being covered and their typical definitions:

Increasing Level of Severity	Type of Disability	Typical Definitions
1	Own occupation	“Unable to perform material duties of own occupation”
2	Own or similar occupation	“Unable to perform any ...

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