ShieldYou Insured the House.
You Insured the Car.
You Didn't Insure the Income
That Pays for Both.
The 3-Minute Coverage Audit for Expecting Parents.
No commitment · No credit card · Personalized to your employer plan
Your group plan replaces 60% of base salary. Not your total comp.
Most employer long-term disability policies are written against W-2 base salary only. Your annual bonus, RSU vesting schedule, and equity grants — the income that actually funds your life — are excluded from the calculation entirely.
If your base is $140K but total comp is $210K, your plan covers 60% of $140K. That's $84K annually, or $7,000 a month — before taxes.
Audit Gap 01
The real number after the nursery deposit clears.
Senior Software Engineer, San Francisco. Base $145K, total comp $218K. Group plan benefit: $7,250/month. Actual monthly obligations after baby:
monthly gap between group plan payout and real household obligations, even before formula, pediatric visits, or one parent reducing hours.
The elimination period runs 90 days. Your paid leave runs 12 weeks.
Long-term disability policies don't begin paying until after the elimination period — typically 60 to 90 days. If your employer's parental leave and short-term disability exhaust at week 12, the gap between leave end and LTD activation can be zero days or eight weeks, depending on your exact policy calendar.
Most professionals assume their benefits are seamlessly connected. They are not. The handoff window is where six-figure earners quietly drain savings accounts.
Audit Gap 02
What an eight-week income gap costs a dual-income household.
Associate Director, Chicago. Combined household income $290K. Paid leave ends. LTD hasn't activated. Eight-week window at $11,000/month burn rate:
in uninsured exposure during the handoff window alone — before accounting for the permanent benefit shortfall that follows.
Daycare costs $2,400/month in most metros. Your disability benefit doesn't know that.
Employer disability plans were written for a world where a disabled worker simply needed income replacement. They were not designed around a household where childcare is now a fixed, non-negotiable obligation — as immovable as rent, and in many cities, as expensive.
In Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., and the Bay Area, full-time infant daycare runs $2,100 to $3,800 monthly. This expense doesn't pause because one earner is disabled. It accelerates.
Audit Gap 03
One disability event. Two income streams at risk.
Senior Accountant, Boston. Household income $265K. One partner disabled at month four postpartum. Group plan pays $6,600/month. Fixed obligations including daycare:
monthly shortfall after childcare, mortgage, and insurance — before the non-disabled partner considers reducing hours for caregiving.
Run My Free
Coverage Audit.
Four questions. A personalized PDF showing your exact coverage gap, delivered to your inbox within 24 hours.
Question 1 of 4
Combined gross income from all earners in your household.
Not ready to enter your income? Download a sample audit first.
What the audit reveals,
in their own words.
"I assumed my Salesforce disability coverage was solid. The audit showed I had a $4,800 monthly gap once you factored out my equity comp. That number changed how we planned the whole year."
Priya Ramanathan
Senior Product Manager, San Francisco
"We both work. We both have employer plans. We both thought we were fine. Shield showed us that combined, we had less than 40% of our actual household obligations covered if either one of us went out."
Marcus & Danielle Webb
Tech Lead & Associate Director, Austin
"The sample audit PDF alone was worth downloading. I sent it to my HR benefits contact and they confirmed every number. We signed supplemental coverage before the third trimester."
Jonathan Szymanski
Senior Accountant, Chicago
Your audit takes 3 minutes.
The coverage gap it reveals takes considerably longer to close without one.