DENVER, Feb. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Income Protection Journal, an editorial publication covering disability insurance and income risk for high-income professionals, has released a two-part podcast series examining how medical residents and fellows lose access to GSI insurance (https://setforlifeinsurance.com/gsi/) programs through preventable timing errors, unauthorized applications, and institutional program cancellations that occur without advance notice.
The series, published through The Income Protection Journal Podcast and hosted by Jamie K. Fleischner, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, features extended interviews with Stephen Crawford, President of Financial Balance Group, who has built nearly 200 Guardian Life Insurance GSI disability insurance hospital programs nationwide over the course of his career. Crawford is one of the most experienced practitioners in the guaranteed standard issue disability insurance space, having worked directly with carriers to establish GSI insurance enrollment infrastructure at teaching hospitals across the country.
In the first episode, “Securing GSI Disability Insurance with No Medical Questions Asked,” Crawford describes a case involving a resident physician who had survived a college mass shooting, was taking PTSD and anxiety medication, and had multiple pregnancy complications documented in her medical records. That resident applied for disability insurance online through a provider who was not an approved GSI insurance agency, according to Crawford, which permanently voided her eligibility for guaranteed standard issue coverage at her hospital. She was subsequently declined through standard medical underwriting and now has no individual disability insurance, Crawford said.
“She’s going to have to rely on group disability insurance, which is not going to be nearly as comprehensive,” Crawford said in the episode. Crawford, who has spent decades working within Guardian’s GSI insurance program structure, explained that most medical residents do not know that applying for disability insurance with any carrier before securing a GSI insurance policy eliminates their access to guaranteed standard issue coverage permanently.
The second episode, “Guardian Pulled Three Hospital Programs in Early 2025,” addresses a separate and less commonly discussed risk: the cancellation of GSI insurance programs at hospitals where participation rates fall below carrier thresholds. Crawford disclosed in the interview that Guardian Life Insurance withdrew guaranteed standard issue disability programs from three teaching hospitals last year due to insufficient enrollment. The withdrawals occurred without advance warning to residents or program administrators, Crawford said.
Crawford further disclosed that additional Guardian GSI insurance programs were placed on what he described as probation during the same period, with producers required to argue against having those offers revoked. One major competing carrier dropped between 20 and 25 GSI insurance programs over the preceding two years, Crawford said, and another carrier’s total program count fell to less than 15.
According to Crawford, Guardian requires approximately 40 percent participation at each hospital to sustain a GSI insurance offer. In 2025, Guardian issued approximately 9,700 policies to residents and fellows across its hospital partnerships, representing roughly 39.7 percent of the eligible population at those institutions, Crawford said. That figure is at the minimum threshold required to maintain program viability, according to Crawford.
The series also addresses timing rules that Crawford described as misunderstood by the majority of residents approaching graduation. Guardian allows GSI insurance enrollment during training and for exactly 90 calendar days after graduation, but only at hospitals where a GSI insurance offer remains active, Crawford explained. The 90-day window is calculated from the exact graduation date, not from the end of the calendar month, Crawford said, and no exceptions are granted.
Crawford emphasized that the GSI insurance policy issued by Guardian is contractually identical to its fully underwritten counterpart, with three exceptions: no age-70 benefit period option, no serious illness supplement, and mental nervous coverage limited to two years for all specialties rather than the unlimited mental nervous protection available to some specialties through full underwriting. The premium structure is the same, Crawford said, and the claim that GSI insurance costs more than fully underwritten coverage is, in his words, “factually inaccurate.”
The Income Protection Journal does not sell insurance products. The publication is sponsored by Set for Life Insurance, a nationally licensed brokerage founded in 1993 that holds approved GSI insurance provider status with Guardian, Ameritas, and Standard Insurance. Set for Life Insurance is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official vendor of any hospital, residency program, or medical training institution.
About The Income Protection Journal
The Income Protection Journal (https://setforlifeinsurance.com/blog/) is an independent editorial publication covering disability insurance, income risk, and the financial consequences of illness or injury for high-income professionals, with particular focus on physicians and other specialists whose earning power depends on their ability to work. The Income Protection Journal is sponsored by Set for Life Insurance, a nationally recognized brokerage founded in 1993 that specializes in individual life, disability, and long-term care insurance.
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A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/00da1339-f074-4343-87ad-12c605b2c826
