Financial advisors who work with medical residents face a delicate challenge: how do you discuss disability insurance with someone who already feels financially stretched? Medscape’s 2026 Resident Salary and Debt Report offers useful context. Here are five ways to use its findings to have more meaningful disability insurance conversations with residents.
If your clients are established physicians, keep reading. The report offers a useful reminder about the financial experiences some doctors bring into their relationships with money and financial professionals.
Three findings caught my attention:
- 57% of resident respondents said their salary fell short of their household needs.
- 54% reported loan debt exceeding $150,000.
- 63% felt their pay and benefits were unfair.
These numbers provide context for a conversation. They don’t tell you what the next resident you meet can afford, what they value, or what financial protection they need.
One important distinction: although the report asked about life insurance as a workplace benefit, it did not collect data about disability coverage or residents’ willingness to purchase it.
The recommendations below are my interpretation of how advisors can use the financial findings to have more meaningful conversations about disability insurance.
[Watch my video: Five Ways to Have More Meaningful Disability Insurance Conversations With Residents]
The tension behind “I can’t afford it”
Imagine approaching a resident about disability coverage when they’re already thinking:
“I’m struggling to cover my bills. Now you want me to add another expense?”
At the same time, that resident may have little financial cushion if an illness or injury interrupts their paycheck.
That creates a potential tension between protecting today’s cash flow and protecting the income that supports it.
Your expertise helps you recognize the consequences of inadequate protection. The resident is living with the immediate consequences of rent, groceries, childcare, and loan payments.
Both perspectives deserve attention.
When you understand what another premium would mean to this particular person, you can have a more useful conversation about the available options and tradeoffs.
Here are five approaches to try.
1. Ask about financial pressure before presenting a policy
The Medscape report gives you a timely way to open the conversation.
You might say:
“Medscape recently surveyed residents about salary and debt. More than half said their pay fell short of their household needs. How does that compare with your experience?”
Then pause.
Some residents may tell you they’re comfortable. Others may describe a monthly scramble. Still others may say they’re managing now but worried about an upcoming change.
Let their answer guide your next question:
“What’s putting the most pressure on your finances right now?”
You may hear about housing, childcare, supporting a family member, or a partner who hasn’t found work after relocating.
Student loans may also be part of the picture. Ask about the actual monthly payment rather than inferring financial pressure from the outstanding balance.
Two residents with similar debt balances can have very different payment obligations and household resources.
Try:
“What is your required student-loan payment today, and have you received notice that it will change?”
If they describe a struggle, acknowledging that other residents face similar pressures can make it easier to continue the conversation without feeling singled out.
The goal is to understand their circumstances well enough to help.
2. Connect disability protection to their lives
When I was a resident, I felt invulnerable.
Disability was something that happened to the other guy.
I understood that physicians could become ill or injured. I didn’t readily imagine myself as the physician whose ability to work would be interrupted.
Medical knowledge and a personal sense of vulnerability are different things.
A story about a real doctor can help make that possibility concrete. My own disability insurance story is one resource advisors can share. Stories give people a way to consider an unfamiliar situation through someone else’s experience.
Then bring the conversation back to the resident:
“If an illness or injury interrupted your training, how would your household cover expenses?”
Listen for what they already know.
They may have employer-provided benefits. They may have savings, a working partner, or family support. They may also have assumptions about their protection that need to be checked.
Ask whether they have reviewed the actual coverage documents. What triggers benefits? How much would they receive? When would payments begin? What happens when they leave the program?
Establish what protection exists before discussing a gap.
You don’t need to heighten their fear. You need to make the protection—and its limitations—understandable.
3. Have a real conversation about paying premiums
“I can’t afford it” deserves a thoughtful response.
Sometimes it describes a genuine shortfall. Sometimes it means, “I don’t yet understand why this deserves a place among my other priorities.”
Those situations call for different conversations.
Ask:
“How would this premium fit into your current budget?”
Even highly capable residents may welcome help translating competing priorities into a workable spending plan. Being skilled at diagnosing illness doesn’t automatically provide experience evaluating insurance or organizing household cash flow.
Explore whether there is room for appropriate protection and what tradeoffs that would require.
Explain the actual premium, the benefits, the limitations, and the options available to that resident. Be clear about how you’re compensated.
The aim is an informed decision that fits the person’s circumstances.
You can also build relationships with qualified student-loan specialists. A resident’s question may lead beyond your expertise, and knowing when to bring in another professional is part of serving them well.
This is an opportunity to demonstrate the broader value of financial guidance: helping someone understand competing demands and make deliberate choices.
4. Use a medical metaphor they recognize
Physicians and financial advisors share a challenge.
Both help people consider risks they may not feel today.
A patient can feel well while a physician identifies a problem worth addressing. The conversation involves explaining what could happen, discussing options, and helping the patient decide what to do.
That experience can provide a familiar frame for discussing financial protection.
You might say:
“You’ve probably cared for a patient who feels fine today, but you recognize a risk worth addressing. The challenge is helping them understand their options before something happens. That’s what I want to help you do with your financial protection.”
Then invite their perspective.
“What questions would you want answered before deciding?”
Keep the metaphor brief. The resident already understands the clinical situation; you’re giving them a way to connect that experience with a financial decision.
Avoid comparing a decision to defer coverage with a patient making “bad choices.” There may be circumstances you haven’t yet understood.
The metaphor should create understanding and room for discussion.
5. Make the next step small and specific
A resident may understand the issue and still leave without taking action.
Consider what you’re asking them to do. “Review your financial protection” sounds reasonable, but it can contain several tasks: find documents, understand unfamiliar language, compare options, ask questions, and make a decision.
Help identify the next manageable action.
That might be:
- Locate the program’s disability benefits summary.
- Send the documents for review through an appropriate secure channel.
- Schedule a fifteen-minute conversation about existing coverage.
- Obtain a quote.
- Discuss the options with a spouse or partner.
Ask:
“What would be the most useful next step for you?”
Agree on who will do what and when you’ll reconnect.
If the resident chooses to defer, understand the reason. Explain any timing or eligibility implications that actually apply to their situation, and establish when it would make sense to revisit the decision.
As you wrap up, thank them for being willing to discuss something that can be uncomfortable to contemplate.
What if you don’t work with residents?
The broader lesson applies whenever a client says, “I can’t afford it,” “I’ll deal with that later,” or “I already have coverage.”
Those statements give you a place to begin asking questions.
A client may need clearer information. They may need help with competing priorities. They may be describing a real resource constraint. Or the decision may bring up feelings they would rather avoid.
The person sitting across from you can explain which is true—if the conversation gives them room to do so.
For established physician clients, residency may also be relevant history.
Ask what managing money during training was like and whether any habits from that period remain useful today. Let the physician describe their experience rather than assuming that financial strain affected everyone in the same way.
The difference you can make early
One of the greatest benefits of working with residents is the opportunity to help before consequential commitments become difficult to unwind.
Before the starter mansion.
Before an employment contract is signed without qualified review.
Before the first attending paycheck is fully committed to a lifestyle.
And before someone discovers that their understanding of their disability protection was incomplete.
You can help a young physician make decisions that preserve future choices.
The Medscape findings give you a reason to start the conversation. The resident’s answers tell you where your help may be valuable.
Watch the video, choose one approach, and try it in your next resident conversation.
If the conversation stalls, bring me the question or the moment when you weren’t sure what to say. We can work through what you heard, what it might mean, and a useful next step.
That’s how information becomes better conversations—and better conversations become opportunities to serve.