Attorney Ed Comitz Addresses Disability Insurance Issues Faced By Professional Athletes
Ed Comitz was recently asked to speak at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law by Greenberg Traurig partner and leading sports agent, Dana Hooper, to address the key issues that professional athletes and their agents may encounter when dealing with disability insurance. Topics included the types of insurance coverage most often purchased by professional athletes, the tactics insurance companies use to deny athlete’s claims, and the importance of an attorney and/or agent’s role in the disability insurance context. The seminar also discussed the pros and cons of loss of value coverage for college athletes expected to go pro, and examined some of the challenges faced by injured athletes seeking to prove that a pre-draft injury caused them to fall in draft order and miss out on securing an upper-tier contract.
Mr. Comitz has represented high-earning professionals for nearly 25 years on the toughest insurance cases. As a result, he is intimately familiar with the disability insurance industry, and uses this knowledge to assist athletes from the “big four” sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) seeking to negotiate favorable contracts with the premier, high-dollar insurance companies. He also advises professional athletes regarding the types of provisions to avoid in disability policies, the significance of the questions asked on disability insurance applications, and the importance of carefully reviewing insurance applications to ensure that they are accurate and do not provide the insurance company with any basis for voiding the policy, should a claim need to be filed later on down the road. When athletes are approaching free agency and intend to test the market, Mr. Comitz helps the athletes assess whether they need to purchase insurance to protect anticipated future income, should they suffer a serious injury before they are able to secure a contract with a new team. He also assists athletes with the legal issues that arise when an athlete is out for a few games, or an entire season, due to health concerns, and represents star athletes who have suffered a career-ending injuries and need to collect permanent disability benefits.
