Long-term disability claim denied? Check your appeal deadline

Enter the date on your denial letter to see the earliest your appeal can be due.

Guides and resources

LTD claim denied? Do this first

The three things to do in the first week after a denial: find your real deadline, request your full claim file, and start your evidence.

The 180-day appeal deadline

What the 180-day figure actually is, why it is a floor and not a fixed answer, and why it is not the deadline to sue.

When the appeal clock really starts

The regulation says the 180 days runs from receipt of the denial notice. Here is why that gap matters and how to document your receipt date.

How to read your LTD denial letter

What a compliant denial letter must tell you, the one extra date the appeal denial has to carry, and the questions to ask if either is missing.

How to request your claim file

You are entitled to a free copy of everything relevant to your claim, including material the plan did not rely on. Here is how to ask for it.

Experts the plan must disclose

Your plan's claims procedures must identify every medical or vocational expert whose advice it obtained, whether or not it relied on their opinion.

What evidence to add, and why now

The internal appeal is generally the last real chance to build your record. Here is what belongs in it.

The administrative record explained

Why courts reviewing an ERISA denial often will not look at evidence you did not submit during the internal appeal.

The independent medical exam (IME)

The regulation's neutral-reviewer rule is not the same thing as your plan's own IME clause. Here is the difference.

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Your LTD claim was denied. Here is what actually matters right now

A denied long-term disability claim under an employer group plan almost always comes with a strict deadline to file an internal appeal, and federal regulation sets that deadline at a minimum of 180 days from when you receive the denial notice, not from the date printed on the letter.

The internal appeal, not a future lawsuit, is generally the one chance to put every piece of medical, vocational and financial evidence into the file. Many courts limit their review of a later lawsuit to the record that existed when the plan decided the appeal, so evidence you save for later may never be read by anyone.

These guides cover the federal rules that govern most employer-sponsored group LTD plans under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act), a self-assessment to check whether ERISA even applies to your plan, a deadline calculator, and a list of attorneys who handle these appeals nationwide.

The 180-day deadline, explained in full

Start with the appeal-deadline calculator and the full explanation of why the 180-day clock, the administrative-record rule, and the exhaustion requirement make the internal appeal the most important step in the entire claim.

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