Lawyer’s Heart Attack One Day Before Raise Doesn’t Cut Benefits

Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. wrongly shortchanged a tax attorney’s disability benefits by $3,000 per month by determining he became disabled one day before he received a $65,000 raise, a federal judge in Chicago ruled.

Harlan Ten Pas, a former partner with McGladrey LLP, is entitled to disability benefits based on his annual salary of $390,000, which became effective one day after he suffered a heart attack over Labor Day weekend in 2014, Judge Sara L. Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled. Ten Pas’s date of disability couldn’t be any earlier than the ...