Some high earners want more than 7 years of income protection. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Mark Petersen, a specialty disability insurance market veteran, is seeing interest in supplemental policies that can pay benefits to high-income insureds for a longer period of time.

Petersen, a vice president at Petersen International Underwriters, Valencia, Calif., says athletes, performers and others with high incomes use special high-limit supplemental disability products to protect against illnesses or injuries.

In the past, the longest benefit period available with those policies was 7 years, Petersen says.

Now, he says, the policies may be able to pay benefits as long as 10 years.

Successful applicants for the 10-year policies will have to be even healthier than applicants for the 7-year policies, but the 10-year policies could be useful in both the consumer and the business income protection markets, Petersen says.