Growing members is the primary focus of any industry association, whether its veterinary, attorneys or realtors. To succeed, the association has to offer benefits exclusive to membership. But this doesn't make the association an expert in any areas where they provide member benefits. Often, veterinarians put significant faith and hope into the products and services purchased from an association without investigating how good the products or services actually are.

For example, a veterinary association may offer long-term disability insurance as a member benefit. On the surface that sounds good. But take a moment and look at it from an insurer's perspective. The brand exposure of a national association pushing their products to an entire industry sounds great. But since long-term disability protects you financially in the event of an injury or illness, an insurer would have to be far more lenient or accepting of people with prior medical issues that may cause massive claims that are thousands of times more than any premium their policy could generate.

As a result, most "group" insurance products like those offered by associations are stripped down, have more constrictive policy language, or limit how the policy performs considerably. This is a tactic that allows more people to access to program but keeps heavy restrictions in place so the program doesn't become too expensive or worse, insolvent. For those with serious prior or current medical issues, a group product like this could be a good option. For those who are relatively healthy, there are better options to protect yourself. The bottom-line is try not to get mislead just because an association has their crest or logo on the product.