Rolling onto the stage in her wheelchair, Rosemarie Rossetti last week urged a group of insurance executives to keep pushing the sale of disability income insurance on a disinterested public.

Financial advisers are equally unmotivated to sell disability insurance, say industry wholesalers who attended the Disability Insurance and Long-Term Care Insurers' Forum in Denver. The product is often overlooked in the financial planning process, they say.

Ms. Rossetti, an author and motivational speaker from Columbus, Ohio, is living proof of its benefits.

She was left a paraplegic after an 80-foot tree fell on her as she biked on a trail with her husband in 1998.

Fortunately for the former Ohio State University faculty member, she had free disability insurance through the state teachers retirement system.

Presently, less than half of Americans between ages 25 and 55 are covered, she says.

"They would rather spend their money on large leases on automobiles and a lot of gadgets ... rather than budget themselves so that they can afford the premiums for disability income insurance, which is the cornerstone of their financial management strategy," says Ms. Rossetti.