A term insurance policy rider represents a modification or provision to a present insurance policy to offer additional protection against risk. Think of the riders as effective add-ons that you can include in your current insurance policy at affordable rates, for expanding the coverage. In simple words, insurance riders make the coverage wider and more robust, which makes the policy fit to cover more than the finality of demise.
When you buy term plan, you would hear about a number of different riders, such as accidental disability benefit, serious illness cover, or joint life benefit. So, how exactly would such riders benefit you in the long run? Let’s find out!
Better Protection For Your Family
The foremost reason to add riders to a life insurance policy is that you want your family to remain protected from more than one difficulty.
There is no denying that demise is the ultimate cause of financial difficulties for a family. But, in case of major accidents or life-threatening illnesses, dealing with expensive treatments can be similarly, and sometimes even more, devastating.
Increasing The Total Policy Cover
Including riders in term insurance helps in increasing your protection pool, and adding more teeth to the policy. Surmounting medical expenses and long hospitalization period might precede the finality of demise.
In such a scenario, the family will need more funds than solely the death claim for managing all the affairs. So, for instance, adding INR 20 lakhs more to a sum assured benefit of INR 1 crore can be immensely helpful to the family in times of need.
The Facility Of Premium Waiver
If the policyholder suffers from accidental disability or a critical illness, the riders that cover such risks will offer financial aid. It means the individual will be dependent on the insurance money for household expenses and treatment, and their income will suffer.
This doesn’t mean discontinuing the cover. Simply opting for a premium waiver is enough to avoid the life cover from ending. So, when the policyholder submits a claim for disability or critical illness, the life cover might continue without needing any more premium payment.
The Ease Of Managing The Plan
Buying a separate critical illness and accidental cover would not only mean paying more premium, but also involve having more than one policy to manage. Besides, having such separate covers makes the combined benefits unavailable to the policyholder.
For instance, if the critical illness and accidental disability is not there in the term plan, the policyholder will not receive the premium waiver benefits. Claims like these are the trigger for premium waiver. So, if a policy does not contain these benefits, the premium waiver feature cannot be added to it.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, there are more reasons than one for you to consider adding riders to your term insurance plan. Just make sure to check the maturity date of the term policy, and ensure that the riders do not expire before the base life cover, and that is all.
