Last Updated on February 27, 2020 by Gopal Gidwani

Term insurance can be an essential part of your financial planning. While it might secure the needs of your family financially, it might tend to overlook specific aspects such as critical illness, loss of income, physical disability, and so forth. Although it might not include such scenarios, you can avail riders. Riders can allow you to safeguard yourself from various uncertainties of life. In addition to this, riders can let you enhance the base term policy. Therefore, let’s go through the most common riders that can be availed under term insurance.

1) Critical illness rider
As you grow older, you might be prone to critical health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, cancer, and so forth. If you are diagnosed with any such critical illness during the rider tenure, then you will receive a lump-sum pay-out for your treatment. Under a critical illness rider, you can receive financial support for diseases like:
a) Paralysis
b) Stroke
c) Bypass surgery
d) Organ transplant
e) Heart attack, etc.

After receiving the policy document, you should carefully read the terms and conditions. It will help you to understand the number of diseases covered under a critical illness cover. However, the number and types of diseases can vary from one insurance company to the other.

2) Accidental disability rider
Due to the uncertainties of life, there can be an unfortunate event. This includes events such as road mishaps, collisions, accidents, and so forth at any given point. Under such a scenario, a physical disability rider can come into effect to protect you from any kind of loss that might have taken place during an accident. When you avail a physical disability rider, your insurer would pay the premium regularly for the remaining period of the policy following your disability. However, a physical disability can come into force; only if it is caused due to an accident.

3) Waiver of premium
A waiver of premium rider can help you when you undergo an unstable financial condition due to loss of income or job. If you have a waiver of premium rider under such a circumstance, your insurer can waive the premium off, while the term insurance continues to remain active. Under a waiver of premium rider, your term insurance coverage continues even without the payment of premium till the end of the term life insurance policy tenure. When you don’t have a waiver of premium rider, if you are not able to pay the premium under specified conditions, your term policy would lapse. This in turn can mean that you won’t be eligible to receive term insurance benefits.

4) Accelerated death rider
If you suffer from a terminal illness, your family might ensure that they leave no tables unturned when it comes to the treatment of your disease. Hence, they might invest all their life savings to make sure you receive the best medical treatments irrespective of the costs. However, if you have an accelerated death rider, then during your on-going treatments, your family can receive a specific proportion of the sum assured in advance. As a policyholder, you can avail an accelerated death rider at an affordable rate.

5) Income benefit rider
As a breadwinner of the entire family, your family might be dependent on you to fulfil their needs. While your family might cherish your presence, they might suffer financially in your absence. If you are worried about your family’s financial well-being in your absence, you should purchase an income benefit rider. The income benefit rider can provide your family members with a regular payout to meet their routine needs when you are not around to provide for them. With an income benefit rider, your family can obtain an extra income for a specified number of years along with a sum assured value.

To conclude, term insurance riders can offer supplementary coverage to you and your family members. In addition to this, it can strengthen the term insurance benefits, apart from the core purpose of death benefits. However, be careful while selecting term insurance riders. Don’t be overwhelmed and choose everything that your insurer provides. In simple terms, the higher the riders, the higher the premium.