Life Insurance Rider Basics

Posted in Life Insurance , Life Insurance Riders

July 9th, 2009

When you get life insurance, you’re protecting your loved ones in the event that you pass away. Whoever you name as the beneficiary or beneficiaries of your policy will receive the proceeds from the life insurance company. When you buy a life insurance policy, you can get as comprehensive as you’d like by paying extra for what are called life insurance riders. These riders are basically supplemental insurance policies tacked onto your life insurance policy.

Some examples of life insurance riders include Guaranteed Insurability (you can add more coverage without further medical examination); Waiver of Premium (you won’t have to pay any more premiums should you become disabled and hence can’t work); and Accelerated Death Benefit (the release of a percentage of the benefit before the insured person dies so they can enjoy some of the money).

These are just a few of the kinds of life insurance riders available to policy holders if they want to add on to their life insurance policy. To learn more about life insurance riders and life insurance, be sure to consult with a financial advisor. He or she can give you their professional opinion as to which life insurance riders will serve you best.

Americans tend to share a pretty common life arc: We’re born, we go to college, we get a job, we get married, we raise a family, we retire. Along the way we do everything we can to enjoy ourselves and do the right thing, and hopefully try leave the world a better place than we found it. One big part of this shared story is life insurance. When we get married, it is, for many of us, the first time we have to really start thinking about someone else besides ourselves. And of course, once we have children that becomes even more of the case. There’s an argument to be made that that elusive concept of “growing up” actually means “taking care of others.” Getting life insurance is a tangible step in that direction.