When you look to buy a life insurance plan, you should also look to get some riders along with it. Riders are add-on covers that help increase the scope of the life cover. When you buy a life insurance plan, you have the option of getting the riders attached to the base plan. You have to pay an extra premium for the riders you buy. There are many handy life insurance riders such as the critical illness rider and the accident benefit rider, among others. In this article, we will speak about the accident benefit rider and how it can be of help to you. Read on to know more.
What is an Accident Benefit Rider?
Let us begin by understanding what an accident benefit rider is. It is an add-on cover that offers comprehensive protection against injuries, and death, resulting from an accident. You get an added sum assured if the policyholder dies because of an accident. Compensation is also available if there is a permanent or temporary disability. The disability may be partial or complete.
Covers Available Under the Accident Benefit Rider
Let us take a more detailed look at the covers you get under an accident benefit rider:
- Death benefit - You get an added life cover with this rider. This means, if your death results in an accident, your beneficiaries get an additional sum assured, which is over and above that of the base policy’s sum assured. This helps your family even more and increases the scope of life coverage.
- Permanent disability - If you are left with a permanent disability, such as you lose the power to walk after your accident, you will receive compensation from the insurance provider if you opt for the accident benefit rider. This is very helpful as, after such accidents, you may lose your power to work and provide for your family. At such a time, some financial backing proves to be extremely helpful.
- Temporary disability - Even when the disability is temporary, you get compensation for the period till when you recover completely and are able to return to your normal life and earn the salary you did before your accident.
- Partial disability - If you have a partial disability, such as blindness in one eye, due to the accident, you will get a sum assured from the insurer.
- Complete disability - If you have a complete disability, such as complete blindness resulting from the accident, you will receive compensation from the life insurance company.
Accidents happen suddenly and, at times, even when you are very careful yourself. For example, you may end up being in a horrific accident because of the driver of another vehicle who was drunk. Since we cannot control such things, we need to have the highest amount of protection. It is possible to do so with the help of the Accident Benefit RIder that you can buy along with the life insurance plan you get. Most forms of life insurance including the term insurance plans and the Unit Linked Insurance Policy ULIPs offer the accident benefit rider.
Exclusions of the Accident Benefit Rider
While you buy the plan, you must be mindful of the exclusions of the accident benefit rider. They include:
- An accident caused by the policyholder’s negligence
- An accident caused due to drunk driving by the policyholder
- Incident caused due to self-harm or attempted suicide
- The accident took place due to willful participation in riots or other unlawful activities
- War accidents inflicted on army/military personnel
These are some of the important exclusions under most accident benefit riders. Read your policy wording carefully to understand what your rider covers and you will be able to make an effective claim when there is a requirement.
