Life Insurance Riders

Customize Your Insurance to Fit Your Life

Life insurance riders let you get all of the protection you need without paying for anything you don’t.

What is an insurance rider?

A life insurance rider is an add-on to an existing life insurance policy that provides specific additional coverage or ways to access your policy’s benefits while you’re still alive. Riders are designed to fill in the gaps of standard insurance to fit your personal coverage needs. Considered supplemental coverage, life insurance riders cannot be purchased on their own – they can only be added to a new or existing term life or permanent life insurance policy.

You might consider a life insurance rider if:

You think you might need to access your benefits early due to illness
You want to increase your death benefit in case you die in an accident
You want to be refunded your term life premiums if you outlive your policy

Life Insurance Rider Options

Accelerated Benefit Riders

Also called a life benefit rider or critical illness insurance, an accelerated benefit rider allows you to access your death benefit while you’re alive if you become critically or terminally ill. Policies differ in their definition of critical or terminal illness, and they also vary in how much of your death benefit you can use to help pay for medical and other expenses. If you need to take advantage of this rider, one upside is that the payout is tax-free.

Accidental Death Riders

An accidental death rider increases your death benefit payout if you die from a covered accident. Sometimes called a “double indemnity” rider, it can as much as double the payout to your beneficiaries, though it does come with standard exclusions (such as disease or suicide). Accidental death riders are not typically included in most life insurance policies and often increase the price of your premium.

Return of Premium Riders

A return of premium rider is exclusively designed for term life insurance policies. Often referred to as return of premium life insurance, this term life rider refunds your paid premiums – plus interest – if you outlive your policy. While this technically makes the cost of the policy cancel itself out if you don’t die, it usually increases the cost significantly with no tangible return on investment.