“So how am I going to make sure of the riders?”
“I like your post on the riders but how about some real life examples?”
The above messages were just two of the more polite texts from my friends after my last post on insurance riders.
Others include sprinklings of unspeakable vulgarities.

Texts to Surely.

If you have yet to read my last blog post on insurance rider, please DO NOT read it.
Yes, I am not putting a back-link to that piece of boring and impractical writing.
I tried to persuade my editor to take it down but he refused and no amount of begging could change his decision.
Therefore, I decided to write on the same topic again to redeem myself (and to spite my editor).
Here are six situations in which an insurance rider will come in handy

Imagine this. You have just married your childhood sweetheart and purchased a dream home.

You bought a new plane too ? Seriously you need help.

You love her and want to protect her in every possible circumstance.
In both life and death (yes, I am a romantic) at that, but it seems impossible to look after her if you are not around anymore.
Fret not. At the very least, you can continue looking after her financially.
When you have a housing loan, it is common to insure your life to retain the property for your loved ones.
You may purchase a Term rider to be attached to your existing policies instead of buying a fresh one.

Why not a new policy?
A brand new policy typically includes a new set of policy fees and underwriting while some insurers will allow a term rider to be added without further medical underwriting.
This way, you will save some money while achieving the same purpose.
However, some insurers may not allow a fresh Term rider to be added so you may wish to check with them on this possibility.

Suddenly you are diagnosed with a Critical Illness and are unable to work.

You are able to claim a good amount from your Critical Illness insurance to help you with the expensive medical procedures.
However, you still have to pay for the premium for your other whole-life policy. Luckily for you, your insurance advisor recommended you to buy the Waiver of Premium rider.
Now you are able to rest easy.
The Waiver of Premium rider allows you to stop paying for insurance premium in certain events. Usually, the covered event is either Critical Illness or Disability.
We would like to highlight that the Waiver of Premium usually lapses at the age of 62-65.
In addition, if you have a limited premium payment period (e.g you pay for 20 years for whole life cover), it will be highly beneficial to have this Waiver of Premium benefit since you will only need to pay for those 20 years.

Holy cow! You triumphed over your CI and are leading a normal life. However, there is still this little problem – insurers are rejecting your new application due to averse risk. Dammit insurers!

Life always has its ups and downs. Usually at the same time.

That is why we encourage CI riders.
If you only have the CI policy with Term & other riders, your policy will cease once you have made a CI claim. You no longer have any coverage.
However, if you have a term or whole-life plan with a CI rider, you may make a claim on the CI rider and the main plan continues on.
Therefore, upon recovery from CI, you will still continue to enjoy the protection of your term/whole-life plan.

You have changed your job to one of more hazardous nature.

Dude, you are on fire !

If you are in the line of fire daily, it is best to take up the necessary precaution.
Wear your safety boots, put on your helmet and get yourself a Personal Accident rider.
Unlike conventional life policies, it actually covers for partial disability such as loss of limb, sight, speech, hearing etc.
This will allow you to widen your coverage scope of your insurance policies.
One thing to note is that the premium of the Personal Accident rider varies according to your job risk.

Ouch ! You are injured and need to be hospitalised for a while.

Heng ah, you have an Integrated Shield Plan rider that will help you to pay for the deductible and co-insurance portion.
As you have upgraded your CPF Medishield Plan to an Integrated one and purchased an rider, you have little worry that your hospital stay will create a burden on your family members.
Now you can focus your efforts on getting well !

You are self-employed or not covered by your employer for medical leave.

Better job, better coverage

If you are int the latter category, we highly recommend that you change employers.
Nevertheless, if that is not possible, you may need to take steps to cover for your loss of income during illness or injury.
Hospital Cash rider will not be able to replace your income completely. However, having a little cash during your stay in the hospital may help you pay for fixed monthly expenses such as housing loans, electrical bills and milk money for your children.
That concludes the six ways of maximizing the use of insurance riders in real life application.
I hope that you are able to make full use of riders to broaden your insurance coverage after reading this blog post.
Certainly, I hope you share the same sentiment as me, that this is a much more practical blog post than my previous one.

If you have any other ingenious ideas of applying riders to your insurance, please leave us your comments.

Thank you and have a great Sunday ahead!

www.ClearlySurely.com aims to eradicate the knowledge gap between consumers and Life Insurance. Our Vision is that one day, every Man, Woman, and Child will be properly insured.