Term Life Insurance With an Accelerated Death Benefit
By: Sharon Taylor | Posted: 20th September 2007
Accelerated Death Benefit Rider Advantage
Many insurance companies now offer term life insurance policies that include an accelerated death benefit rider. The purpose of this rider is to help people who develop a terminal illness. When you are terminally ill there are many hospital bills that accumulate. Most families are unable to sustain the bills, especially if the person who is ill is the family’s primary bread winner.
How an Accelerated Death Benefit Rider Works
A “rider” provides extra coverage to a term life insurance policy. If you become terminally ill and have an accelerated death benefit rider, term life insurance companies allow you to take a portion of your death benefit to use before your death. The money can be used toward treatments, medicine and any type of private nursing needs you may require. There is no specific way you must spend the money.
While there is sometimes an amount restriction, usually 50% of the face value or a determined dollar amount, the advantage is that you will have money to get through a very trying time in your family’s financial and emotional existence. The biggest advantage is that your beneficiaries will also receive the remaining balance of your term life insurance policy face value upon your death. The death benefit gives your family peace of mind knowing that they will not have a mountain of medical bills to pay back and that they will still have some money to get back on their feet financially after your death.
The Following Would Activate Your Accelerated Death Benefit:
1. If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness or physical condition which makes your death imminent.
2. Occurrence of one of a number of "dread diseases" or catastrophic illnesses that would result in a drastically limited life span unless extensive or extraordinary medical treatment is provided.
3. The need for an extended period of long term care (or permanent confinement) in a nursing facility, at home, or in the community, due to an inability to perform the "activities of daily living," including: eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence.
Be sure to check your term life insurance policy and make sure you are covered with the accelerated death benefit rider. Many term life insurance companies offer this rider at no extra charge. If your policy does not have the rider and you are unable to add it, it is probably a good idea to replace your current policy with a new one that includes the accelerated death benefit.
About the Author
Sharon Taylor writes term life insurance articles and other helpful material for eQUOTE Life Insurance, providing customers with Term Life Insurance, no-obligation quotes, and other helpful insurance resource information.
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_214869_19.html
Back to the original article
Tags: face value, life span, medical bills, peace of mind, life insurance policy, terminal illness, life insurance policies, beneficiaries, medical treatment, life insurance companies, bread winner, term life insurance, term life insurance policy, hospital bills, death benefit, mind knowing that