As a responsible adult, you go ahead and buy a life insurance policy that offers financial security to your family in your absence. You pay all the premiums on time to ensure that the policy fulfills its objective. But what happens when you are seriously injured or diagnosed with a critical ailment and cannot earn to provide a livelihood for the family? Exactly for such times, waiver of premium rider comes to your rescue. This rider waives off all future premiums to keep the policy in force when you are incapacitated to pay the premium owing to physical disability. Indeed, it is a useful rider that ensures your policy remains active even if you do not pay premiums. Let’s dive in to know more about this rider.

1. When will the rider work?

The rider is available in the following scenarios:-

• When life insured has been in a disabled state for a minimum 6 months.
• When life insured is diagnosed with any of the critical ailments such as cancer, heart attacks and vascular disease.

2. Who is eligible for the rider?

Anyone in the age group of 18-65 years is eligible.

3. Is there any waiting period?

Yes, there is a waiting period of 90 days. It means the insurer will waive off future premiums only if the insured contracts a critical ailment or suffers from disability after 90 days of the commencement of the policy.

4. When can this rider be added/removed?

This rider can be added only at the inception of the policy. Once added, the insurer doesn’t allow its removal.

5. What is the cost?

Besides age and gender, the amount of premium to be paid depends on the premium of the base life insurance policy. For instance, for a Rs 5-lakh coverage, a 30-year old would need to pay Rs 5,232 as premium under Max Life's Life Partner Policy. If he wants to get the waiver of premium added to the insurance policy, he would need to pay Rs 100 only.

6. What documents are required for claim settlement?

For the successful execution of a claim, the following documents need to be submitted.

Mandatory Documents	Critical Ailments	Disability
Duly-filled claim form	Yes	Yes
Copy of Original policy documents	Yes	Yes
Policyholder's current address and ID proof	Yes	Yes
Supporting Documents
Policyholder's copy of bank passbook	Yes	Yes
Medical statement stating health issue	Yes	Yes
Disability certificate from the relevant government body		Yes

7. How long will the rider continue?

The rider is terminated if:-

• The base policy, to which the rider is attached, terminates
• All benefits are paid under the rider coverage
• The policyholder attains the age of 65

8. Are there any tax benefits?

As per the Income Tax Act 1961, you will be eligible to get the following tax benefits:-

• Under Section 80C: premiums up to Rs 1 lakh are eligible for tax deduction
• Under Section 10(10D): benefits received from the rider are tax-free

9. What are the exclusions of the rider?

The life insured will not get any benefits if a critical illness or disability is due to any of the following reasons:-

• HIV
• Any disease occurring during the waiting period
• Any congenital infection
• War, invasion, hostilities, riot or commotion, strikes
• Participation of the life assured in a criminal act
• Nuclear contamination
• Participation in hazardous pursuits, including but not limited to, martial arts, diving, hunting and bungee-jumping.

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