What This Inexpensive Option Does

The Unemployment Waiver of Premium Rider¹ is an optional rider that waives your premium payments for your disability insurance during a period of unemployment. The main benefit of the Unemployment Waiver of Premium rider is that you remain eligible for disability benefits while you are unemployed and not paying for your policy.

Premiums are waived for 12 months. Even if you regain employment before the end of the 12 months, your premiums will continue to be waived until the end of the 12-month period. With this rider, your disability insurance premiums will be one less bill to worry about during a break in your income stream due to a period of unemployment. At the end of the 12 months, you will resume paying for the policy from that point on.

You Can Not Plan Being Unemployed

No one would plan on becoming unemployed, but periods of unemployment do occur. When that happens, the first thing you would naturally be inclined to do is cut costs in every way possible. What if you had to cancel your disability insurance policy because you no longer have the income to pay the premiums? You bought your policy when you were younger and in overall good health. If when you regain employment, you are older and your health status has changed, you may no longer qualify for coverage at an affordable price, or no longer qualify for at all due to your increased age and/or deteriorating health.

You could easily be one of those routine calls that I get from existing clients requesting to drop their policy due to a period of unemployment. You can suspend your disability policy without coverage for up to 12 months due to unemployment. After returning to work, no evidence of insurability or income is needed to put your policy back in place. If you purchased the Unemployment Premium Waiver rider, you can have the premiums waived for up to 12 months while maintaining eligibility for disability benefits. The option to waive the premiums while remaining eligible for benefits is the clear better option.

The Unemployment Waiver of Premium Rider can be used multiple times during your career as long as it has been 48 months since the end of the previous unemployment period. The rider is renewable until your attained age of 60. 

To utilize the Unemployment Waiver of Premium Rider, you must notify the company about your unemployment. After applying for unemployment benefits, provide the determination letter from your state or federal agency responsible for providing you unemployment benefits. After receiving unemployment for at least 60 consecutive days, your disability insurance premiums will be waived under the terms of the Unemployment Waiver of Premium Rider. 

The cost for the Unemployment Waiver of Premium Rider is quite small compared to other optional riders available.

Optional riders are available for an additional premium. Otherwise approved. If you choose to have an optional rider on your policy your premium will increase. 

Individual disability insurance policy Forms 18ID, 18UD and 18GI underwritten and issued by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, Pittsfield, MA, a wholly-owned stock subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Product provisions and availability may vary by state. In New York: These policies provide disability insurance only. They do not provide basic hospital, basic medical, or major medical insurance as defined by the New York State Insurance Department. For policy form 18ID, the expected benefit ratio is 50%. For policy forms 18UD, 18GI, 18UD-F, an 18GI-F, the expected benefit ratio is 60%. The expected benefit ratio is the portion of future premiums that the company expects to return as benefits when averaged over all people with these policy forms.

This material contains the current opinions of the author but not necessarily those of Guardian or its subsidiaries and such opinions are subject to change without notice.