What are Accelerated Benefit Riders?
Recently, many life companies have developed programs to offer accelerated benefits (also called living needs benefits) to certain policyholders. These have been developed in response to viatical settlement programs. Often the accelerated benefit programs offer better terms than viatical settlements. These accelerated benefits programs are usually in the form of riders and they provide early payments of life policy cash values. For policyholders who have been found to be terminally ill, accelerated benefits can be paid to nursing homes or directly to the insured.
