In an effort to offer disability insurance products that run the gamut of offering basic protection for a total disability all the way up to comprehensive disability insurance coverage offering elaborate forms of protecting one's ability to earn income.

In order to achieve a diverse product offering, disability insurance companies often start with a basic benefit and offer optional benefits normally referred to as riders. The base policy normally contains a total disability definition and several other features as well. Sometimes residual disability benefits are built into the base policy to cover loss of earnings. The following is a brief discussion of some of the riders available in disability insurance policies today.

1) Guarantee of Insurability Rider (GIO rider)

This is sometimes referred to as a Future Increase Option Rider. As the need for disability insurance increases occur, this rider can be both essential and convenient to the insured. The key feature of this rider is that the insured may add more disability insurance coverage without evidence of medical insurability. All that is required is that the insured must provide financial documentation to satisfy financial underwriting requirements. There may be some age limitations on exercise and they will be explained in the disability insurance policy. Additionally, the disability insurance policy may require that the exercise can only be made on the anniversary date of the policy or within a reasonable time period thereafter. There are some disability insurance policies in force in the marketplace that may even allow increases while the insured is on claim and he or she may collect the new benefit for the existing disability, again subject to financial evidence of income necessary to warrant the increase. However, the ability to exercise the rider and collect the benefit while on claim may no longer be available in new policies being sold today. In the few cases where the new policies may allow an exercise of the option while the insured is on claim, the increased benefits as a result of the exercise would not be payable during the existing disability. In order for these new benefits to become payable, it would require a new and separate disability to occur. Nevertheless, the importance of this rider cannot be overstated.

Disability income insurance is very strictly underwritten. Even very healthy policyholders often over time become fragile and may lose their ability to acquire new disability insurance. Combined with this is the fact that individuals very often tend to see income increases as they get older. The combination of increased income as one becomes older along with the ever-increasing possibility of a medical illness or injury compromising the insurability of individual makes the guarantee of insurability rider a highly desirable rider to have in the disability insurance policy. Another consideration is that conditions may develop in an insured that may not prevent him from buying new disability insurance but may preclude certain conditions being covered. These are often referred to as "exclusions ". For example, if the insured had originally purchased his disability insurance policy with no exclusions and later had back surgery to repair a herniated disc and fully recovered, any new disability insurance policy he might apply for would likely have a spinal exclusion. The new disability insurance policy would offer him protection in the event of an injury or illness as long as it was not related to the spine. However, if the insured had a guarantee of insurability rider or future increase option that he could exercise, the new disability insurance purchased under the exercise would not have an exclusion of the spine.

The guarantee of insurability rider or future increase option rider typically has a premium considerably lower than an equal amount of disability indemnity benefit. However, when the rider is exercised, one should expect to pay the insurance company's current rate for his or her attained age. The new disability insurance underwriting classification is generally the same as the underwriting classification granted at the issue of the original disability insurance policy.

Normally, the insured may exercise any amount up to the rider amount (again subject to income requirements) on specific option dates. Once the full amount of the rider has been exercised, the rider expires with no further premium required on it. Of course, the insured would now be paying premium on the new benefit amount he or she purchased under the rider. Some disability insurance companies may allow an increase to be exercised on the first anniversary and some may require the exercise to wait until at least a second anniversary. Increases in the disability insurance policy can generally be made anywhere from every anniversary date up to a certain stated age or every two or three years after the initial exercise up to a certain stated age. Sometimes the amount of exercise may be limited upon attaining a given age.

2) Automatic Benefit Increases or Automatic Increase Rider

Sometimes this benefit is included in the basic disability insurance policy and sometimes it is an optional rider with a relatively small premium. This benefit is also one of good disability insurance planning and convenience. Many employees receive annual increases in their earnings related to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). These increases can erode the percentage of income that the disability insurance policy protects. In other words, if an insured purchases a disability insurance policy to protect 60 percent of his or her income and has 4 percent increases in pay over a number of years, the insured may find that the disability insurance policy then covers 45 to 50 percent of his or her total income or less.

A fundamental difference of the automatic benefit increase rider or automatic increase rider and the guarantee of insurability rider is that with the automatic benefit increases, there is no paperwork nor is financial documentation necessary. In other words, the insured is given option to increase the benefit by either stipulated amount such as anywhere from 3 to 6 percent or so or by the increases in the CPI or by the lesser of a stated percentage or the CPI. While this increases the premium in the policy, increases are relatively small and the benefit increases are also relatively small. Since the presumption is that the insured has had an increase in pay, it should not necessarily be more difficult for him to pay the premiums. However, the insured has the right to refuse an increase. Sometimes several refusals will end the rider whereas other companies may continue to offer the adjustments regardless of refusals. These adjustments generally will occur for a given period of time, often five years. At the end of this time, evidence of financial insurability and/or other published rules of the insurance company might be required to extend these adjustments for additional time periods. Normally, there is an age limitation after which these adjustments may no longer be available.