Accidental death cover: standalone, rider or health add-on

Accidental death and disablement can be placed three ways in an Indian employee-benefits programme: as a standalone group personal accident policy, as an accidental death rider on group term life, or as a personal-accident add-on inside the group medical programme. They are not the same cover at different prices; they settle differently and cover different disablements.

The three placements

• Standalone group personal accident. Death, permanent total, permanent partial and temporary total disablement, with weekly benefits and add-ons such as medical expenses and education. Rated per mille on the risk-class split of the workforce. The broadest disablement cover.
• Rider on group term life. Doubles the sum assured on accidental death, sometimes with disablement. Priced with the life scheme; settles with it; limited to what the rider says.
• Add-on inside group medical. A personal-accident section on the health programme. Convenient, one insurer, but typically the narrowest.

How to compare

Put all three on the programme with the sum insured basis, the covers included, the hours of cover — on duty or 24 hours — and the settlement route. Then price. The right answer for a manual workforce is usually standalone GPA alongside Employees’ Compensation; for an office it may be the rider.

What Bridge does with it

Bridge shows the three placements side by side on the client’s programme — a comparison no insurer platform will build, because each sells one of them. The GPA questionnaire asks for the sum insured basis and the class split rather than per-member amounts, which is what a client can actually supply.