Life Insurance Riders in Nepal (2026): ADB and Critical Illness Explained

A riderAn optional add-on benefit you attach to your base policy for extra protection. Full definition → is an add-on to a life insurance policy. It costs a little extra each year and pays
out in a situation the base policy does not cover. In Nepal you will usually be offered two:
Accidental Death Benefit (ADB) and Critical Illness (CI). All 14 licensed life insurers
list an accident benefit on at least one plan. Twelve of the 14 list a critical illness rider.
Which ones, and how to decide, is below.

What is a rider, in plain terms?

Your base life insurance policy does one thing: if you die during the policy term, your nomineeThe person who receives the insurance payout when you die. Full definition →
receives the sum assuredThe coverage amount your family receives on death — or you receive at maturity. Full definition →. That is the whole promise, and for most families it is the promise that
matters.

A rider changes the shape of that promise at the edges. It is not a separate policy – it is
attached to the one you are buying and it is priced separately. Because it hangs off the base
policy, one question is worth asking before you sign rather than after: what happens to the rider
if the base policy lapses? (What happens to a lapsed policy, and how to revive it, is on
Your Rights.)

Accidental Death Benefit (ADB) – what it actually pays

ADB pays your family an extra amount, on top of the sum assured, if the death is caused by an
accident. It does not pay anything if the death is from illness or natural causes – the base
policy handles that.

So it is not "double the cover." It is more cover, in one specific circumstance.

Whether that circumstance is likely enough to be worth paying for is a judgement about your own
life, not a question with a universal answer. A person who rides a motorcycle to a construction
site every day is not weighing the same thing as someone who works in an office.

Critical Illness (CI) – what it actually pays

CI is the one people most often misunderstand, because it works backwards from the rest of the
policy: it pays you a lump sum while you are alive, if you are diagnosed with one of the
serious illnesses the insurer lists.

Two things follow from that, and both matter:

1. The list is the product. "Critical illness" is not a fixed legal category. Each insurer
   publishes its own schedule of covered conditions, along with the definitions and waiting
   periods that go with them. Two policies with the same rider name can cover different things.
   Ask for that schedule in writing, and read the definitions, not just the disease names.
2. It is not health insurance. It does not reimburse your hospital bills. It pays a fixed
   amount on diagnosis, which you can spend on anything – treatment, rent, replacing income while
   you cannot work.

Which Nepali insurers list which riders?

We read one plan page on each of the 14 NIA-licensed life insurers’ own websites on
13 November 2026 and recorded what each lists:

Read that second row carefully, because it is easy to over-read in both directions. A rider
listed on one plan is not necessarily available on every plan that insurer sells. And for the two
insurers not in the row, LIC Nepal and Rastriya Jeevan Beema, we did not find a critical illness
rider on the pages we read – which is not the same as "does not offer it." Insurers add riders over
time. If a critical illness rider is the reason you are choosing an insurer or a plan, ask the
company directly and get the answer in writing before you decide.

Compare the insurers themselves on
claim settlement and financial strength.

Beema ma rider thapne ki nathapne? (Should you add one?)

Riders are usually offered at the moment you are already saying yes to something else, which is the
worst moment to evaluate anything. There is no information problem here so much as a timing
one – the questions below are easy, they are just rarely asked at the right time.

Three that settle it for most people:

1. Does the base cover come first? A rider on a policy that is too small is decoration. If your
   sum assured does not yet cover what your family would actually need, put the money there first –
   our coverage calculator
   works out the gap.
2. What is the rider premiumThe regular payment you make to keep your insurance policy active. Full definition →, stated separately? Ask for the base premium and the rider premium
   as two numbers, in writing. If they only ever appear added together, that is your answer about
   how closely you will be able to compare it later.
3. What exactly triggers a payout, and what excludes it? For ADB, the definition of "accident"
   and the exclusions. For CI, the condition schedule, the definitions, the waiting period, and the
   survival period. These are in the policy document, not the brochure.

What do riders cost?

Rider pricing depends on the insurer, the plan, your age and your sum assured. A few plan pages
state a rate outright – Rastriya Jeevan Beema’s Anticipated Endowment page, for example, lists its
accidental death benefit at an additional premium of Re. 1 per thousand of cover – but often the
figure only appears with your quote. Ask for it as a separate line.

Our premium calculator will show you the
shape of the difference – tick ADB or CI and the estimate moves – but be clear on what that is:
our own transparent estimate, built to compare insurers on a like-for-like basis, not a quote. The
only binding number is the one the insurer puts in writing.

See what riders do to a premium:
open the calculator with both riders switched on

Frequently asked

Is a rider the same as a separate policy?
No. It is attached to your base policy and priced separately; it is not a policy of its own. Ask
the insurer what happens to the rider if the base policy lapses.

Is a critical illness rider the same as health insurance?
No. Health insurance reimburses treatment costs. A CI rider pays you a fixed lump sum on diagnosis,
to use however you need.

If I add ADB, does my family get double if I die in an accident?
Not necessarily. ADB pays an additional amount on accidental death; how much is set by the rider’s
own sum assured, which is not automatically equal to the base cover. Check the figure on your
schedule.

Can I add a rider later?
That is the insurer’s decision, and it can differ by plan. Ask before you assume, and get the
answer in writing.

My agent added a rider I did not ask for. What now?
Check your policy schedule – every rider on the policy is listed there with its own premium. If
something is on it that you did not agree to, raise it with the insurer in writing straight away.
Your Rights sets out what you can ask for.