Banner Life Insurance Review

With all the competition in the market, insurance companies have to have a way to stand out more than ever now.

Companies like Banner Life that bring exceptional service to clients, receiving an A+ from A.M. Best, stand out exactly as needed.

More than a company that can set itself apart from the others, you want a company that will help you get the best policy you can and that is why we put together our Banner Life Insurance company review together.

At first look, term and universal life policies are the only plans available from Banner Life, but what they lack in variety, they make up for by providing term and universal policies with features unlike any others.

If you know exactly what type of policy you need, and Banner Life can provide it, it’s worth checking to see what they can offer, though we do highly recommend checking out all of your options before you make your final decision as there are other great companies out there such as Americo Insurance or Fidelity Life Association to name a few.

What Sets Banner Life Apart From the Competition?

The first thing that sets their term life insurance policy apart from those of other companies is the flexibility of payment options and term limits for each option on the policy. If you are wondering how much is life insurance, it will vary person to person and company to company, which is why it will be best to obtain quotes from several companies.

Beyond that, each term life policy from Banner Life is available to all clients up to age 95, far past the usual 65-75 where other companies begin refusing policies.

Each policy has a guaranteed level premium for the duration of your term period, and reapplication is an easy process when your term is over. Term life insurance is a basic life insurance, something the majority of people choose for their policy, bringing an excellent new level of service to a plan that most people depend on shows how Banner Life has genuine concern for their clients at the heart of their business.

Customization is important for clients to find the right policy for them, and Banner Life’s universal life policy is perfect for customization. Choose smaller premiums for a short term or get a permanent policy for a slightly higher premium, the choice is yours. Both short-term and permanent policies are guaranteed. What makes a short term universal policy great is the ability to pay for a lifetime of insurance over a short term, usually 10-15 years.

Imagine ensuring a stable life insurance policy for you and your family, permanently, when you can afford to pay it all off. A dependable, customizable permanent life insurance plan in addition to an excellent term life plan shows how Banner Life cares about clients.

Why I Chose Banner Life

Over the years I had purchased different term policies with each major life event.

I bought a policy when I first got married. Another policy after our first son.

Then another one after our second son.

I recently just refinanced my life insurance policies consolidating my ING, Met-Life, and Transamerica polices all in one large term life policy with Banner Life.

I was able to get $250k more coverage while reducing my insurance premiums by $400 per year by going to Banner.

Banner has definitely found it’s niche in offering low priced term policies and is extremely competitive for men’s rates on term life.

Another Reason to Choose Banner Life

If you’ve been diagnosed with an illness that might involve any form of cancer, heart disease, or any other high-risk condition, Banner Life is the only insurance company that offers MediGuide with all their insurance policies. The cost? Nothing.

Yes, Banner is the ONLY carrier to offer MediGuide to their policyholders FREE of charge.

What is MediGuide? In a nutshell, if you’re diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and need a second opinion from a qualified doctor, Banner will help you identify the top 3 medical centers to handle your condition. After you and your local physician have identified the appropriate medical center, MediQuide (with Banner’s help) will get you the second opinion from a top medical center that will have access to advanced technologies that your local doctor may not have.

Once again, this is all complimentary for just owning a life insurance policy through Banner. If there competitive pricing isn’t enough, this should be icing on the cake. Both of these factors contribute to us giving 5 stars for our Banner Life review and why Banner is consistently in our list of best life insurance companies to work with.

Products Offered By Banner Life Insurance Company

The products that are offered by Banner Life Insurance Company, as well as by William Penn, are underwritten by Banner Life. This is done via the company in its offices in both Urbana, Maryland (Banner Life) as well as in Garden City, New York (William Penn).

Banner Life Insurance distributes its insurance products throughout 49 U.S. states, as well as in Washington, DC. Products that are offered by William Penn, however, are provided only in the state of New York. Because of that, New York is the one U.S. state where Banner Life Insurance Company does not offer its products.

Banner Life Insurance Company is known for offering some of the lowest prices on its term life insurance product. The company also offers extremely favorable underwriting. This means that even though an applicant may have certain types of health conditions, such as seeking life insurance with diabetes, they could still qualify for term life insurance through this particular life insurance carrier.

Term life insurance is known for being the most basic type of life insurance coverage that is available in the marketplace today. This is because term life insurance offers just a pure, death benefit protection option – without any cash value or savings build up.

Because of this, term life insurance can provide policyholders with a very affordable and cost effective way to purchase a large amount of death benefit for a low premium outlay. This is particularly the case for those policyholders who are relatively young and in good health at the time of the policy application.

Term life insurance policies are sometimes referred to as being “temporary” life insurance protection. This is because term life, as its name implies, provides coverage for just a set amount of time, or term. Therefore, these types of insurance policies may be good for covering one’s home mortgage or other needs that have a certain time limit.

Banner’s term life insurance products offer term lengths of 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years, and 30 years. The premiums on the term life products that are offered via Banner Life Insurance Company are guaranteed to remain level through the initial term period. They will, however, typically increase each year afterward. The company also offers universal life insurance products. These products can be quoted to cover a term of up to the insured’s age 120.

The company believes in providing low cost and very innovative life insurance coverage protection products to its customers and policyholders. It also strives to be responsible in its customer service, and it firmly believes in the goal of building up long lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships.

The company’s products are offered and sold via independent life insurance brokerage agencies in all of the states through which they are sold, as well as in Washington DC. In keeping with these standards, Banner Life Insurance Company takes its promises extremely seriously and therefore, it promises to treat its customers fairly, and it applies ethical standards to each and every business transaction in which it undertakes.

The underwriting classifications that are inclusive in Banner Life Insurance Company’s arsenal include the following:

• Preferred Plus Non-Tobacco
• Preferred Non-Tobacco
• Standard Plus Non-Tobacco
• Standard Non-Tobacco
• Preferred Tobacco
• Standard Tobacco

One of the very few negatives about Banner Life Insurance Company really does not have anything at all to do with the company or its insurance coverage products, but rather it has to do with the fact that it is just simply not a very well recognized name in the industry at this time – especially in comparison to some of the other larger, well-known insurance companies.

APPcelerate

Banner has been introducing new kinds of insurance policies. One of them is their APPcelerate policy.

Banner isn’t known for their no exam coverage, but they are trying to change this. Their APPcelerate plan is a viable option for a lot applicants.

For some applicants, all it takes is a simple phone call and you can get protection. This plan is available for people between the ages of 20-50 and you can get protection for up to $500,000.

Just like with their normal term plan, you can get this no exam policy for a variety of different lengths depending on how long you need insurance.

OPTerm Life Insurance

Another popular insurance choice from Banner is their OPTerm policy This policy is renewable all the way until 95. This is much longer than other carriers allow. If you want protection longer, the OPTerm policy is an excellent choice.

History and Financial Stability

Banner Life Insurance Company has a long history in the life insurance business. The company was originally founded back in the year 1836. The firm has regularly received very high rankings to the present time for its financial strength and stability, as well as for its overall claims-paying ability to its customers and policyholders.

The firm currently holds the rating of an A+ from A.M. Best, which means that it ranks as being superior as far as financial strength and operating performance. Also, Banner Life Insurance Company has also received the rating of AA- from Standard & Poor’s which means that it is considered as being very strong.

Banner Life is extremely proud of its high ratings – and, although the company is a member of the Legal and General Group Plc, the firm takes even more pride in its financial and management independence.

The firm’s ratings are indicative that Banner Life Insurance Company both can and will honor the commitments that it makes to its life insurance policyholders – and these are certainly based in large part upon the company’s independent financial strength.

The company’s financial portfolio does not have any exposure to direct mortgage loans, nor any collateralized debt obligations. Likewise, Banner is not exposed financially to any collateralized loan obligations, credit default swaps, owned real estate, or equity investments.

What Banner Life Insurance Company does own is a portfolio of highly liquid and well-diversified investment grade corporate bond – and a very highly rated – structured securities portfolio. This is another step in making the company’s customers feel safe – and it can in turn help to provide policyholders with additional peace of mind.

In 1949, Banner Life was chartered as the Government Employees Life Insurance Company, better known as GEICO, and then acquired by Legal & General Group PLC as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1981. The company’s name was officially changed to Banner Life – which signifies the flagship position with Legal & General America in the U.S. As of 2013, Banner Life Insurance had approximately $437 billion of insurance in force.

The company also has a subsidiary, William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York. This company joined the group in 1989. Since then, the management of both Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn has been consolidated at the senior level.

Banner Life Insurance Company’s parent company, Legal & General, has a history of more than 175 years in the insurance and financial industry. This firm, founded and headquartered in the United Kingdom, currently has more than 9 million customers in the areas of life assurance, pensions, investments, and general insurance plans.

The company’s core idea is that “every day matters” – and it proudly represents all that the company does. Therefore, Legal & General has an extremely strong focus on its customers, and on their individual lives.

One of the ways in which Legal & General focuses on its customers’ lives is by taking on a socially responsible purpose. Given today’s uncertain financial times, money can be the biggest concern for many people. Therefore, by having financial provisions and protection for their everyday needs – as well as for the unexpected – peace of mind can be attained.

Legal & General has therefore taken on more of a socially responsible leadership role in the financial and insurance industry – and has in turn, begun to act more as a catalyst for economic improvement, as well, that benefits society at large.

In addition to its role of providing and delivering financial and insurance products – and investment returns – to its customers and its shareholders – Legal & General, as a business, has helped to ensure that they relate to the day to day lives and concerns of their customers and also helped to guide any companies that they invest in to do the proper thing. One of the firm’s biggest promises is that every day, it will help to make financial security for its customers easier to achieve.

Areas Where Banner Insurance is Lacking

As with any company Banner has areas where they are not as competitive.  The primary one is that they do not have any options for policies without a medical exam.  This makes them highly unfriendly to people who cannot take an exam or know they will be classified as a high risk by the life insurance underwriters. So if you are in good health and have a safe occupation Banner will be a great choice, those who do not meet those qualifications are probably not a great option to get coverage with this company.

Fewer Options

Banner gets their rates so low by being good at rating people for a small number of products.  This means their life insurance options are very limited in scope.  So where some companies have multiple policies for term, whole, universal, and variable life insurance, Banner really focuses on term policies and only has four options for term life insurance.  This is only a minor drawback but does hurt them in working with some clients.

Time it Takes to Get Approved

OK, I am just going to put it simply, Banner takes longer than other companies when it comes to getting their applications approved. They are not exactly slow, but there is no way I am putting the title of speedy on their underwriting process.  Now there is a good reason for this and that is Banner is able to offer lower prices because their underwriting is so thorough.  Other companies take less time and offer higher rates.  Banner has decided to compete on price and they do that by being one of the best companies at evaluating risk.

Should you find that you have any additional questions regarding Banner Life Insurance Company – or even if you have questions regarding life insurance coverage in general – we can help you. Our experts will be happy to walk you through anything that you need – from life insurance policy quotes and / or comparisons, to answering your specific questions such as:

• What type of coverage is right for me?
• How much death benefit do I need for my survivors?
• Which of the many life insurance carriers will fit my specific needs the best?

It’s understandable that the purchase of life insurance can be quite overwhelming. There are so many different variables that need to be addressed – and so many details to be aware of prior to moving forward. That’s why we want to ensure that you feel fully comfortable before you make you final purchase decision. So, contact us today – we are here to help. We also provide several company reviews for your reference so that you may feel more comfortable in knowing the company before you make your decision. Here are just a few that we have to offer; American General Life Insurance Company Review, Foresters Life Insurance Company Review and AARP Life Insurance Company Review.