Prudential Life Insurance Adds 5 Improvements

A lot of people shop for life insurance every day. Term life insurance is the most popular. To that end, how do you choose among the many insurance companies? They’re all saying, “buy our product; it’s the best!”  By comparison, several companies offer good term life insurance. What sets one company apart from another is the added benefits they offer.  To set themselves apart from the competition, Prudential Life Insurance has enhanced five aspects of its life insurance policy services that give them a competitive edge.

If you are looking for term life insurance, you have a lot of companies to choose from. There is so much information that it gets confusing.  To clarify, this is the number one characteristic that I recommend people consider when shopping for life insurance. Important to realize, price is not the most essential factor. The most important aspect of a term life insurance is the financial health of the life insurance company.  It doesn’t matter if a life insurance policy is cheaper than all the rest.  If that company has less probability of being around in the future, what good is it? To this end, Prudential life insurance is one of the top-rated term life insurance providers in the country. I ranked them as number two in my Top 10 Life Insurance Companies for Term Life Insurance post.

The great thing about Prudential’s latest enhancements to their policies is that a superbly rated company has made their products even better. Here is what I mean. To explain, I’ll highlight the five aspects that Prudential has made even better.

1) Accelerated Underwriting!

Insurance lingo can be confusing, but you will like this once you understand it.  When you apply for a life insurance policy, the life insurance company looks at your personal information to determine how much they will charge you for a life insurance policy. The process of considering a person’s personal information for a life insurance policy is called underwriting. FYI, the person that does that job is called an underwriter. With some life insurance companies, it can take weeks, if not months, to qualify for a life insurance policy.

Prudential has gone above and beyond what many life insurance companies have done to make it easier and take less time to get life insurance. To understand how this can benefit you, let’s look at a new type of life insurance called “no exam life insurance.” In the past, to qualify for life insurance, you may have to answer a lot of questions, many of which dealt with your health. Prudential life insurance, along with some other life insurance companies, has figured how to use much of the big data that is available to make applying for life insurance easier.

No Exam Life Insurance has changed the life insurance business

No exam life insurance is just what it sounds like.  It is life insurance where you do not have to have a medical exam. Plus, you can skip the needle for a blood test and giving other bodily fluids. How do you know if you qualify for no exam life insurance? I have found that if you can answer these two questions positively, you have a good chance of qualifying for no exam life insurance. In brief, do you have a safe driving record?  Plus, do you not take more than one prescription drug. If you want to learn more about how no exam life insurance works, read my blog post, No Exam Life Insurance.

About two years ago, no exam life insurance was not that popular.  It began to catch on quickly because it eliminated many of the costs of issuing life insurance.  Prudential Life insurance has quickly jumped to the head of the pack in offering one of the best no exam life insurance policies. In my article No Exam Life Insurance, I evaluated hundreds of life insurance companies.  I narrowed those that offer the best service and products down to eight insurers.  FYI, Prudential Life Insurance came out in first place.  Read the article, and you will find out more.

Prudential’s Leverage

But for today, know that if you qualify for no exam life insurance, Prudential has taken a good idea and made it better. Here is how they improved on the no exam life insurance concept. The life insurance business is very competitive.  One of the most valuable properties that a life insurance company owns is its information on its life insurance business.  The history of death benefits, the history of how illnesses, smoking, drug use, lifestyle, finances, and much more.  All that data is proprietary information.  And, since Prudential Life Insurance is one of the largest and oldest life insurance companies in the United States, they have a vast amount of data from which to learn.  They have tapped into that extensive network of knowledge to create a no exam life insurance that is fast accurate and low in cost.

2) Top Online Services

To be competitive in almost any business, you must have a presence online. For large companies, that can be a challenge. Prudential has done an excellent job of integrating eservices into their life insurance business. As I have noted, Prudential is using big data to offer no exam life insurance.  Another attractive aspect of no exam life insurance is almost all of the service of no exam life insurance is done online.

Prudential also has improved the traditional life insurance application process with the expansion of online services.  Just because a life insurance customer does not qualify for no exam life insurance does not mean that the policy is going to be slow to complete for the customer.

In brief, here is how Prudential is using its online services to improve its life insurance service for all customers. Almost all of Prudential Life Insurance company applications are submitted online rather than the old-fashioned pen and paper application. Additionally, Prudential has replaced many of their phone calls to those applying for life insurance to online interviews. To conclude the life insurance application process, the customer gets a copy of their life insurance contract.  Prudential help keep the purchase process short by allowing the policy to be delivered to the customer by email.  Plus, customers can esign to accept and pay for their life insurance policy, all online.

3) Free Accelerated Death Benefit Rider

Prudential offers a free accelerated death benefit rider with their policy. For this purpose, the accelerated death benefit rider may be just what you need if you ever have a terminal illness.  Here is how it works.  If you have a terminal illness, the accelerated death benefit rider allows you to access a portion of the death benefit while you are still alive. After your death, your beneficiary will receive the remainder of the death benefit.

Is a life settlement better?

The simple answer is no. A life settlement is not better than an accelerated death benefit rider. Here is why. You’ve probably seen the advertisements for companies that want to buy people’s life insurance policies. Purchasing an existing life insurance policy is called a life settlement. Take the case of someone that no longer needs a life insurance policy. As a result, they sell it rather than canceling it.  Life settlements can be beneficial to some people, especially if they simply don’t need to policy any longer.

What about the person that has a terminal illness? Due to an illness, cash is tight, and getting money out of a life insurance policy near the end of their life is better than after they die. It sounds good, but in this situation, the terminally ill person is getting less than the death benefit.  Depending upon who you sell the policy to, you may give up 10% or 20% of the future death benefit for cash today.

What about taxes?

The other reason why accelerated death benefit riders are a better choice is the income taxes. In other words, if you sell your life insurance policy through a life settlement, you are going to pay some income taxes.  In brief, you subtract what you paid for the policy from what you sold it for, and the difference is a capital gain. It is like selling an investment for more than you paid for it.

The accelerated death benefit is still a tax-free benefit from a life insurance policy. In this situation, the life insurance company is advancing you the death benefit.  In time, they will pay your beneficiary the remainder of the tax-free death benefit.

4) Birthdays are delayed!

Delaying your birthday sounds unusual. However, it will save you money.  Here is how Prudential is allowing you to save money by delaying your birthday.  In contrast, most life insurance companies will calculate your age at your nearest birthday. For example, if you are 59 ½ and one day, most life insurance companies price your life insurance as if you are already 60.  In view of your older age, life insurance policy from most other companies will be more expensive. In contrast, Prudential will save you money by allowing you to count your age as of your last birthday. Yes! Saving money is good!

5) Converting from term to permanent cost you less.

Prudential offers people that buy their term life insurance liberal opportunities to convert the term to a permanent life insurance policy. If you are buying a term life insurance policy, its usually for a set number of years.  That is to say; you probably don’t think you will need life insurance forever. But what if life doesn’t always turn out the way you planned. Here is an example.  Let’s say you buy a life insurance policy in your 30’s, and you expect to keep it until your 60’s. Accordingly, you expect your finances to be good enough that you will not need life insurance any longer.

What happens if your health deteriorates? What happens if your spouse is disabled and you want to plan on extra money if you die before your spouse? Many life insurance companies do offer customers that have term life insurance the opportunity to convert that term policy to permanent life insurance.  By permanent life insurance, I mean life insurance that has level cost and will last for the rest of your life even if you live for many more years.

Now you have it; then you don’t

A lot of life insurance companies do what I call “now you have it; then you don’t” health ratings.  For example, you can get the lowest cost or a preferred life insurance rating now.  However, if you want to convert that policy to a permanent policy in the future, your rating will change.  In effect, the life insurance company may only allow you to convert the policy to one with a higher rating. Consequently, that means that you’re stuck paying a higher price if you want to keep the life insurance. Without a doubt, you are paying more than someone who bought the same policy with a preferred rating.  Although your old policy was considered preferred. Prudential is more liberal in pricing their life insurance policies that convert to permanent.

FYI, here is an essential point with Prudential and any other life insurance company. You probably will not get the opportunity to convert your life insurance policy until the end of the policy.  To explain that point, here is how my own term life insurance policy works.  I can convert it up until the age of 65.  Although the life insurance policy will last until I am 99.  In my example, I will convert the policy before I turn 65 because it gets costly once I get to age 70. Regretfully, it is not a Prudential life insurance policy, so I will have to convert the policy from a preferred health rating to a standard health rating.

What to do now?

If you’ve gotten this far in reading, its because you are looking for the best life insurance policy to protect your family or someone or something that you care about. Keep this in mind.  The most crucial factor in selecting a life insurance policy is the financial strength of the company.  The second most important factor is price.  And reasons three through eight are the five enhancements that Prudential has made to their already excellent life insurance service.  If you’d like a free quote, take a moment and click on the Request A Quote button or the Get Started Button. Maybe Prudential is the best for you; maybe it is not. You will be able to see instantly how Prudential Life Insurance may compare to other top-rated life insurance companies.