One of the most common questions that I hear is. “Does Banner Life really have the lowest rates? There is actually no specific company that always has the lowest rates. But Banner Life is usually one of the top three companies with the best rates. This is due to the variation in their health history, age, occupation, height and weight and tobacco use. Also, what kind of sports they are involved with and a number of other very important variables.
The Banner Life Insurance Company will usually come through with the lowest rates about 90% of the time. I would easily rate them as the most competitive life insurance company in America.
Banner Life may not be a household word
This company does not have the big corporate name of Prudential or New York Life. But, that does not prevent them from being one of the key players in the industry. There are many excellent companies doing business in the United States and we are going to take a close look at just
one of them today in this article. This excellent A+ rated carrier is the Banner Life insurance Company. Banner Life has some of the best life insurance rates in the industry. They also offer excellent no medical exam life insurance plan designs. Their term life insurance rates and plan designs are some of the very best.
Banner Life deserves one of the highest degrees of recognition
Banner Life is a company we use quite often due to the fact they offer the best of both worlds. The main pre-requisites we look for in a company is how competitive are their rates. Equally as important is the carriers financial stability. You may purchase life insurance today, but your benefits may not be triggered for many years to come. You will definitely want to make sure the company is still around years later.
How stable a company is right now may not mean they will be stable many years into the future. This is why you have to choose a company that has a strong projected financial future. Our quoting system will normally display Banner on the top of the list of the best online life insurance quotes.
Banner life’s parent company has been in the life insurance business for over 180 years
Banner Life’s parent company Legal & General was founded in London in 1836. Take a look at just some of the important facts about Banner Life and the Legal & General Group of insurance companies:
- Banner Life has almost 1,140,000 U.S. Customers.
- They have issued more than $50 Billion of new coverage last year alone.
- Their new coverage in force ranks 5th in the United States.
- Banner has over $7 Billion in assets.
- Legal & General Group has $658 Billion of life insurance coverage in force.
- Their net income is over $150,000,000 per year.
- Legal & General has over 10,000,000 customers worldwide.
- Legal & General is the 6th largest life insurance company in the world.
- The company financial strength rating is A+ with the A.M. Best reporting agency.
The Legal & General insurance company was formed by a group of highly respected lawyers from London. As Legal & General grew, the company purchased the Government Employees Life Insurance Company in 1981. That is when the company became known as the Banner Life Insurance company. They now have offices in Germany, India, Egypt, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States.
Banner Life has over 75,000 independent insurance agents promoting their line of products
The Banner Life Insurance Company’s product line is:
- Term Life Insurance
- Universal Life Insurance
- Annuities
Banner Life offers 10,15, 20, 25 and 30-year term life insurance plan designs which are renewable and convertible. Term products are by far the most popular plan designs available due to their affordable price tag. Banner Life also offers an excellent line of universal life insurance products which are permanent forms of life insurance. Universal life stays in force for the rest of your life as long as you keep paying your premiums.
The Banner Life does not offer whole life insurance due to its lack of popularity. Whole Life has become more obsolete as the years pass by. Many companies have dropped it from their product line.
Banner’s No Medical Exam life insurance product
Banner is one of the new kids on the block offering life insurance with no medical exam. Banner Life introduced its new APPcelerate process which is a totally an automatically underwritten application process. Applicants can now connect with an independent agent to complete a simple telephone application which requires no medical exam. This also means no blood test or medical records required.
Approval times can range from several hours to 30 days
Here is what is available and how it works:
- Their OPTerm product is available with a term period of 10, 15, 20 and 30 years.
- Applicants for this program must be between the ages of 20 and 50 years of age.
- The Face Amount (death benefit) ranges from the minimum of $100,000 all the way up to $500,000.
- The rate classification for this new system is Preferred Plus Non-Tobacco, Preferred Non-Tobacco, and Standard Plus Non-Tobacco rate classes.
No Medical Exam life insurance can be an excellent option
The No-Medical Exam policy is exactly the same as the fully underwritten version. Traditionally Non-Med plan designs always cost more but not is this case with the new Banner life plan design. If you fail to qualify for the Non-Med version you can simply apply for the fully underwritten product. When someone applies for a Banner Life policy the company primarily looks for these main concerns which would be:
- Smoking or other forms of tobacco use
- Blood Pressure
- Family health history (parents)
- Current Cholesterol Levels
- Height & Weight of the applicant
Banner works out very well for people with medical conditions
Banner Life is great the way they handle applicants that have simple health conditions or even more serious medical conditions. This is what make them such a good company to utilize. Some of the very strong points that Banner Life has is with how the underwrite pre-existing medical conditions such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Asthma
- Overweight situations
- Sleep Apnea
- Hypertension
- High Cholesterol
- Heart conditions
- Skin Cancer
- Parents health conditions
How does Banner stack up to their competition?
Let’s compare some Term life insurance quotes for a 30-year-old male with a face amount of $500,000. We will use a 20-year term period in the Preferred-Non Tobacco classification.
- Protective Life – $317.00
- Banner Life – $319.00
- SBLI – $319.00
- Mutual of Omaha – $332.00
- North American – $335.00
- Principal National – $338.00
- Transamerica – $340.00
- AXA Equitable – $355.00
- Assurity – $365.00
- Voya – $370.00
- Lincoln Financial – $400.00
- Prudential – $450.00
- Sagicor – $472.00
- Foresters – $475.00
Optional policy benefits available:
Waiver of Premium Riders
Most of all, you want to have the peace of mind knowing that if you were to become totally disabled. Your family or business will remain protected by your life insurance policy. Banner Life will waive all premiums that are due to be paid during the total disability period. They will need proof of disability in order to waive the premiums. This is a good rider for people with the more costly high risk life insurance.
Policy Conversion Rights
The conversion option gives you the option to convert your Term policy for a Universal Life permanent type insurance policy. The best advantage of the conversion rights is that when utilized. The new Universal Life policy will be issued at the same underwriting class as your existing term. If a serious change in your health should take place, you would retain your current underwriting class.
Conversions can be requested at any time you wish. It has to be within the duration of the guaranteed level premium period, up to age 70. Policies issued at age 66 or over are convertible during the first five years of the policy.
Flexible Payment Schedule
Policy premiums can be paid Annually, Semi-annually, Quarterly and Monthly. Premiums are usually calculated on an annual payment basis. If you prefer to pay premiums with one of the other billing periods, your total premium will increase.
Term Riders
A process referred known as “Laddering” life insurance coverage is a great way to get the right amount of protection for correct period of time. Using a Term Rider offers additional temporary coverage for a period shorter term period than what the base policy provides. Using the Term Rider is a very cost effective way to protect yourself from being over or under-insured. Especially as your financial liabilities change over time. Here is a good example of how a term rider is used.
You can start out with a 30-year Term life plan design. Then add a 20-year rider to cover your mortgage payoff amount. Another option is to have a 10-year rider to cover the expense of a dependents education. Banner term life insurance is their number one product line.
Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
If you’re are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This rider will allow the death benefit can be paid prior to your death. This is based on you are facing a qualifying terminal illness. The accelerated death benefit amount is based on the lesser of $500,000 or 75% of the policy’s primary death benefit.
The accelerated death benefit is treated as a lien, which accrues interest. Upon the death of the insured, the death benefits payable will be reduced by the total accelerated death benefit lien. This will allow you to use the death benefit for such needs as lost income due to sickness. Also, Banner Life insurance customer service is excellent to say the least.
Children’s Rider
The Children’s Life Insurance Rider provides a death benefit for one or more children in the family. A single rider covers all of the eligible children up to the youngest child’s 25th birthday. Or the insured’s 65th birthday or upon termination of the policy. The rider cost is level in all years. This rider can only be added on at the time of the initial policy application.
Compare rates from Banner Life and decide for yourself
With our modern life insurance quoting system, you can:
- Compare the best life insurance quotes from over 40 of the most competitive companies in less than a minute.
- Check the A.M. Best ratings for each life insurance company.
- Review universal life, term & return of premium term life insurance plan designs.
Make sure you check out our list of other life insurance companies we work with and also our top 12 companies blog post to see how many of these companies compare with Banner Life.
Our final word
We work with over 40 different life insurance companies and they are all very competitive and in very good financial
standing. This Banner Life insurance company review should help you learn more about just one of them. There is no one company that is the best at everything. We use the various companies based on how they would work for each and every applicant. If you have any questions about Banner Life or with any other company. Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call us. We are available 7 days a week to answer your questions.
All the best,
Jack Venturi
