If you’re a young family or a working family, hopefully, you’re using a well-planned budget; and, if anyone depends on your income, hopefully, a piece of your plan is a life insurance policy.
But if you’ve never purchased one before, you might not even know what to look for, where to get it, or how much it’s going to cost you.
To start your search, you probably want to know which companies are going to offer the best choices.
Let’s discover Prudential Life Insurance Company and see if they might be right for you.
The History of Prudential Insurance Company
Prudential Financial has more than 140 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industry.
The company helps both individual and institutional customer with growing and protecting their wealth.
Over the years, Prudential has become one of the most recognized brands, as well as one of the most admired companies in the world.
Today, Prudential has operations in the United States, as well as in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
The company offers a long list of products and services, which include life insurance and annuities, mutual funds, investment management, and other retirement-related services.
The company has earned many awards and accolades, such as ranking:
- First in the “Insurance: Life and Health” category of Fortune magazine’s 2017 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies
- Second-largest life insurer in the United States (based on life and health insurance combined, and total admitted assets)
- Third-largest individual life insurance business in the United States regarding statutory net written premiums
- Ninth-largest asset manager worldwide
- Fourth-largest seller of individual life insurance in the United States, based on recurring premiums
Prudential Financial, Inc. has a number of subsidiaries, including:
- The Prudential Insurance Company of America
- PRUCO Life Insurance Company
- PRUCO Life Insurance Company of New Jersey
- Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation
- Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company
- The Prudential Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (Prudential of Japan)
- Gibraltar Life Insurance Company, Ltd.
- The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
- Prudential Life Insurance Co. of Taiwan, Inc.
Prudential continues to work towards its long-time mission of creating long-term value for its stakeholders through strong business fundamentals. The company is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
Prudential Life Insurance Overview
Prudential has a widely recognized name in the U.S., as well as throughout the world.
The company, through its subsidiaries, serves customers in more than 40 different countries.
As of November 2017, Prudential (or “Pru”) had $1.366 trillion in total assets under management and approximately $3.7 trillion of life insurance in force.
The company is also well regarded as being environmentally friendly, as well as diverse regarding its employees and associates.
As a stock insurance company, Prudential Financial, Inc. has common stock shares, which have traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2001. The company’s stock symbol is PRU.
Financial Ratings
Due in large part to its overall financial strength, as well as its ability to pay the claims of its policyholders, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, is highly rated by all of the major insurance company rating agencies.
- A+ from A.M. Best Company
- AA- from Standard and Poor’s
- A1 from Moody’s Investor Service
- AA- from Fitch Ratings
Even though the company is strong from a financial standpoint, The Prudential Insurance Company of America – which is not a Better Business Bureau accredited company – has received a grade of B from the BBB.
Life Insurance Coverage Offered Through Prudential
Prudential offers term, permanent and other types of life insurance policies.
Many of these policies also offer life insurance riders so that the policy can essentially “customize” the policy to better fit their individual needs.
Term Insurance Coverage
With term life insurance, there is death benefit only coverage. As its name suggests, term insurance is purchased for a set duration, called a term.
Because there’s no cash value or savings build up in a term policy, the premium for this coverage is frequently less than that of a comparable permanent policy (with all other factors being equal).
The level term options that can be purchased through Prudential offer an income tax-free death benefit, as well as premiums that will remain fixed throughout the life of the policy.
Many of these plans will also offer the ability to access the death benefit funds while the insured is still living if he or she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
In addition, many of these policies can also be converted over into a permanent form of life insurance without the need for the insured to undergo a medical exam to provide insurability.
There are currently six different term life insurance policies offered by Prudential:
- MyTerm
- Term Essential
- Term Elite
- PruTerm WorkLife 65
- PruLife Return of Premium Term
- PruTerm One
Life Insurance Riders
Prudential currently offers riders to customize your life insurance policy with, these include:
- Living Needs Benefit
- Terminal Illness Rider
- Waiver of Premium
- Accidental Death Benefit
- Children’s Protection Rider
Permanent Life Insurance Coverage
A permanent life insurance policy will provide death benefit protection, as well as a cash component that allows funds to grow tax-deferred (and won’t be taxed until they are withdrawn).
Through Prudential, there are several different types of permanent life insurance policies including:
- Universal Life
- Indexed Universal Life
- Variable Universal Life
Universal Life
Universal life offers both permanent protection and flexibility in that the policyholder can – within certain guidelines – alter the premium due date, and can also decide how much of his or her premium dollars go toward the death benefit or the policy’s cash value.
There are four universal life insurance policy options offered by Prudential, including the:
- PruLife Universal Protector
- PruLife Essential UL
- PruLife SUL Protector
- PruLife Universal Plus
Indexed Universal Life
With an indexed universal life insurance policy, the cash value return is based on the performance of an underlying index which is being tracked, such as the S&P 500.
This can allow the cash value to grow more than that of a regular universal life policy, yet without the worry of loss.
That is because if the underlying index performs poorly in a given time period, the return that is credited is simply a 0%.
Prudential’s indexed universal life policies include:
- PruLife Founders Plus UL
- PruLife Index Advantage UL
- PruLife Survivorship Index UL
Variable Universal Life
Prudential also offers variable life insurance policies. Here, the cash value return is based on underlying equities, such as mutual funds.
In this case, the return can be quite high – or alternatively, there could be losses due to poor market performance.
The variable life insurance options offered by Prudential include the following:
- VUL Protector
- PruLife Custom Premier ll
- PruLife SVUL Protector
Other Products and Services Offered
In addition to life insurance, Prudential also offers numerous other insurance and financial related products and services:
- Retirement Annuities – These include fixed and variable related annuity products
- Investments – Prudential offers a wide variety of investments, including mutual funds and other retirement savings vehicles
- Workplace Benefits – Prudential’s workplace benefits include life insurance, disability insurance, and retirement savings plans
The company also offers financial education. This helps Prudential to create long-term value for its customers.
Get the Best Rates Today
We can also answer any questions that you may have.
The purchase of life insurance can be somewhat confusing – but with an expert on your side, you know you’ll obtain a plan that fits your specific needs.
Please feel free to reach out to us, toll-free, at 1-800-712-8519.
