If you are considering SBLI for term life, this article will cover their history, financial strength ratings, and how they rank in terms of pricing.
You will see why we feel they are on our list of all-around best life insurance companies.
SBLI History
SBLI was founded in 1907 by Louis Brandeis, who was a lawyer, and associate justice on the U.S Supreme Court.
Brandeis founded SBLI in a difficult economic climate amid one of the worst stock market crashes in 1907, and when insurance was generally deemed as expensive.
His mission was to create a life insurance company that would provide affordable life insurance to working American families.
Financial Strength
Brandeis certainly achieved his mission of providing affordable life insurance to Americans.
The company currently has over $125 Billion on active life insurance policies and over $2 Billion in assets.
Financial rating agencies also agree that the company is very strong financially. A.M Best rates SBLI with an A+ Rating. An A+ is considered a Superior financial rating and is the highest category you can get.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives SBLI an A+ rating as well. This shows that SBLI is a sound company that you won’t have to worry about going bankrupt.
They been around for a hundred years and have experience offer quality insurance policies.
SBLI Life Insurance Policy Options
SBLI offers both term and whole life policies.
Term Life Insurance
They offer both Yearly Renewable Term (also called annual renewable term) and level term. Level term is the more popular choice as it allows you to lock in your rate for periods of 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years.
If you already know you want nothing more than an extremely affordable, basic policy, go with a term life insurance plan. Because these plans have an expiration date on them, they are much cheaper than the other options.
Whole Life Insurance
You can convert an SBLI term policy to a Universal Life, or Whole Life policy up until your term policy expires, or to age 70, whichever comes first.
This is a nice advantage that isn’t offered by every insurance company.
There are thousands of applicants that purchase a term life insurance plan, the older that they get, the more they want the permanent coverage of a whole life plan, but don’t want to have to reapply.
Riders Offered
Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
Included at no charge with every term policy through SBLI is an accelerated death benefit rider.
This rider allows you to access part of your death benefit should a doctor deem you terminally ill. With most insurance companies, you’ll have to pay for the additional rider.
The accelerated death benefit rider, you’ll be able to get some of the insurance payouts before you die. If you’re terminally ill, you can occur some massive expenses, which can be difficult to pay for.
Why should you have to go in debt and wait for your insurance policy pay out?
Child Rider
You can also add a child rider to cover your children on your policy. With the child rider, you can buy up to $10,000 of coverage for each child.
At age 25 your children can convert that to their own policy of up to $50,000 without a medical exam – even if they aren’t healthy they can still get coverage.
Disability Waiver of Premium Rider
In any type of situation where you’ve been disabled long term, there’s a waiver called the Disability Waiver of Premium which will pay your premiums until you’re back on your feet.
Both the child rider and waiver of the premium rider have an additional cost. They are excellent solutions to tragic problems that people encounter every day.
SBLI Life Insurance Rates
If you use our quote tool at the top right of this page and compare rates for term life, you will probably see SBLI among the top companies in terms of rates.
The company often has the best rate available, and other times they are only within a few dollars of the top company.
Should you Choose SBLI?
SBLI may very well be a good choice for you.
However, every person has unique circumstances, which is why speaking with us about your situation makes sense.
Here are a couple of examples when SBLI may not be the best company for you.
Family History of Cancer
If you have a family history of cancer (specifically with parents or siblings), you may not qualify for SBLI’s best health rating (and in turn pricing).
However, there are companies like Banner and ING that will offer you their best rates with a family history of cancer.
There are some companies that will not approve you for coverage if you have cancer, but nobody should have to go without an insurance policy.
Smokers
Or if you use chewing tobacco or smoke cigars regularly, you will be charged smoker rates on life insurance with SBLI, however, Prudential will offer you non-smoker rates, saving you a significant amount of money.
I use these examples to highlight that comparing rates and reading a review should be the first part of your research, and the second part should be speaking with us so that we can recommend the best life insurance company specifically for you.
Compare quotes above, or call us at 1-800-712-8519 to speak with us about your life insurance needs.
