Allstate Life Insurance Review 2020

Thang Truong
Thang Truong
Updated on:

“You’re in good hands with Allstate.” This has been Allstate’s slogan since 1950 when Davis Ellis came up with it. They’ve kept it this long because it’s easily recognizable and because Allstate feels it reflects their values and service. The company itself was founded nineteen years before that, in 1931, as an auto insurer.  It was created by General Robert Wood, who was also Sears’ president and for a while Allstate operated out of one room at Sears headquarters. They became an independent company in 1993.

Since their humble beginnings, Allstate has expanded to offer home, life, renters, motorcycle, off-road, and pet insurance. Today, they generate about 44 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.

Pros and Cons of Allstate Life Insurance

ProsCons
– Easy to get an online quote
– Excellent financial strength
– Good customer service ratings for other types of insurance
– Easy to bundle multiple policies
– For any policy other than Term, you’ll need to go through an agent
– Life insurance is not their focus
– No chatbot

>>MORE: Best Life Insurance Companies – We Rank 40+ Life Insurance Companies for Your Consideration

Products Offered by Allstate Life Insurance

Allstate offers term, permanent, whole, and universal life insurance.

Allstate Term Life Insurance:

Allstate has term life insurance in terms of any length you want. Want an 18-year term policy? Allstate can do that. All term insurance can be converted to permanent policies as outlined in the policies. 

Allstate makes it easy to get a quote. For a 30-year old male in excellent health, Allstate gave us this quote:

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Allstate Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is permanent life insurance with a savings account attached. You can pass the death benefit on to your heirs, tax-free. You can also borrow against or withdraw from the cash value while you’re still alive. You can’t get a quote for whole life insurance from Allstate, but whole life insurance in general tends to be expensive. For a 37 year old male in excellent health, Allstate estimates the premiums for a $250,000 whole life policy to be about $271 a month. 

>>MORE: Why is Whole Life Insurance Not Worth It?

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Allstate Universal Life Insurance:

Universal life is permanent life insurance that lasts for the rest of your life. They have several universal life policies, including indexed universal life and one that earns money at a set interest rate. For the same 37-year old male wanting $250,000 in universal life insurance, Allstate estimates he’ll pay about $145 a month for a universal life policy. 

>>MORE: Why is Indexed Universal Life Insurance (IUL) a Good Idea for Retirement Savings?

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Allstate Variable Universal Life Insurance:

Variable universal life is similar to universal life but offers more flexibility. You can also choose from more than 30 investments to create your portfolio, which will then earn interest on the cash value account. Allstate won’t give an estimate for variable life policies, because there are so many factors that affect the premiums.

>>MORE: Understanding How Variable Universal Life Insurance Works

Allstate also offers the following riders, so you can customize your policy:

Since Allstate offers so many types of insurance, they can offer a small discount if you bundle your policies. If you’re interested, Allstate will set you up with an agent to help you find all the discounts available. 

Financial Strength Rating of Allstate Life Insurance

It should come as no surprise that Allstate has terrific financial ratings: A.M. Best gives Allstate an A+ (Superior). You can’t get a stronger rating than that. 

>>MORE: A Guide to the Worst Life Insurance Companies

Customer Satisfaction Rating of Allstate Life Insurance

Believe it or not, Allstate is not featured on J.D. Power’s 2019 Life insurance study. Life insurance is a fairly small division for Allstate. They do appear on the J.D. Power’s Auto Insurance Study and their home insurance study. In both cases, Allstate ranks somewhere between three and four stars (auto and home insurance vary by region). 

The BBB gives Allstate an A+, although they are not accredited. There are 1,349 complaints listed in the last three years, and 223 mostly one-star reviews. Most of these complaints concern home and auto insurance, but that could be important if you’re interested in bundling policies. 

>>MORE: The 10 Largest Life Insurance Companies

Consumer Complaints Rating of Allstate Life Insurance

The NAIC assigns a score, or an index, to every insurance company based on the number of complaints. A score of 1.0 is the national complaint index average. Allstate got an index of .36. Considering how many kinds of insurance they offer this is an excellent score. Home and auto insurance tend to have more complaints than life insurance. 

>>MORE: A Guide to the Best Whole Life Insurance Companies

Digital Experience Rating of Allstate Life Insurance

It’s easy to get a quote for term life insurance at Allstate. If you want any other kind of life insurance, you’ll have to go through an agent. An agent at Allstate is a captive insurance agent, meaning they can only sell you policies from Allstate, so it’s up to you to comparison shop. Your Allstate agent won’t tell you if there’s a better deal somewhere else. 

You can get a quote for other types of insurance, such as auto insurance online as well. To pay your life insurance policy, you can either enroll is automatic payments or send a check. And you can only enroll in automatic payments if you have Basic Term, TrueFit or Whole Life Tribute policies. If you have a variable life or a VUL policy, you can only pay by check or EFT.

There is a mobile app, but it’s mostly for auto insurance—it’s unclear if it does you any good if life insurance is your only policy. However, many people are interested in bundling, so it is helpful to have an app for your auto insurance. 

There is no chat bot, which is a little surprising. Chat bots are becoming extremely important and customers like them to answer quick questions or to direct them to other parts of a website. For just a big company, one with multiple types of insurance, Allstate’s customers could benefit from a chat bot. 

Last Thoughts

Allstate is a big insurance company with almost every type of insurance you could want. If you’re interested in bundling policies, Allstate could be perfect for you. They have excellent financial strength and their customer service ranges from average to pretty good. 

Thang Truong
Thang Truong

Thang Truong covers small business insurance and small business success at BravoPolicy. He is a licensed P&C insurance agent. Previously, he held product leadership positions at realtor.com, Capital One, NerdWallet, and Mulberry Technology. He holds a MBA degree from UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business.

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