Protective Life insurance was founded in 1907, in Birmingham, Alabama. They offer term and permanent life insurance products. They insure all fifty states, and in 2018 they paid out 3.4 billion dollars in claims.
- Pros and Cons
- Life Insurance Products Offered: 80/100
- Financial Strength Rating: 90/100
- Customer Satisfaction Rating: 70/100
- Consumer Complaints Rating: 90/100
- Digital Experience Rating: 80/100
- Protective Term Life Insurance Quotes
Pros and Cons of Protective Life Insurance
| Pros | Cons |
| – Low premiums – Online policy management. – Online quotes for term policies – Rate reconsideration after the first year | – Takes a long time to get approved – Policy cancellation requires a phone call – Higher rates for smokers |
Life Insurance Products Offered by Protective
Protective Life offers term life insurance in terms of ten to thirty years. You can get coverage anywhere from $100,000 to $50,000,000.
They also offer five types of permanent life insurance.
- Whole life insurance.
- Universal life insurance
- Variable universal life insurance
- Indexed universal life insurance
- Custom choice universal life (this has the option to convert to a permanent policy)
In addition to life insurance, Protective also offers retirement annuities.
Whole life insurance protects you for your entire life. You pay your premiums for a set number of years, but the insurance lasts for the rest of your life. It’s more expensive than term life insurance, but it does have a savings component attached. Your premiums stay the same throughout the life of the policy. You need to have the policy for several years before you can borrow against it.
Universal life insurance is also a type of permanent life insurance policy. It differs from whole life in that it offers flexible premiums by using some of the cash value in the policy. Of course, if you use all the cash value, you will have to resume payments or the policy will lapse.
Variable Universal life insurance lets you use a portion of the premium for investments. There is risk involved, as the amount you earn is based on how successful your investments are. Also, UL comes with some investment expenses that other policies don’t have. You can choose how to invest the cash value of the policy from a variety of investments.
Indexed Universal life is similar to variable life, except that it allows for less risk by offering two choices as to where to put the cash value money: a fixed account that earns a specific interest rate, or an indexed account, which is based on the performance of the market and subject to caps and floors. They invest in a S&P 500 account and your cash value builds depending on how that investment does, although it won’t lose you money because the floor is 0%. On the other hand, the cap is 9%, so you can’t earn more than that, even if the market outperforms this rate.
To help you decide how much insurance you need, Protective has an online insurance calculator. They list the steps to getting a term life insurance policy as follows:
- Get quote
- Submit application
- Get a medical exam
- Application review and acceptance
Protective has some of the lowest life insurance premiums. They claim they can save you up to 48% over other insurance companies.
Financial Strength Rating of Protective Life Insurance
A.M. Best rates Protective Life insurance company as A+, or superior. It’s important to have a financially strong insurance company so they can afford to pay claims.
Customer Satisfaction Rating of Protective Life Insurance
Overall, life insurance companies have more complaints lodged against them than other insurance industries.
J.D. Power releases a study of customer satisfaction with insurance every year, the most recent year being 2019. The highest score any company can earn is 1,000 points. The highest scoring company was Northwestern Mutual, with an overall score of 810. Protective life insurance scored 754, just underneath the individual life insurance average of 761.
Here are the individual rankings for Protective Life.
- Overall satisfaction: 3/5
- Product offerings: 2/5
- Price: 3/5
- Statements: 2/5
- Interaction: 4/5
- Communication: 3/5
Statements rate how users found the usefulness and ease of understanding of the statements the company and the number of ways to pay the premiums (online, credit cards, etc).
Protective Life is just about average overall. Interaction refers to how customers viewed communication channels, such as online chat, emails, and phone calls. Protective life scored above average in this category.
Consumer Complaints Rating of Protective Life Insurance
According to NAIC, Protective life insurance earns a complaint ratio score of .24. The national median score is 1.00. For individual life insurance policies, Protective life receives fewer complaints than expected for a company of its size.
For annuities, however, Protective Life earned a complaint ratio of 0.0, which indicates no complaints at all.
The BBB (Better Business Bureau) rates Protective Life an A+. It is not accredited by the BBB, however. What does this mean? Companies don’t have to apply to be accredited, so it could simply mean that Protective Life chose not to apply for accreditation. However, it could mean something negative, so be aware of that.
There are 30 complaints regarding Protective Life on the BBB website, most of them concerning Protective Life’s communication or speed of processing a claim.
Digital Experience Rating of Protective Life Insurance
Protective Life is happy to give you an online quote for term life insurance. As with many insurance companies, they won’t give you a quote for any type of permanent life insurance because there are so many variables. If you are interested in buying a permanent life insurance policy, you should definitely talk to a life insurance agent or a financial advisor.
You can manage your policy online by paying your bill, reviewing your policy, updating beneficiaries and updating payment info.
Protective Life does not have an app.
Protective Term Life Insurance Quotes
For a male, aged 30 we requested $500,000 worth of insurance for a twenty year term. The only difference between these quotes is that the first quote is for someone who has never used tobacco and the second is someone who has used it this year.
If you are a smoker, you might be able to find a better rate elsewhere.
Last Thoughts
If you’re looking for an insurance company with low rates and okay customer service, Protective Life might be for you. If you’re a smoker, however, you should shop around and try to find a better rate.