North American Company for Life and Health has over 130 years of experience, and currently has 615,369 insurance policies and annuities in force and assets of over $27 billion. North American is a privately owned company, and as such, it is not subject to short-term profits like many publicly traded companies. This makes them unusual in the insurance industry. Their name seems a little misleading, as they don’t sell health insurance.
They originated in 1886 as North American Accident Association. In 1918, they became the first company to offer disability insurance to women. Today, Forbes ranks them as number 77 on the list of America’s largest privately held companies. They offer term, universal life (UL), indexed universal life (IUL), guaranteed universal life (GUL), and annuities.
- Products Offered: 60/100
- Financial Strength: 100/100
- Customer Satisfaction Rating: 90/100
- Consumer Complaints Rating: 90/100
- Digital Experience Rating: 80/100
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| – Lower rates than many insurance companies – Excellent financial strength – Excellent customer service | – No whole life insurance options – Products are sold through agents – Not much information on the website |
Products Offered by North American Company for Life and Health
North American Company offers term, universal life, guaranteed universal life (GUL), and indexed universal life (IUL) insurance coverage.
Term life insurance: Terms are available for 10, 20 or 30 years. You’ll pay a level premium throughout the term of the policy, and if you die sometime during that time, your heirs will get the death benefit. If you outlive the term, you get nothing (other than all that peace of mind that came with knowing your family would be taken care of if something happened to you).
As you can see from the term quote below, rates are pretty reasonable. Our customer was a 22-year old male non-smoker in excellent health, living in Iowa. All policies include an accelerated death benefit for critical, chronic and terminal illness. This means you can access the death benefit early if you are diagnosed with a qualifying illness. You can also convert to a permanent life insurance policy without any additional underwriting if you choose to.
Universal life insurance: This is permanent life insurance that gives you the opportunity to build cash value along with your life insurance. The cash value account earns interest at a set interest rate. You can pay up to age 120, adjust your premium or your death benefit.
Guaranteed Universal life (GUL): If you want permanent life insurance, but aren’t interested in accumulating cash value, a guaranteed universal life policy may be for you. This policy lasts your entire life but doesn’t build (hardly) any cash value.
>>MORE: Is Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance (GUL) Worth it?
>>MORE: The Best 5 Companies for Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance (GUL)
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Indexed Universal life insurance (IUL): North American Company offers four IUL policies to choose from:
- Builder IUL
- Rapid Builder IUL
- Smart Builder IUL
- Guarantee Builder IUL
All of these products are designed to supplement retirement income while also providing permanent life insurance. Like all IUL policies, you’ll build cash value according to an index of market performance, usually S&P 500. This way, you build cash value faster but aren’t completely at the market’s mercy if it tanks, because there’s a floor built in. Usually the floor is around 1%, so if the market crashes, you’ll earn 1% on your investments. Not a lot, but better than losing money.
>>MORE: Why is Indexed Universal Life Insurance (IUL) a Good Option for Retirement Savings?
>>MORE: The Best 6 Companies for Indexed Universal Life Insurance (IUL)
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They also offer annuities.
Financial Strength Rating of North American Company for Life and Health
A.M. Best gives North American Company for Life and Health an A+ or superior rating and predicts a stable outlook. These things are important, because you want to be confident your insurance company has the resources to pay claims.
Customer Satisfaction Rating of North American Company for Life and Health
North American Company for Life and Health insurance does not appear on J.D. Power’s life insurance study for 2019 (2020’s ratings aren’t out yet) so we will have to consider other sources.
The BBB gives North American Company a score of A+. They’ve been accredited since 2018.
There are 18 reviews: four one-star reviews, eleven five star reviews and three four star reviews. People praise the customer service and remark on how helpful everyone was. The one star reviews complain of delayed payouts. There are 14 complaints, which center around either customers misunderstanding what they had purchased, or communication and billing issues.
Either way, 14 complaints isn’t bad, and many of the reviews were very positive.
Consumer Complaints Rating of North American Company for Life and Health
The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) gives every insurance company an index score. A score of 1.0 means the company has exactly as many complaints as you would expect for their size. A score of 2.0 would mean they received twice the average number of complaints. North American Company got a score of .16, so they received far fewer complaints than expected.
Digital Experience Rating of North American Company for Life and Health
Instead of getting you an actual online quote, North American Company gives you a chart with a range of terms and premiums, depending on what health class you fall into. This is helpful, or at least interesting, as you can compare what different health classifications will do to your rates.
You can’t get a quote for any IUL policy, or UL or GUL policy—for that, you have to go through an agent. This could be good or bad. Agents can be helpful in explaining the features of a policy, but they do work on commission and rates are usually higher when agents are involved. Still, it’s a rare company that will give you an online quote for permanent life insurance.
Once you’re a customer, you can:
- Update your account
- Withdraw money (from annuity accounts)
- Request a loan
- Pay premiums
Since they rely on agents to sell policies, a lot of information you should be able to find online is only available through agents. They don’t have a mobile app.
Last Thoughts
North American Company for Life and Health offers good rates and excellent customer service. If you’re interested in anything other than term insurance, you’ll have to go through an agent. If that’s not for you, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Ditto if you’re interested in whole life insurance. But North American Company is a solid choice and could work for you.
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