The benefits explained
- Non-medical term life insurance up to $1.5 million: Bestow uses Accelerated Underwriting to issue term life insurance policies, so medical exams are never required, even if you have pre-existing conditions.
- Get a quote, apply and buy coverage online: Many life insurance companies require you to work with an agent at some point in the buying process. But since Bestow is completely digital, you can get a quote, submit a request, and purchase coverage online.
- Instant Approvals: If you are approved for a term life insurance policy, you can purchase coverage instantly. There is no long waiting period, as is often the case with traditional life insurance companies.
- Offers live chat: Few life insurance companies offer online chat tool, but Bestow makes online chat available to support its 100% online shopping experience.
Disadvantages Explained
- Only offers one font: Most life insurance companies offer different types of life insurance, but Bestow only sells term life insurance.
- No passengers available: If you want to be able to customize your life insurance policy with riders, Giving is not the best choice. The company does not offer any optional riders or built-in riders, such as accelerated death benefits.
- Low coverage limits: Compared to some other providers, Bestow’s term life insurance coverage limits are low. The maximum amount of coverage available is $1.5 million, and there is no way to increase the amount of coverage you can get.
Index of complaints
Bestow has few complaints for a company of its size, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Complaints frequently mention late claims, unfair claim settlements, policy cancellations and misrepresentations.
The NAIC calculates a complaints index that indicates the number of complaints a company receives relative to its size. If the NAIC Complaints Index is 1.00, the company has received an expected number of complaints for its size. If it is below 1.00, it has received fewer complaints than expected. Bestow’s three-year average complaints index is near zero, meaning it has fewer complaints than expected. Most of the major life insurance companies we have reviewed have complaint indices below 1.00.
Third-party reviews
The North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, the insurer that underwrites Bestow’s life insurance policies, has received an A+ (Superior) rating from AM Best for financial strength. AM Best is a credit rating agency that assigns ratings to companies based on their balance sheet, financial performance, debt and other measures of financial stability.
The letter grade A+ is the second highest possible score from AM Best (A++ is the highest). This rating indicates that the North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, and therefore Bestow, has superior financial strength and is able to meet policyholder obligations and pay claims.
Policies available
Grant only sells term life insurance, which provides coverage for a number of years. Unlike permanent life insurance policies, term life insurance generally has no cash value and premiums are lower than for permanent policies.
Term life insurance
Bestow’s term life insurance policies provide coverage for periods of 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 60 is eligible to apply, and you can choose a death benefit between $50,000 and $1.5 million. Additionally, grant policies do not require a medical exam and approval is “instant,” according to the company. However, Bestow’s term life insurance policies are not renewable at the end of the term, nor can they be converted to permanent coverage, unlike term policies available from other insurers. At the end of the term, your coverage ends.
Runners available
Unfortunately, Bestow does not offer any life insurance riders to customize your coverage with. Some most common life insurance riders are waiver of premium riders, guaranteed insurability riders, and accelerated death benefit riders, such as terminal illness and chronic illness riders.
Customer service
If you need to get in touch with Bestow, you have a few options. You can call the company at (833) 300-0603 or email team@bestow.com. However, the fastest way to get customer support is through the live chat feature. Simply click the live chat button on the page and you can instantly connect to a live representative.
If you need access to your policy information, Bestow’s online customer portal makes it easy to upload your policy documents, view your beneficiary information, and change your payment method.
Our Methodology: How We Review Life Insurance Companies
We have designed a comprehensive ranking methodology based on consumer priorities and life insurance company fundamentals to rank over 90 insurers in five general categories: financial stability, customer satisfaction, variety of products and features, experience of overall purchase and cost.
To do this, we collected over 5,000 data points and scored each company based on 55 metrics. We’ve grouped the metrics by category to see insurers’ performance in each; we then weighted the category scores to determine overall company performance.
For more, read our full Life insurance methodology.