The benefits explained
- Solid financial ratings: Unum is rated A by AM Best, meaning “excellent” financial strength.
- Educational materials available on the site: Consumers can access educational materials on the website to help them decide what type of coverage they need and how much.
- Online claims filing: Policyholders can file claims online and download documents instead of having to download forms and send them by mail.
- Fewer complaints than expected: Unum received far fewer complaints than expected, which could indicate strong overall customer satisfaction.
Disadvantages Explained
- A limited number of policy types: Unum only offers term and whole life insurance policies.
- No live chat available: Unum’s website does not provide options for customers seeking real-time answers to their questions.
Index of complaints
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) annually calculates a complaints index for each insurance company that measures the number of complaints received by that company relative to its market share
If an insurance company has a complaints index of 1.00, that means it has received an expected number of complaints based on its size. If its index is below 1.00, it has received fewer complaints than expected. If its index is above 1.00, it has received more complaints than expected.
Unum’s three-year average complaint index is 0.27, which means that far fewer complaints have been registered against it during this period than you would expect for a company of its size. cut.
Third-party reviews
AM Best is a credit rating agency that rates the financial strength of insurance companies on an alphabetical scale ranging from A++ to D, with A++ being the highest rating and D the lowest rating. Unum received an A (Excellent) rating, which means AM Best believes the company is in an excellent position to meet its ongoing insurance obligations, such as paying claims.
Policies available
Unum offers two life insurance policies: term life and whole life.
Term life
Term life insurance provides a death benefit to your beneficiaries as long as the policy is active, but it is not designed to provide permanent coverage. If a policy is not renewed, it will expire at the end of its term. With collective coverage, it can be renewed each year.
All the life
Whole life insurance is a type of permanent coverage that creates cash value and is designed to cover you for life. It’s more expensive than the term, but you may be able to access the cash value over your lifetime, and you can take the policy with you if you quit your job.
Runners available
Riders are additions to a life insurance policy that can extend or increase coverage. They may be automatically included, but some require additional payment.
Accelerated Death Benefit: Terminal Illness
Unum offers a accelerated death benefit rider for terminal illnesses. This allows you to receive part of the death benefit sooner if a doctor diagnoses you with a terminal illness. Although offered at no additional cost, this benefit is subject to administrative costs and will reduce the death benefit your beneficiaries receive.
Child Term Rider
Adding a child term rider is a way to provide life insurance coverage for your current and future children without having to purchase a separate policy for them.
Premium Rider Waiver
If you become disabled, a waiver of premium rider allows you to skip premium payments while you remain disabled, usually after a waiting period.
Customer service
You can get information about Unum’s customer service channels on its website. Life Insurance Customer Support can be reached by phone at (866) 679-3054.
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.