| USAA | Allianz | American Fidelity life insurance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Types of coverage | Whole life, term life, universal life | Universal life index | Term life, final expenses, whole life |
| Dividends for 2020 | $42 million | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Online application | Available | Unavailable | Available |
| AM Highest rating | A++ | A+ | A- |
| Prices for temporary policies | Excellent | N / A | Very well |
| NAIC Complaint Index | 0.22 | 0.31 | .002 |
Policies available
Term life insurance
Term life insurance is a type of term coverage that lasts a limited number of years, such as 30 years, and is more affordable than permanent life insurance. USAA offers both Level V and Essential Duration policies (not available in Arizona, Florida, or New York):
- Level Term V: This policy provides coverage from $100,000 to $1 million for terms of 10 to 30 years with a level premium, meaning a premium that remains the same for the duration of the coverage you select. It is available if you are between 18 and 70 years old and require a medical examination.
- Essential term: You must be between the ages of 21 and 35 to benefit from this policy. The death benefit is set at $100,000 and coverage ends on your 39th birthday if you choose to renew it annually. Unlike the level term policy, your rate increases each year. This policy does not require a medical examination.
If you’re willing to go through a longer application process to save money on a USAA term insurance policy, Level V is the way to go. Although you can skip the exam with Essential Term, it is only suitable for very short term cover as the cost increases every year and you cannot renew once you are 39.
Whole life insurance
Unlike a term life insurance policy, whole life insurance lasts for your lifetime as long as you continue to pay the scheduled premiums. Your death benefit is guaranteed for the life of the policy and the policy creates tax-deferred cash value.
- Simplified Whole Life: Instead of paying premiums for your lifetime, USAA also gives you the option to pay off the policy over 20 years or when you turn 65.
USAA also makes Mutual of Omaha’s guaranteed whole life insurance policy available to its members, but does not underwrite this coverage itself.
Universal life insurance
USAA does not offer universal life insurance itself, but does make John Hancock universal life insurance policies available to its members. A universal life insurance offers flexible yet permanent coverage with a cash value that can last a lifetime if you pay enough premiums. Unlike whole life insurance, you can adjust or omit premium payments as needed without causing the policy to expire immediately.
Runners available
Guaranteed insurability riders
Guaranteed insurability riders allow you to increase the death benefit without having to requalify for coverage, which means you don’t have to answer any health questions or take a medical exam. USAA offers two at no additional cost:
- Term Life Event Option Rider: This guaranteed insurability rider is available on Level V Term insurance policies. It gives you a unique option to increase your death benefit upon the occurrence of a life event, such as getting married, starting a family or buy a house. You must be 35 or younger for this option to be added to your policy, and it expires after 10 years or when you turn 45, whichever comes first.
- Life Event Option TowerA: Similar to the rider above, this one is available at no additional cost with the USAA Simplified Whole Life policy. However, you can increase the death benefit up to six times for a maximum total coverage increase of $1 million. The rider expires once you turn 45.
Child Rider
You can attach the USAA Children’s Term Life Insurance Rider to your own policy and get up to $25,000 of coverage per child for all of your children for $7.99/month. Once your child becomes an adult, they can turn the rider into permanent coverage that can last their lifetime.
Premium waiver
For an additional cost, USAA offers a waiver of premium rider which allows you to skip premium payments if you become disabled.
ADB: Endorsement in the event of terminal illness
The USAA offers a accelerated death benefit rider in case of terminal illness at no additional cost. With a terminal illness rider, you can access a portion of your death benefit when diagnosed with a terminal illness to use for whatever you want while you’re still alive.
Customer service
You can connect with USAA by phone or mail. Their primary phone hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT.
Phone numbers
- 210-531-USAA (8722)
- 800-531-USAA (8722)
Address
- 9800 Fredericksburg Rd, San Antonio, TX 78288
Price
To better understand life insurance pricing, we’ve collected quotes from a range of insurers for healthy men and women aged 25, 40 and 55 for $250,000 term policies. over 30 years. Based on this analysis, USAA term insurance policies cost slightly more than average. However, this cost may be worth it if USAA’s value-added features, such as guaranteed insurability and injury benefits, are important to you.
Is USAA life insurance right for me?
If you are in the military, a USAA life insurance policy may suit your needs well. Serving military members might especially appreciate free military benefits, such as expedited issues for military members preparing to deploy, wartime coverage, and critical injury benefits for injuries sustained in the line of duty.
Even if you’re not in the military, the USAA can still appeal. That the company offers guaranteed insurability riders at no additional cost is rare and valuable. Most life insurance companies charge an additional fee to allow you to increase the death benefit later, but USAA does not.
But if you’re looking for long-term or high-coverage no-medical life insurance, you’ll have to look elsewhere. USAA also does not directly offer common types of coverage like universal life, variable universal lifeand indexed universal life.
How We Review Life Insurance Companies
We’ve designed a comprehensive rating methodology based on consumer priorities and life insurance company fundamentals to rank over 90 insurers in five general categories: financial stability, customer satisfaction, product and feature variety, 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.