Speak with an experienced advisor! What better name for an insurance company than Protective? It’s a fitting name for a quality insurance company.
Protective Life Insurance is a huge company that deals with millions of people every year.
Just because they are a “big-brand” and have a lot of customers doesn’t mean they are automatically a good choice for everyone.
In This Article:
- History of Protective Life Insurance
- Protective Life Insurance Company Ratings
- Protective Life Insurance Options
- Other Products offered by Protective Life
- Pros & Cons of Protective Life Insurance
- Is Protective Life Insurance For You?
Protective Life Insurance History
Before we look at Protective’s policies, let’s show you how they got there.
We think it’s essential for you to understand where they started to get a full picture of the company.
Governor William Dorsey Jelks started Protective Life Insurance Company in 1907.
50 years later, in 1957, they were getting close to $1 million in insurance policies. Then in 2017, they celebrated 100 years and had over $252 million in insurance-in-force.
Protective Life Insurance Company Rating
- A.M. Best Rating: A++
- BBB Rating: A+
- J.D. Power Rating: 3 out of 5
Protective Life Insurance Options
Term Life Insurance
Of course, Protective Life sells your traditional term insurance plans.
They sell the Protective Classic Choice Term plan, which they claim is “49% less expensive than the competition,” we will explore this claim later in the later.
Protective sells term insurance in lengths between 10 years and 30 years. They allow you to customize the policy details to protect your family.
As far as term life insurance coverage, applicants can apply for plans as small as $100,000 to $50,000,000. They allow you to convert your term plan to a permanent plan within a specified time period without having to take the medical exam.
Universal Life
Universal life is permanent coverage with cash value. The cash value lets you borrow against it or access if you need to in the future. This policy also gives you some flexibility in the payout of the plan and the payments.
Variable Universal Life
Unlike some other permanent plans, variable life insurance allows policyholders to get slightly higher returns.
Child Life
Protective sells whole life insurance plans specifically designed for parents to buy for their children. These plans are capped at $100,000 and you can only purchase them on children up to ages 17.
One interesting component is the coverage is going to double when the child turns 18, but the premiums won’t go up.
Custom Choice Universal Life
The Protective Customer Choice UL plan allows you to get flexibility at an affordable rate. You can get coverage from 10 years to 30 years. The example Protective shares on their website is a non-smoking 30-year-old man buying $100,000 for less than $8 a month.
Survivorship Universal Life
Protective Life sells a plan called Protective Survivor UL. With these policies, the plan protects two people, not just one. The beneficiaries of the policy don’t receive the payout until both people have passed.
Indexed Universal Life
this is another permanent form of coverage. The returns on the policy are tied to the indexed market.
Other Products Offered by Protective Life
Annuities
In addition to the almost dozen insurance plans, Protective sells several types of annuities. Annuities allow people to plan for retirement.
For anyone getting close to retirement, they’ve probably had the thought, “do I have enough money?” This is one of the biggest fears, running out of money.
Annuities give you a guaranteed income in retirement with no risk. One added benefit of annuities is the tax-deferred growth.
There are several types of annuities:
- Fixed Annuities
- Indexed Annuities
- Variable Annuities
- Immediate Annuities
Pros and Cons of Protective Life Insurance
Pros:
- Simplicity: If you want a simple life insurance policy at an affordable price, then Protective Life should be on your list. They should probably be one of the first ones.
- Competitive Pricing: Protective has honed its underwriting and pricing algorithms to make life insurance as cheap as possible.
- Quick Claims Process: Not only do they sell cheap coverage, but they also want to make the claim process as stress-free as they can. Protective will send out the payment within one business day after the claim is approved. Just for reference, other carriers can take weeks to send a payment.
Cons:
- Limited To Life Insurance & Annuities: If you want a company where you can bundle all of your insurance plans, don’t even bother looking at Protective. They are not going to be your choice. They only sell life insurance plans and annuities. That’s it.
- Not The Cheapest for Standard Term Plan: If you’re looking for a standard term plan, you might be able to find cheaper rates. They aren’t the most expensive, but they aren’t the cheapest. When we ran the quotes above, there were always two or three companies that came out cheaper.
Do You Need $1 Million of Life Insurance Policy From Protective?
Before you automatically say, “I’ll never need $1 million in life insurance” we need to show you the math.
- Mortgage: How much mortgage do you have? If you haven’t paid off your home loan (we are going to assume you haven’t), your family will have to pay that bill.
- Salary: Let’s take that mortgage number and add in your salary. Your family needs the money to replace your income. Take your annual income and multiply the number by seven to ten. You see how quickly those insurance needs can add up. Between these two categories, you’ll probably already have around $700,000 - $800,000 in insurance needs.
- College Tuition: Now, what about any future education bills for your children? Do you want your spouse to have to shoulder those bills all alone? If the answer is no, you need to add them to the total insurance needs.
At this point, you’ve probably realized just how large of an insurance plan you would need. When they do the math, applicants are stunned to see seven figures.
Protective Life Insurance Rates
To give you a rough estimate on what you would pay for $1 million in life insurance from Protective, we ran some generic quotes.
First, let’s assume you’re a 30-year-old man who doesn’t smoke and is in good health. If you buy a 20-year term from Protective, you will get premiums around $49.
Now, let’s look at a 40-year-old woman who wants $1 million in coverage. For a 20-year plan, you’ll pay premiums in the range of $60.