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Guardian Life Insurance Reviews: Policies and Benefits
May 11, 2018
At TermLife2Go, our number one goal is to help life insurance seekers like you to find the best life insurance company and policy for your needs. We do this by having an intimate knowledge of dozens of top rated best life insurance companies and no medical life insurance companies. In this article, we’ll offer you more information about Guardian Life Insurance so that you can decide if it’s the right company for you.
About Guardian Life Insurance
Guardian Life Insurance has been around for a long time—150 years! For a life insurance company—or any company—to be in business for that long says a lot. Guardian has made a name for themselves as a trustworthy mutual life insurance company with solid financial strength. Having survived and thrived during many economic crises over the last century and a half, shows just how committed Guardian is to their policyholders.
And being a mutual life insurance company has its perks for policyholders. The company operates for the best interests of its policyholders, rather than as a stock company that has to be on the lookout for its stock holders, much to the detriment of policyholders at times.
Over the years, Guardian has grown to be not only one of the most well-known life insurance companies, but also one of the largest. They employ more than 5,000 employees across the globe.
In a 2017 Harris Poll, Guardian Life Insurance Company was named the 2017 Life Insurance Brand of the Year, as the most trusted life insurance brand.
Guardian Life Insurance Ratings
Sometimes it’s difficult to know which financial institutions to trust, particularly in today’s economic climate. To keep customers more informed, third-party ratings organizations assess financial institutions such as life insurance companies. They delve deep into their numbers to help assess financial strength and future prospect. Guardian Life Insurance has received great ratings by four of the most reliable rating agencies:
- A.M. Best Company rating of A++
- Standard & Poor’s: AA+
- Fitch: AA+
- Moody’s: Aa2
These ratings say a lot about Guardian Life Insurance as a company; when you purchase a life insurance policy with them, you don’t need to worry about the ongoing viability of the company. It is as rock solid as they come.
Types of Policies offered by Guardian Life Insurance
Guardian Life Insurance has a product list similar to most life insurance companies in the market consisting of term life insurance vs permanent life insurance.
Term Life
This is an affordable level term life insurance policy that is valid for the duration of time you are looking for coverage. For example, if you have school age children and only want a life insurance policy valid until they’re an adult, you may opt for a 15 year policy. During this time, your beneficiary will receive the full value of the policy.
However, at fifteen years you have to renew the policy or it will not be valid. That is one drawback to term life. It works well initially, but as you age, your cost of insurance (COI) goes up with your age. That means your term life at age 60 is a lot more expensive than it was at age 40.
So what can you do?
An additional benefit of Guardian Life's term product is it is also convertible life insurance. You can convert all or a portion of your policy to permanent life insurance, such as the whole life insurance product below.
Just how much is term life? See our life insurance rates by age chart for sample term and universal life rates.
Whole Life
This lasts just as long as it sounds—your whole life. A whole life insurance policy is more expensive than a term life policy, but it accumulates cash value even while you are alive, and the payout will be available to a life insurance beneficiary even if you die when you’re 100!
Whole life insurance has several things going for it, particularly its guarantees: guaranteed death benefit protection for your entire life, guaranteed fixed premium payments and guaranteed cash value growth.
In addition to those guarantees, whole life from the Guardian Life Insurance Company offers dividends to participating policyholders. Dividends can be used to pay premium payments for a period of time, you can take the dividend as a cash out payment, you can use the dividend to pay down existing policy loans, and you can use dividends to purchase paid up additions.
Universal Life
This is another lifelong policy. However, a Universal Life policy has more flexibility when it comes to payment and face amount. For some, this is the best type of life insurance policy. You can research more on the benefits of Indexed Universal Life.
How much will a Guardian Life Insurance policy cost?
Just like with all life insurance companies, Guardian Life Insurance will collect a lot of information about you. Then, they will decide whether or not to underwrite your policy, and at what price.
Why is that?
The reason that Guardian Life Insurance may be the best life insurance company for some people and not for other is because each and every life insurance company has their own way of calculating a premium.
For example, some companies consider diabetes to be a big deal. However, other companies specialize in diabetic life insurance. In order for someone dealing with diabetes to find the best rates, they will need to apply with the right company.
Guardian Disability Income Insurance
Guardian's Provider Plus Disability Income insurance issued by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America is one of the best disability insurance policies available, and a top choice for us here at TermLife2Go.
If you are not familiar with this type of insurance coverage, you can read our guide to disability insurance to get up to speed. With the chances of suffering a disability before retirement being 2-4 times more likely than death, it is a very important, and often neglected, insurance product.
Guardian is one of the largest disability insurance companies and is in a class of its own when it comes to disability income insurance for white collar professionals. Guardian's disability insurance products are great for professionals, such as physicians and lawyers. But also for start-up business owners and home based business owners. The policy may even be the right choice for certain self-employed occupations. The policies offer some of the highest issue limits in the marketplace and adjustable features and benefits sure to meet your needs.
The companies main product offering that we will address today is its ProVider Plus long term disability insurance policy.
ProVider Plus snapshot:
- Own Occupation Disability Insurance
- Non-Cancellable and Guaranteed Renewable
- Issue ages 18-60
- Available for most occupational classes
- Elimination periods 30, 60, 90, 180, 360 or 720 days
- Benefit periods 2, 5 and 10 years, to age 65 and to age 67.
- Available riders:
- Lump Sum Disability Benefit Rider
- Graded Lifetime Indemnity for Total Disability
- Student Loan Protection Rider
- Additional Monthly Benefit
- Catastrophic Disability Benefit
- Cost of Living Adjustment
- Residual Disability Benefit
- Unemployment Waiver of Premium
- Retirement Protection Plus Disability Benefit
- Automatic Benefit Enhancement
- Future Increase Option
- Partial Disability Benefit
- Social Insurance Substitute
For Guardian's disability income insurance quotes or to compare it to the other companies we represent, please give us a call today and speak to an experienced disability insurance agent.
How do I know if Guardian Life Insurance is right for me?
Like we said, Guardian Life Insurance has been around for more than 150 years for a reason—they’re a great life insurance company. However, whether or not they’re the best for you, we can’t yet say. What we suggest is that first you give Guardian Life Insurance a call and see what they’re going to offer you. After you do that, give us at TermLife2Go a call.
