United Life Insurance Review (2024)

Pros Explained

• Outstanding customer service: United Life strives to provide excellent customer service. While many companies claim to focus on customer care, United Life’s excellent customer complaint index score backs up its assertion. In fact, the company received even fewer complaints than our best life insurance companies.
• Same-day decision available: Waiting a long time to see if you qualify for life insurance can be frustrating. With United Life, you may be able to skip the medical exam and receive a decision on the same day you apply for some of its policies.
• Wide range of policy offerings: United Life offers a very respectable policy portfolio. In addition to term coverage, the company offers universal life, and whole life policies.
• Offers a disability income rider: The company offers the ability to add a rider which will provide income in the event that you become disabled. This rider is not commonly available among life insurers, making United Life a good option if you’re interested in it.

Cons Explained

• Limited information available on website: United Life’s website is fairly slim. It doesn’t provide much information about individual policies or terms and conditions. If you need more details, you’ll need to call an agent.
• No online quotes: Many insurers provide online quotes for term policies without requiring that you contact an agent. Not so with United Life.

Complaint Index

United Life provides excellent customer care. In 2020 it received just one customer complaint with the NAIC. Similarly, it received zero complaints in 2021, and just three in 2022. This gives it the lowest NAIC complaint index of all 91 life insurance companies we reviewed.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) calculates an annual complaint index that measures the number of complaints a company received relative to its size. A complaint index of 1.00 indicates the company received the number of complaints expected based on its size. An index greater than 1.00, means the company received more complaints than expected, and an index lower than 1.00 means it received fewer.

United Life received complaint indices of 0.12 in 2020, 0.00 in 2021, and 0.06 in 2022. This indicates that customers are happy enough to rarely if ever file complaints against the company.

Third-Party Rating

United Life is in a solid financial position. AM Best specializes in evaluating the financial strength of insurance companies. It looks at the ability of an insurer to pay policyholder claims and at other metrics before assigning a grade.

United Life’s AM Best score is an A- (Excellent). While some insurers are in a better financial position, AM Best’s data shows that United Life is in a solid position to pay claims and meet its ongoing insurance obligations.

Policies Available

United Life sells a respectable range of policy types, offering coverage for various needs.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance policies provide coverage for a set period of time, such as 10, 20 or 30 years. If you die while the policy is in effect, your beneficiaries receive a death benefit. If you’re still alive when the policy expires, you can usually renew it or convert it to a permanent policy. Specific details about United Life's term life policies are not available online.

Universal Life

Universal life (UL) is a type of permanent life insurance that offers death benefit protection and cash value growth. Unlike whole life, universal life gives you the flexibility to adjust your premiums and death benefit.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life is a type of permanent life insurance that offers level premiums and guaranteed death benefit protection for your entire life. Your cash value also grows at a guaranteed rate, making whole life one of the most secure types of life insurance.

Available Riders

Riders are optional features you can add to your life insurance policy. Some are included at no upfront cost, while others may require a small additional premium. United Life offers a variety of riders to help you customize your coverage.

Guaranteed Insurability Rider

The guaranteed insurability rider allows you to purchase additional life insurance coverage in the future without having to prove that you’re insurable. If your health changes throughout the years, this rider ensures you’ll still be able to get the coverage you need, up to a certain age.

Child Rider

Child riders give you the option to add coverage for your dependent children to your life insurance policy. If your child dies while your policy is active, the rider pays out a death benefit. Your child’s coverage is often convertible to a permanent policy once they become an adult.

Waiver of Premium

A waiver of premium rider waives your life insurance premiums under certain circ*mstances, such as if you become disabled and are unable to work. This rider is a good option if you're worried about being able to keep up with your premiums if something happens to you in the future.

Disability Income Rider

The disability income rider pays you a monthly income if you become disabled and cannot work. This can help you cover your living expenses if you're unable to work due to an accident or illness.

Accidental Death Benefit

An accidental death benefit rider pays an additional death benefit if you die in an accident. This rider is a good option if you're worried about your family being financially secure if something happens to you.

Accelerated Death Benefit: Terminal Illness Rider

Accelerated death benefits pay you a portion of your death benefit if you meet certain conditions. The terminal illness rider pays you a part of your death benefit if you're diagnosed with a terminal illness and have a short life expectancy. United Life lets you add this rider to your policy without increasing the cost.

Accelerated Death Benefit: Long-Term Care Rider

Another accelerated death benefit is the long-term care rider. This rider pays you a portion of your death benefit if you can no longer perform daily living activities on your own and need long-term care. The long-term care rider can help you cover the costs of things like nursing homes or in-home caretakers.

Customer Service

You can get in touch with United Life over the phone or by filling out an online form. The primary customer service phone number is 800-637-6318. The website doesn’t list its hours of operation.

Our Methodology: How We Review Life Insurance Carriers

We designed a comprehensive ranking methodology based on consumer priorities and life insurance company fundamentals to rank more than 90 insurers across five general categories: financial stability, customer satisfaction, product and feature variety, the overall buying experience, and cost.

In order to do this, we collected over 5,000 data points and scored each company based on 55 metrics. We grouped metrics by category to see how insurers performed in each; we then weighted category scores to determine how companies performed overall.

To learn more, read our full Life Insurance Methodology.