Are you overweight? Do you want to get insured? Looking for a credible life insurance company? Well, we’ve written Prudential Life Insurance review to walk you through this company’s ability to pay claims.

Prudential Life Insurance is one of the most renowned life insurance company providing financial services across 40 countries. This company is servicing billions of people, bearing a long list of subsidiaries. With more than a trillion in Prudential’s managed assets, they are a huge name in the world of finance.

In 2013, Prudential Life Insurance is hailed as the second largest life insurance company in the United States. Following Metlife based on assets, this company has proven its stability throughout the years. In 2017, they also ranked in the biggest life insurance companies in the world.

Prudential Life Insurance products are concentrated in providing individuals with life insurance, while some of these products have something to do with financial services. Prudential provides annuities and an array of investments and funds, both individually and for businesses.

Their logo, the Strait of Gibraltar, signifies strength, stability, and resiliency.  Their slogan, “Get a piece of the rock.” is known by both investors and non-investors. This brand has been in business for almost 140 years, helping people support their families even after their time of passing.

Prudential’s Humble Beginnings

Found in 1875 by John Fairfield Dryden in Newark, New Jersey, Pru was a product of an ambitious life insurance agent. The company was first headquartered in a small basement office. They were previously named “The Prudential Friendly Society”. Dryden envisions to make life insurance coverage accessible to people from all walks of life, even the working class people. Dryden’s products are sold primarily as industrial insurance, which provides both burial and funeral coverage for families below the minimum wage. In this incredible time, some of the premiums can be as cheap as three cents a week. This gave the working class a chance to afford a sound plan for their future, and these life insurance policies sold fast.

After a few years of selling these affordable life insurance packages, they have expanded their operations to the New York City and into Philadelphia, having more working classes to purchase their affordable life insurance policies. Within a successful ten years, Prudential was able to reach the 1 million policy mark.

Prudential ceased selling their three-cent a week policies back in 1892. Due to high demands, they brought them back in 1907. Prudential then expanded to Canada after 2 years, marking their start to becoming an international company. In a matter of two years, Prudential reached the 10-million mark of policies. With their aggressive expansion and tremendous growth, they were placed in the forefront of the financial and insurance industry.

Back in 1923, Prudential Life Insurance wrote its very first group pension plan. They then moved to create insurance policies for retirement and providing financial services. From Los Angeles, to different parts of  America, Prudential Life started opening offices in different cities. Back in 1961, Prudential has established itself even more into popularity after purchasing the Empire State Building.

As the years progress into 70’s to 80’s, the Prudential Life Insurance company once again made a mark for becoming a front-runner of individual financial services. They were the first major life insurance carrier that offers individual annuities. Prudential Life Insurance was also the first major life insurance carrier providing people with individual annuities by writing the first variable life policy. Prudential Life Insurance also entered the market in real estate by 1980’s and became a very successful name in real estate. These include agencies that help in buying and selling operations for homes across the United States.

Today, Prudential’s headquarters can be found in Newark, New Jersey. They have offices around the world, selling life insurance and financial products. Prudential Life Insurance is part of the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 lists, which certifies them to be one of the biggest and most influential companies across the globe.

Prudential sells individual life insurance policies but also is present in the group benefits market. They offer insurances to employers as a voluntary benefit for their onshore team. Some of their benefits include individual life insurance policies, disability insurance, 401ks, and other retirement options.

Policies are then sold through agents, unlike Protective Life Insurance and other life insurance carriers.

Prudential’s Product Roll

Prudential’s list of products for the life insurance can be one on of the best in life insurance carriers. Apart from their life insurance products, they also sell investment, stocks, and annuities. Annuities can fit into both categories for life insurance and investments. Hi BMI listed each one of Pru’s products to help you determine which do you need.

Prudential Life’s Life Insurance Products

Prudential ’s life insurance product roll is one of the vastest in the industry, offering three main types and flexible options for each. Pru features a long list of riders to add on most policies for better protection and coverage. This allows customers to create their own customized life insurance policy to suffice the coverage their family needs.

Universal Life Insurance

 

Prudential has five different Universal Life products, each of which has distinctive features. These policies are holistic, offering flexible premiums with lifetime coverage. To top it all off, they have guaranteed death benefits.

 

• PruLife Universal Plus- This policy offers a guaranteed death benefit and the accumulation of cash value.

 

• • PruLife Universal Protector– A basic Universal life insurance plan offering a guaranteed death benefit. Unlike Prulife Universal Plus, Prulife Universal Protector does not have a cash accumulation feature,
  • PruLife SUL Protector- This policy is best for married couples protecting an estate. This is a policy featuring survivorship, in which it covers two people in one insurance policy. The policy’s death benefit is paid out after the death of the second person. Most couples purchase this type of policy to cut costs, as it covers two people for the cost of one, individual life insurance policy.
  • PruLife Founder Plus- If you are wanting to secure the future of your family or need to withdraw money from the policy for unforeseen needs, PruLife Founder Plus offers all of the benefits a universal policy gives. This comes along with potential cash disbursements after the policy owner reaches retirement. In addition, it includes an accelerated benefit rider.

 

• PruLife Index Advantage- Well, if you are looking for a universal life insurance product that can have a growth potential and give you returns, this might be a great start. This policy features all of the basics of a universal life insurance, including an S&P Index 500-tied accumulation account. Lastly, PruLife Index Advantage includes an accelerated death benefit rider.

 

Variable Universal Life Insurance

Prudential Life Insurance offers two main types of this Variable Universal life insurance. They have their own customization features that the policy owner can choose from.

 

• PruLife SVUL Protector- This type of policy offers a secured guarantee and gives the insured an opportunity to engage on investment risks for the possibility of getting higher returns in the future.

 

• PruLife Custom Premier II-  This product from Prudential has everything in the usual variable policy. The built-in feature includes the Return of Premium option.

 

• VUL Protector– Featuring a fixed or variable death benefit option, this is the traditional variable policy bearing all the benefits of universal life insurance policies. VUL Protector gives higher opportunities for the growth of the policy owner’s investment.

Term Life Insurance

Prudential Life Insurance features five variations of term life insurance policies. These types of policies have their specific benefits and coverage options that the policy owner can customize. Term life insurance policies provided by Prudential Life Insurance is convertible and offer guaranteed premiums while the insured is still in the initial term.

 

• • Term Essential-  Prudential Life Insurance’s basic term life option is called “Term Essential”. This is the type of life insurance that comes in 15-30 year terms and offers a conversion feature.It can be converted by the end of the term or if the insured turns 65, whichever comes first.  Term Essential is considered an affordable option since it offers basic coverage in terms of peak necessity. This gives the policy owner both the convenience of costs and security- with its convertible feature they can use when time comes.
  • Term Elite-  Compared to the Term Essential policy, Term Elite is designed to be somewhat similar to that of a permanent life insurance. This can be converted anytime after the policy has been in force, for at least five years since its activation.
  • My Term- The fastest and simplest way to obtain a life insurance coverage for people that are overweight or obese. This type of policy offers a fast yet simple way to be covered without waiting for weeks to get approved. Coverage amount comes in increments of $25,000. These can range from $50,000 up to a maximum of $250,000/

 

• PruTerm WorkLife 65- This type of policy is designed to give coverage up until the insured reaches the age of retirement or 65 years of age. This way, the policy gets easily converted with premiums guaranteed up to the age of 65.

 

• • PruTerm One- A single-year type of renewable policy. PruTerm One is designed to last up unto five years. PruTerm One is designed to give only a temporary coverarge for the insured in a brief number of years. This gives them an easy and affordable way towards getting insured in a permanent coverage. This gives the insured a chance to convert annually until it reaches the 5th year.

 

• PruTerm Return of Premium- If you want to challenge your ability to live longer, this is the perfect life insurance to motivate you to keep yourself at the peak of health. This unusual term life insurance policy guarantees the return of premiums if the insured outlives the entire term of the life insurance policy. This term life insurance policy is available in 15, 20 to 30-year terms and can be converted.

 

Claims Processing

You can either file a claim online through Prudential Life’s website, and you can call them through their toll-free hotline to report claims at 1-800-778-2255. This line can be reached on Pru’s open business hours, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 8pm Eastern time.

If you happen to work with their representatives, you can also file a claim through them.

Prudential’s online claim application is a great feature. Since not all life insurance companies provide this access due to the sensitive and confidential nature of claims application, the website contains all of the documents the applicants need to complete. The website also includes what to expect in the entire claims process.

If you would opt to continue the claims process through the phone with the help of a customer service representative, you may call 1-855-277-8061.

Once the claim is successfully filed through these methods, Prudential will be sending you required forms to be filled out. This will be coming along with sets of instructions on how you can complete the entire claims processing process. The packet will be sent to your beneficiaries for them to fill out, and it includes a return envelope so they can send everything back as required. For your beneficiaries to be able to claim your death benefit, a death certificate is required among all the other documents.

Once you have completed the claims documents and shipped it back to Prudential, the life insurance carrier will now check the policy to determine benefits. Prudential will then verify the claims details. The time frame as to how soon the claims will be released depends on the circumstances the insured passed away. These claims may require further investigation than other cases.

Prudential Life’s Ratings:

A.M. Best, the most well-sought opinion in the credit rating industry, gave Prudential Life Insurance an A+ rating. This makes Prudential one of the most trusted life insurance carrier, as A+ from A.M. Best stands their superior ability to uphold and pay out existing life insurance policies.

Prudential Life Insurance also received an AA- from Standard & Poor’s, A1 from Moody’s and A+ from Fitch.

Customer Reviews

Complaints against Prudential Life Insurance on ConsumerAffaris.com is not that concerning. Most of the complaints are about the carrier’s refusal to pay out their claims, problems with accessing and receiving the benefits and of course, unresponsive customer service portals.

Meanwhile, in J.D. Power’s 2016 Life Insurance Study of life insurance carriers, Prudential earned an “Average” rating- only three out of five rating to signify overall customer satisfaction. Prudential scored three out of five in all of the survey’s aspects such as affordability, policy benefits and customer interaction.

Feedbacks from customers can be quite alarming due to the rising number of complaints concerning obtaining their benefits. The complaints are directed not only for the life insurance products, but the same goes for annuities and investments. Of all the 99 customer ratings found, 70 of them are one-star rated. This can be a crucial driver to draw people off of sealing a deal with Prudential Life Insurance.

Little more concerning can be the complaints that claims Prudential gave them poor customer service. Some complain about the slow response time and negligent handling, sometimes not helpful at all.

Takeaways

Prudential Life Insurance undeniably is a notable life insurance carrier. Not only does it have a huge name in securing people their future, but they have proved it years and years before. Prudential has a great product lineup with different options for customer personalization. While Prudential’s rate may not be the lowest in the industry, they have pretty decent offers. Prudential offers different variations of life insurance policies which makes them a more flexible choice for individuals with specific needs. Prudential is a one-stop shop for everyone that has financial planning needs. This allows them to handle their needs for a retirement plan and life insurance coverage by working with one life insurance carrier.

If you are a family person and have very specific needs for life insurance, you might want to consider Prudential Life. They are likely to become a choice for your employer or a part of your voluntary benefits.

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