Bestow Life Insurance is among several companies bringing life insurance into the 21st century.
If you fit the right profile — and many younger adults do — you could have reliable life insurance coverage in force within five minutes.
Getting quality life insurance this quickly would have been impossible just a few short years ago.
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How Does Bestow Life Insurance Work?
Bestow Life Insurance is an online-only life insurance agency launched back in 2016 to make life insurance more accessible to more people.
Before companies like Bestow came along, getting quality life insurance coverage in place could take months. You’d have to deal with paper applications, trips to the post office, home visits from medical professionals with needles, and watching the mail for an approval or denial from underwriters.
Most insurers still work within this traditional framework even if they offer an online application. Bestow Life is different.
You’ll get a streamlined, online application with an automated underwriting process. As a result, you could apply and be approved for coverage within minutes. And because Bestow has partnered with a couple of A-rated life insurance providers, you can get quality coverage along with this quick access to protection.
Is Bestow Life Insurance Right For You?
Bestow works best for younger shoppers in their 20s and 30s.
In fact, Bestow won’t sell you a 20-year term policy if you’re older than 45, and the company won’t cover you at all if you’re 55 or older.
Bestow also isn’t your best option if you have a complicated health history. Traditional life insurance companies require applicants to undergo a medical exam to screen for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and poor overall health.
How Does Bestow’s Underwriting Process Work?
Bestow lets you skip the medical exam, but the company will access a variety of databases to learn about your health before covering you.
Bestow will access:
- Medical Records: If you have a chronic illness, underwriters will know and can deny your application.
- Pharmacy Records: If you need medication to manage a condition, underwriters will see the evidence and can flag your application for more detailed scrutiny.
- Driving Records: Poor driving habits may not doom you to a denial, but they could increase your premiums.
- Prior Insurance Data: The results of prior medical exams from other insurers will be available to underwriters.
An applicant who sails through this digital underwriting process can have great coverage in place within minutes with Bestow. More complicated applicants may have to wait longer or may need to look elsewhere for coverage.
Bottom Line: Bestow works best for a young shopper who needs hassle-free coverage.
Bestow Term Life Insurance
In keeping with its simple, streamlined approach to coverage, Bestow sells only term life insurance.
Term life covers you for a specific period of time but offers no bells or whistles. You pay a monthly (or quarterly or annual) premium in exchange for life insurance protection.
A term policy will not gain equity or any other kind of value beyond the protection it provides your family in case you die. If you died, your family could claim the policy’s death benefit (which maxes out at $1 million with Bestow).
Your partner, children, or other named beneficiaries could use the money as needed to pay off debts, save for college, pay your final expenses, or pay for any other need.
If you live beyond the term limit of your policy — and here’s hoping you do! — your insurance will expire. At that point, you can reassess your insurance needs and decide whether to buy permanent coverage, another term policy or go without coverage.
Types of Term Policies Offered by Bestow
Bestow sells the following types of term policies:
2-Year Term
A 2-year policy can be convenient if you need coverage only temporarily, especially during a transition between other policies or if you’re starting a business. Bestow’s 2-year term policies max out at $500,000 in coverage.
10-Year or 20-Year Term
Bestow offers up to $1 million in coverage with its 10-Year and 20-Year term policies. This coverage works well if you have a young family and need protection while you build a more stable financial life. Naturally, 10-year policies cost less than 20-year policies.
Bestow Offers Up to $ 1 Million in Coverage
When you apply for coverage on Bestow’s Web site or app, you’ll have to decide how much coverage to apply for. A lot of younger insurance shoppers underestimate their coverage needs. After all, $1 million does sound like plenty of money to most of us.
How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?
To come up with a policy that fits your life, consider your debt and your future plans. How would your loved ones fulfill these plans without your income?
Here’s a common way to get a handle on these questions: Your life insurance should replace your income for seven to 10 years.
If you earn $75,000 a year, you’d need up to $750,000 in coverage based on this simple equation.
You may want to add more depending on your specific life plans. If you plan to send your children to private school or an elite university, having a higher coverage amount may be a good idea.
Pros & Cons of Bestow
Making life insurance more accessible to more people is a pretty big pro in my book, and Bestow sets a high standard there.
Pros:
- Flexible Options: The company’s 2-year policy is a rare find, and getting this transitional coverage in place so quickly can simplify your life.
- Quality Coverage: Unlike some new insurance companies, Bestow opted to partner with experienced and reliable insurers giving you more reliability.
- Quick Customer Service: You can reach agents via chat, phone, or email anytime.
- Online Policy Management: After you get covered, you can manage your policy quickly and easily online. If you need to change your beneficiary, change your address, or change your payment method, you shouldn’t have any trouble.
- No Medical Exam: We covered this above, but it’s worth saying again. You can get affordable, medically underwritten coverage without the medical exam. Most no-exam policies charge higher rates.
- Great Rates: Younger people with simple health histories can get coverage for just a few dollars per month. Getting more coverage for a longer term will cost more, but Bestow has competitive rates across all these categories.
Cons:
- Term Policies Only: If you want permanent insurance that accrues value over time and has an investment component, you’ll need to shop elsewhere.
- Fewer Term Options: Shoppers who want a 30-year term policy or a policy exceeding $1 million in coverage will need to keep looking.
- Simple is Best: If you’re 55 or older, or if you have a complicated health history, you’ll need to shop somewhere else. I recommend finding an independent insurance agent who can connect you with an ideal option.
Bottom Line: Coverage Is a Must for Most of Us
Who needs life insurance? Anybody whose financial life intertwines with someone else’s. Your death would be a tragedy no matter what, and you can’t change that.
But if your death would also cause financial chaos for someone else — whether it’s your life partner or your business partner — life insurance can help.
For years younger people went without life insurance because they didn’t have time to haggle with agents and schedule medical exams.
Now, with companies like Bestow, you have no excuse for going without coverage.
Bestow Life Insurance Summary
- Best For: Someone young and healthy, looking for hassle-free coverage.
- Policies: 2-, 10-, 20-year term only
- Coverage: $500,000 max for 2-year term; $1 million max for 10- or 20-year term
- Ratings: Policies backed by A-rated insurers according to A.M. Best
- Customer Service: Available via online chat, email, or phone
- Age Requirement: 45 and younger for 20-year term; 54 and younger for 10-year or 2-year term
- Medical Exam: Not required; database checks only
- Rates: Competitive, especially for no-exam coverage
- In-Person Staff: None; online or app only
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