North American Life Insurance Review

North American Life Insurance was founded in 1886 is a part of the Sammons Financial Group Inc. which is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. North American has received strong ratings from A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s. They achieved US$ 100 billion life insurance policies in force in the year 2000.

By: admin Posted: September 28, 2010 Filed under: Life Insurance

The Good

Rated A+ from A.M. Best and S&P’s • Well Established Experienced Company • Various Flexible and Customizable Life Insurance Plans

The Bad

Online Quote Not Available • Slightly Inconvenient to Make Contact

Overview

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Policies / Plans

North American provides three basic life insurance plans:

Term Life Insurance

North American offers the ADDvantage® Term Life Insurance plan where customers may choose from paying level premium amounts for a fixed period of 10, 15, 20 or up to 30 years. Customers may also opt for additional riders and/or endorsements that permits them to customize the plan in accordance with their individual needs. This plan also has an option to convert all of the coverage to a permanent life insurance plan should customers’ needs change in the future.

Universal Life Insurance

There are several plans offered under the North American Universal Life Insurance plan. All these plans offer permanent guaranteed death benefit protection with the opportunity for cash value accumulation for policy holders. All the universal life insurance plans offered by North American have provisions for partial withdrawal of cash value (and death benefits, depending on the plan). Policy holders will have the option of taking up loans as well and premium payments are flexible, be it amount or frequency of payments. The plans vary according to the level of coverage, type of cash value accrual, type of withdrawals and loans, premium payments and lock-in periods.

Indexed Universal Life Insurance

For North American’s Indexed Universal Life Insurance plans, customers may choose to emphasize either to build cash value or to maximize on death benefit protection. Should the customer choose to emphasize on cash value accrual, North American offers either short term or long term cash accrual. For customers that place more emphasis on maximizing death benefit protection, North American offers two options, providing death benefit protection even up to the age of 120 years for one individual or the plan can be extended to two individuals, whereby death benefits are only paid out upon the second insured’s death. These plans offered will be linked to the performance of one or more stock market indices without directly participating in the stock market or invested directly into stocks, equities or bonds and thereby earning tax-deferred interest for the policy holder.

All the life insurance plans offered by North American have provisions for riders, either built-in or add-ons that may incur extra premium payments. These riders range from accelerated death benefit, chronic illness accelerated benefit, no lapse guarantee and an option to include any child under the age of 18 years, among others.

Pricing / Rates

North American Life Insurance plans are competitively priced and because of the variety of plans that are available are flexible with fully customizable features, there is a life insurance plan that will suit every budget and every need. Customers will have an option to convert or add-on or adjust their life insurance policy to accommodate for any change in financial circumstances that they may undergo in the future or any change in their lifestyle.

Getting A Quote

Quotes can only be obtained through North American’s agents or representatives and there is no means of requesting for an agent to contact the customer from their official website.

Customer Service

North American’s official website is not very customer service-oriented i.e. there are no Customer FAQs, it is not possible for customers to view the details of their policy online although customers can easily obtain printable service forms online. In addition to this, there is no way for the customer to directly contact North American via their website as customer email request forms are not available. Customers may contact North American through the addresses, non toll-free telephone numbers stated and their corporate email address.

Their team will treat you well, although your experience will not always be stellar. At the end of the day though, their customer support staff gets the job done and we have rated it accordingly.

Summary

Policies / Plans Rating:

Policies / Plans:

North American provides three basic life insurance plans: Term Life Insurance North American offers the ADDvantage® Term Life Insurance plan where customers may choose from paying level premium amounts for a fixed period of 10, 15, 20 or up to 30 years. Customers may also opt for additional riders and/or endorsements that permits them to customize the plan in accordance with their individual needs. This plan also has an option to convert all of the coverage to a permanent life insurance plan should customers’ needs change in the future. Universal Life Insurance There are several plans offered under the North American Universal Life Insurance plan. All these plans offer permanent guaranteed death benefit protection with the opportunity for cash value accumulation for policy holders. All the universal life insurance plans offered by North American have provisions for partial withdrawal of cash value (and death benefits, depending on the plan). Policy holders will have the option of taking up loans as well and premium payments are flexible, be it amount or frequency of payments. The plans vary according to the level of coverage, type of cash value accrual, type of withdrawals and loans, premium payments and lock-in periods. Indexed Universal Life Insurance For North American’s Indexed Universal Life Insurance plans, customers may choose to emphasize either to build cash value or to maximize on death benefit protection. Should the customer choose to emphasize on cash value accrual, North American offers either short term or long term cash accrual. For customers that place more emphasis on maximizing death benefit protection, North American offers two options, providing death benefit protection even up to the age of 120 years for one individual or the plan can be extended to two individuals, whereby death benefits are only paid out upon the second insured’s death. These plans offered will be linked to the performance of one or more stock market indices without directly participating in the stock market or invested directly into stocks, equities or bonds and thereby earning tax-deferred interest for the policy holder. All the life insurance plans offered by North American have provisions for riders, either built-in or add-ons that may incur extra premium payments. These riders range from accelerated death benefit, chronic illness accelerated benefit, no lapse guarantee and an option to include any child under the age of 18 years, among others.

Pricing / Rates Rating:

Getting A Quote Rating:

Getting A Quote:

Quotes can only be obtained through North American’s agents or representatives and there is no means of requesting for an agent to contact the customer from their official website.

Customer Service Rating:

Overall Rating:

7.00

Based on the factors stated, North American Life Insurance scored what it did. It appears extremely inconvenient to request for a quote or even to contact their customer service representatives although their life insurance products are not only flexible and customizable but are also relatively affordable.