Welcome to InsureChance, a top online life insurance agency that provides unbiased comparison shopping with all the top “A” rated companies. You probably came to our website after seeing a commercial, being approached by AXA agent or simply seen their logo on tennis or soccer championship event. Regardless of how you heard of them, today we will cover all the information you need to know about AXA insurance company to help you make an educated decision. AXA is definitely one of the top companies out there and their reputation has been solidified for over a century now and they offer a ton of products to meet your different needs. They are focused on both individual and group insurance markets, in addition to that, they operate worldwide. Here is a quick summary below to give you some main highlights of them as a company but for more detailed breakdown feel free to read our entire article.
In Summary, here is what you need to know about AXA Life:
- They are definitely one of the top insurers and have an A+ rating with A.M. Best. The company has been around since 1859, which makes it one of the oldest insurers.
- AXA has a large portfolio of products including annuities, life insurance, investment accounts and much more. Their life insurance products include term life, whole life, universal life and variable universal life.
- They offer a term life insurance product for 1,10, 15 or 20 years. Their term plans come with a build in terminal illness rider which will advance a portion of your benefit while you still alive.(not available for the 1-year plan) You can also convert the plan to one of their permanent life products with guaranteed approval.
- Their permanent plans include whole life, universal life and variable universal life.
- Their premiums are not the most competitive but you’re getting a very strong provider.
- They offer plans through agencies like ours and local agents. (Life insurance rates are fixed by the law thats why it’s in your best interest to work with an independent broker)
- Their underwriting decisions are aggressive for people with preexisting conditions. The underwriting is also great with their permanent life insurance plans.
- If you decide to apply, you’ll have to complete an application, medical examination and in some cases medical records.
Company
This is definitely one of the more larger and financially stable life insurers in the market. They have an A.M. Best rating of A+, Moody’s rating of Aa3 and S&P rating of AA-. In simple words, these are some of the highest ratings an insurance company can receive so you’re in good hands. They also have been around since 1889 which means they have survived two world wars and the great depression so they are definitely not a fly by night operation. If you’re into the BBB standing they have an A+ rating with them as well.
When it comes to their financials they do pack a punch since the carrier has about $588.6 billion dollars under management. In other words, they won’t have a problem writing your loved one’s a check if there is ever a claim. So from a reliability and financial performance they are definitely superior in comparison to other insurers.
The company does also offer many products that can be used for all life stages and situations. They not only focus on life insurance products but also retirement, investments and a broad spectrum of benefits for employer groups. For retirement, they offer annuities and individual retirement accounts. If you’re into investing they have brokerage accounts and mutual funds too. But we are focusing on their life insurance products so let’s review them.
Plans
AXA offers both term and permanent life insurance products. Typically we recommend term insurance to young families who need affordable premiums to cover their families for higher amounts of coverage during the growing years. Permanent life insurance is ideal for individuals over 50 who are more concerned with final expenses, legacy transfer or estate planning. In some cases, permanent life insurance can be used as an investment since it builds cash value. Each of these different types of plans comes with add ons known as riders, feel free to read more about riders here.
Term Life Insurance
You can obtain a term life insurance plan with AXA for 1 year, 10-year, 15-year or 20-year term coverage options. The term life insurance plan is the most popular because you can get a high amount of coverage for a small monthly premium which will protect your family when the kids are young and the mortgage is still being paid off. AXA’s term plan is also known as BrightLife Term. The premiums and benefits are locked in for the term you choose and will never increase in cost.
In addition to being a fixed level coverage, the plan is convertible which means you can turn it into a permanent life insurance policy without having to prove insurability. Which gives you peace of mind knowing that should you become uninsurable you can always switch the plan over to get lifetime coverage while retaining your health rating you originally got. This option is available before your term expires or prior to age 70, whichever comes first.
The plan also comes with a renewability option which allows you to renew coverage annually after the term expires and once again with guaranteed insurability. We don’t recommend this option unless you’re completely uninsurable for a new plan since your premiums will go up every year.
In addition to this, there are some more riders that you can select for your life insurance plan. Some are built in at no charge while others can be added onto your plan for an extra premium.
Accelerated Benefits Rider – this is a built-in feature that advances a portion of your death benefit to you if you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness with life expectancy of 12 months or less. No extra premium is required as it automatically comes with the plan.
Child Rider – an extra charge option that allows your children to have life insurance under your policy. The best part is that your kids can convert it to a permanent option without proof of insurability. The cost of this rider is the same regardless of how many children you have.
Disability Premium Rider – an extra cost option that will waive your life insurance premiums in the event you get disabled.
Universal Life Insurance
Axa offers a universal life policy that will provide fixed premium rates and protection until age 90. This is an ideal plan for people that would like to get coverage longer then 20-year term life insurance. Universal life plans are also more competitive in premiums than a whole life or other types of universal life such as variable or indexed universal life plans.
In addition to fixed level lifetime coverage, these plans do accumulate cash value which is available to withdraw after the first policy year. The minimum withdrawal amount is $500 or higher. The money that grows in you cash value can grow tax deferred and you can withdraw up to the surrender value as a loan.
This policy does offer two death benefit options which are option A and option B. Option A is where your family only gets the death benefit and if you withdraw funds from your cash value it will reduce the death benefit if the withdrawal is higher than the extra cash value. Option B is a great one since your family would get the death benefit plus the cash value accumulation. This is a great option since the cash value accumulation would increase the payout to adjust for inflation.
Here are some policy add-ons:
Disability Premium Rider – an extra cost option that will waive your life insurance premiums in the event you get disabled.
Long-Term Care Services Rider – you can get a portion of your face amount in the event that you require long-term care.
Option to Purchase Additional Insurance – this particular rider lets you purchase additional coverage in the future with guaranteed insurability.
Whole Life Insurance
The name of their whole life plan is interest sensitive whole life, a lifetime plan that provides coverage until age 100. Just like universal life this plan provides level benefits that won’t go up along with a lifetime protection. The big difference is that the cash value returns on this policy are guaranteed, so you may not get a larger interest return but you also don’t take the risk.
These are ideal policies for people wanting to leave something behind to their children or grandchildren, pay for estate taxes or to use for charitable giving. You can also withdraw cash value from these policies if you ever need to. This plan comes with disability premium rider, living benefits rider, children’s term insurance rider. Another cool feature with whole life plans is that the cash value equals the death benefit at age 100. If you’re part of the lucky few that will live longer then a century you get to keep the death benefit.
Variable Universal Life
Built on the same chassis as a regular universal life policy but with an aggressive cash value component. This is an ideal policy for people that have maximized all their other tax-deferred investments such as 401k, IRA and are now looking for another tax-deferred investment with aggressive returns. This policy performance is dependent on the investments you choose so if you have great returns your policy will have a large upside with the tax benefit. However, since it based on performance if the market returns are in the red it will affect your policy negatively. As you can see this is by far the riskiest permanent life insurance policy but also with the large return potential for your cash values. AXA does have a few variations of this policy which one of them would have a cap on returns along with downside protection.
Application Process
The application process with AXA is similar to all other large companies. If you find a plan that fits your needs and budget with them you’ll have to complete an application that will ask for all your personal information, beneficiary designations and a long list of health questions. Once the application is signed, a medical exam will be scheduled where a nurse will come out to you home to check your height, weight, blood pressure reading and take a blood/urine sample to send to the labs. After the exam, the company may also request your medical records. All in all the process from beginning to end takes about 4 to 6 weeks on average. If you’re looking for a faster policy we recommend a no medical exam plan since you can get up to $500,000 almost instantly.
Once your policy is approved you’ll know your final rate since the company underwriter will review all your information and assign you a rate class. The rate classes are preferred plus, preferred, standard plus, standard and substandard. Your overall health, lifestyle, family history and tobacco usage will determine the class you get. When you accept the life insurance offer the company will mail out the policy to you at which point you do have a 30 day free look period which allows you to get your first month’s payment back if you decide you don’t want the policy.
This may seem like an intimidating process just to get a life insurance policy but if you work with the right agency(cough..insurechance) they will take care of all the steps for you and monitor your policy to the end.
Service
AXA has amazing credentials and outstanding life insurance products. However, they fall short on customer service end. Lots of customers report frustrations when dealing with the carrier’s customer service and long delays to make policy changes. This is a huge downfall for them but there is a way to get their awesome plans and still get outstanding service. The key is to work with an agency that provides their clients with lifetime support when they have questions or need to make updates to their policy.
Work with Us
Based on all the information it makes sense why AXA is a wonderful company to fall back on if something was to ever happen to you. Even still we believe that you should always shop around with all the companies in the marketplace since each company will look at you differently and have varying premium pricing. At InsureChance we provide unbiased comparison shopping with all the top rated life insurers at no extra cost to you. If you’re interested in securing a policy with AXA or would like to shop around, simply select the options on our side quoter or call us at 888-492-1967. Welcome to InsureChance!
