Guardian Life whole life insurance review

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Our take: 

Guardian ranks highly among some of the largest mutual companies in the U.S., with lower-than-average rates for term life insurance and a highly rated whole life product. 

The company also scores well for overall customer satisfaction. And, in a wide-ranging survey of insurance consumers conducted by Insure.com, the handful of Guardian life insurance customers who responded said they would renew their policies with the company.

With excellent financial ratings, Guardian is a life insurance company that won’t have trouble paying claims, which makes it a solid choice.

Best whole life insurance ranking: In a separate Insure.com ranking of companies that looked just at those offering whole life insurance, Guardian was ranked fifth. The company received 3.47 stars out of a possible 5 stars (which we rounded to 3.5 stars in our whole life ranking). The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has recorded a low number of complaints about the company. The insurer scored well for historical performance, receiving 5 stars. It also received 4.6 stars for its account access.

Below is a look at how Guardian rated across the categories Insure.com considered for its whole life insurance ranking.

Guardian Life
Guardian Life Ratings
Overall Rating:
Financial strength:
Cost competitiveness:
Pricing stability:
Account access:
Historical performance:

Insure.com’s review of the entire company and its line of life insurance products follows. This review is based on third-party metrics and our survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here , including an explanation of our survey scores.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Guardian has an A++ rating from AM Best
  • The company scores well for overall customer satisfaction
Cons:
  • The handful of Guardian customers who were asked about the company’s policy offerings didn’t give it high marks.

How much does Guardian cost?

Because term life is generally the most straightforward and affordable life insurance product, Insure.com used premiums collected by CompuLife to evaluate Guardian’s term life offerings. 

The table below shows how much life insurance from Guardian costs annually compared with rates from its competitors, according to 2022 data. The numbers below show premiums for a 35-year-old non-smoker purchasing $500,000 in term coverage that lasts 20 years from Guardian. The cost is compared to the annual average of nine insurers surveyed by Insure.com. 

Compared to the annual average premium for term life insurance, Guardian is almost 7% cheaper.

Insurance companyAverage annual premium
Guardian$450
Annual average $481
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How Guardian rates for customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a crucial part of rating a life insurance company. 

Guardian performed well on J.D. Power’s Individual Life Insurance Study, which was released in October 2022. The company received 787 out of a possible score of 1,000. That’s above the industry average of 774. J.D. Power grades the experiences of life insurance customers based on their performance in categories such as communication, price and product offerings.

Insurance companyPercent of customers that are satisfiedJ.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000)
Guardian55%787
Transamerica 100%740
Gerber Life93%N/A

How Guardian scores for financial strength

In our whole life insurance rankings, Guardian received a 5-star rating for financial strength, which means it is very likely that it can meet its financial obligations. It also received strong scores from third-party financial rating agencies

Third-party ratingScore for financial strength
AM BestA++ (Superior)
Moody’sAa1 (High quality)
Standard & Poor’sAA+ (Very strong)
COMDEX99 out of 100

How Guardian scores on ease of service

Policyholders want a hassle-free experience when navigating their life insurance coverage, so ease of service is a top priority for many shoppers. Guardian scores a 73% ranking for ease of service, placing it below most of the other companies surveyed by Insure.com. However, as noted earlier, these findings are based only on the handful of Guardian customers who responded to our survey.

Transamerica gets the highest ranking at 90%, while Amica Life gets the lowest ranking at just 58%. 

Insurance companyPercent of customers satisfied with the company overall
Guardian73%
Lincoln Financial86%
Transamerica 90%

How Guardian scores on policy offerings

A good selection of policy offerings helps consumers find the coverage that best meets their individual needs. In our survey, Guardian didn’t do as well as other companies in this category, based on the handful of customers who responded. 

Insurance companyPercent of respondents satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Guardian64%
State Farm 89%
Allstate88%

Do Guardian customers plan to renew?

A full 100% of Guardian customers surveyed by Insure.com say they would renew their policy. That places Guardian in a tie at the top of the survey with many other insurers surveyed.

Insurance companyPercent of survey respondents who find the company best for renewing a policy
Guardian100%
Mutual of Omaha100%
Prudential100%

Guardian term life offerings

Guardian’s term life insurance rates are as affordable as most other insurers evaluated in the Insure.com survey. Most insurers provided coverage for under $500 a year for 35-year-old non-smokers purchasing $500,000 in coverage for a 20-year-term. 

Insurance companyAverage annual premiums
Guardian$450
Transamerica$431
Farmers $614

Guardian whole life offerings

Insure.com analyzed survey responses to determine how Guardian ranks amongst whole life insurance providers. Guardian earns a 36% score with policyholders who think the company is best for whole life offerings. That places the company first in the survey, ahead of State Farm’s 30%.

Insurance companyPercent of respondents who are satisfied with the company’s whole life offerings
Guardian36%
State Farm 30%
Gerber27%

Guardian life product details

Other services offered

  • Annuities
  • Disability insurance
  • Vision insurance
  • Supplemental health insurance
  • Investment and brokerage services

States where Guardian offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Guardian offers coverage
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
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About Guardian Life

Guardian has been in business for more than 160 years — it issued its first policy to a cigar merchant in July 1860. The company currently serves 29 million consumers and has $776 billion of life insurance in force.

In 2022, Guardian reported $90.1 billion in assets under management, $13 billion in premiums and that it paid out $7 billion in benefits to policyholders.

AM Best gives Guardian an A++ rating.

Company background

Guardian Life

Company address: 10 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001

Company website:https://www.guardianlife.com/

Company email: Contact company online through website

Company phone: 212-598-8000

Resources and Methodology

Sources:

Guardian.“Behind every new chapter is a Guardian.” Accessed June 2023.

Guardian. “Life Insurance.” Accessed June 2023.

Guardian. “About our company.” Accessed June 2023.

Guardian. “Fact sheet.” Accessed June 2023.

J.D. Power. “Individual Life Insurance Study.” Accessed June 2023.

Methodology

The best whole life insurance company rankings are based on a conglomerate of Veralytic and third-party data, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives, and the Better Business Bureau, which scores how well a company works with its customers. The data was weighed to create a final star ranking, one being the lowest and five being the highest. Each data point was weighed as follows: 

  • Financial strength: 20% of total score
  • Cost competitiveness: 20% of total score
  • Price stability: 15% of total score
  • Account access and restrictions: 10% of total score
  • Historical performance: 15% of total score
  • NAIC: 10% of total score
  • BBB: 10% of total score

The average annual whole life insurance rates are based on rates from male and female 35-year-olds who are in excellent health or smoke tobacco. The policies are paid up until age 100. The rates are an average of rates from 12 different policies from: AIG, American National Insurance Company, Banner Life, Midland National, Nationwide, North American Company, Pacific Life, Protective, United State Life Insurance Company of New York, and Penn Mutual. Some insurers in this list provided rates for more than one type of whole life insurance company.

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Chris Kissell
Contributing Researcher

 
  

Chris Kissell is a Denver-based writer and editor with work featured on U.S. News & World Report, MSN Money, Fox Business, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Money Talks News and more.

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