Prudential life insurance review and ratings 2023

Prudential ranks fifth in Insure.com’s Best Life Insurance Companies rankings, getting 3.4 out of 5 stars. Most customers we surveyed said they would renew their policy with the insurer.

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Our take

Prudential earns strong loyalty from customers surveyed by Insure.com, with most reporting they would renew their policy with the insurer. 

The company also received high marks for customer satisfaction and trustworthiness.

Overall, Prudential ranked fifth in the Insure.com Best Life Insurance Companies ranking and earned 3.4 stars out of 5. 

Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.

prudential
Prudential Ratings
Overall Rating: 3.4
Ease of service: 3.8
NAIC: 5.14
Customer Satisfaction: 4.0
AM Best Rating: A+

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • High customer satisfaction
  • High renewal rate
Cons:
  • Middle of the road rankings for ease of service
  • Customers didn’t score it highly for its policy offerings

How Prudential scores for customer satisfaction

More than 80% of the Prudential’s customers we surveyed gave the company high marks for customer service. That was one of the higher scores among the companies we ranked. State Farm led this category. J.D. Power, in its satisfaction ranking, gave the company a score one point below its average of 774.

Insurance company Percent of customers that are satisfied J.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000)
Prudential 81% 773
State Farm 91% 839
New York Life 82% 775

How Prudential scores on ease of service

Customers want a hassle-free insurance experience. When compared to other insurers surveyed, Prudential’s 75% score puts it in the middle of the pack among ranked companies. State Farm led this category.

Insurance company Percent of respondents that are satisfied with ease of service
Prudential 75%
State Farm 91%
Globe Life 77%

How Prudential scores on policy offerings

A wide range of policy offerings makes it easier for customers to get the coverage they need. 

The company scored in the bottom half of the companies we ranked in this category, which was led by State Farm.

Insurance company Percent of respondents satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Prudential 77%
State Farm 89%
New York Life 82%

How trustworthy is Prudential?

Trust is a vital part of the relationship between an insurer and its policyholders. 

Almost 80% of the company’s customers we surveyed said it was trustworthy, which was one of the highest scores among the companies we ranked.

Insurance company Percent of survey respondents who find the company trustworthy
Prudential 78%
State Farm 86%
Northwestern Mutual 79%

Do Prudential customers plan to renew?

Happy customers are loyal customers. All of Prudential’s customers plan to stick with the company. It was one of a handful of companies with the highest score in this category.

Insurance company Percent of survey respondents who find the company best for renewing a policy
Prudential 100%
Mutual of Omaha 100%
AIG 100%

Prudential life product details

  • Term life insurance
  • Various types of permanent life insurance policies, including universal life insurance, indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance, indexed variable universal life insurance

Other services offered

  • Health insurance
  • Investment services
  • Annuities

States where Prudential offers coverage

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Table
States where Prudential 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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Company background

prudential

Prudential is a Fortune 500 company that provides insurance, retirement and investment products. It is the fourth-largest life insurance company in the U.S., owning 5.59% market share in 2021. The insurer received $10,644,345,943 in premiums last year.

Founded in Newark, New Jersey, in 1875, Prudential has become one of the world’s largest financial services companies, with $1.35 trillion of assets under management.

Prudential focuses on insurance, investment and retirement income.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Prudential. “Life Insurance Policies.” Accessed December 2022.

Prudential. “Life insurance for life’s changes.” Accessed December 2022.

Prudential. “Annuity Strategies for Your Retirement Challenges.” Accessed December 2022.

Prudential. “Prudential History.” Accessed December 2022.

Prudential. “Prudential Financial Fact Sheet.” Accessed December 2022.

J.D. Power. “Individual Life Insurance Study.” Accessed December 2022.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2022 surveyed more than 1,500 people with auto, home, life and health insurance (540 with life insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR. Respondents were asked to name their insurer and the editors then selected – based on the number of responses – the top companies for this year’s Best Life Insurance Companies ranking. Insure.com needed 20 or more of a company’s customers to respond to the survey for that insurer to be included in the ranking, although in some categories the editors did consider companies with 18 or 19 responses. 

Respondents were first asked to grade their insurer in the following categories – customer satisfaction, claims satisfaction and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.

Survey score calculation: Respondents were then asked to rank their insurer’s top three attributes out of more than a dozen presented – including customer satisfaction and policy offerings. For a number one choice, five points were given; for a second choice, three points; and for a third choice, a single point. The total points for each choice – first, second and third – were then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create a percentage. Those percentages are presented in the results as scores. 

Respondents were then asked if they would recommend their insurer to someone else. The percentage who said yes is presented in the results.

They also were given the statement “I trust my insurance company” and asked if they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. The percentage of those who said they agreed or strongly agreed is presented in the results.

The editors compiled the survey results and then collected National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives, and AM Best data, which measures financial strength.

They also collected insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services (for auto and home insurance), Compulife (for life insurance) and the public health marketplace (for health insurance).

With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., managing director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For life insurers, we used the following weights to calculate the overall score for each company: 

  • AM Best: 25% of total score
  • NAIC: 15% of total score
  • Survey: 60% of total score (10% customer satisfaction, 10% recommended, 10% renewal rate, 10% ease of service, 10% trustworthiness and 10% policy offerings)

To find the industry average annual premium, insure.com weighed the rates from 9 companies: AAA, Farmers, Guardian Life, John Hancock, Lincoln Financial, MassMutual, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual and Transamerica. Rates are based on premiums for 35-year-old males and females who are non-smokers and in good health. Rates are for a 20-year-term policy that provides $500,000 in coverage. 

No insurer in our star ranking received less than 1 star and the highest possible ranking is 5 stars.

author image
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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