Shopping for term life insurance can seem intimidating. It’s time-consuming and you’re relying on your own judgment in an area where you may not feel comfortable.
Policygenius is a company that aims to provide solutions for both of those concerns.
In this review, I’ll explain what Policygenius is, how it can be useful and how it compares to life insurance companies that insure you directly.
Table of Contents
- Policygenius Review: Quick Look
- What Is Policygenius?
- Policygenius Review: Where It Shines
- Policygenius Review: Where It Falls Short
- Examining Policygenius’ Term Life Insurance Options
- Policygenius Also Offers These Insurance Products
Policygenius Review: Quick Look
| Company Name | Policygenius |
|---|---|
| Company Type | Insurance comparison site or online broker |
| Key Features | Multiple quotes, consumer-friendly product, live help available |
| Downsides | Slow-moving process for a digital brand, limited number of partnerships |
| Best For | Price shopping and getting independent advice |
What Is Policygenius?
Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace, or broker, which was founded to help people get insurance. I’d describe it as a place where consumers can price shop.
The company was founded in 2014 by Jennifer Fitzgerald and Francois de Lame. Before starting Policygenius, the duo worked with McKinsey & Company as marketing consultants for major insurance carriers.
Policygenius partners with insurance companies but doesn’t underwrite policies. It is to the insurance industry what Expedia is to the travel industry.
Policygenius offers customers a range of price quotes through a relatively well-designed, easy-to-use online tool.
It also employs a team of independent, licensed agents to help you figure out which life insurance option is right for you — or whether you need it at all.
Though the agents don’t draw commissions, the company does earn commissions from insurance companies if you buy a policy through the website or app. But federal regulations ensure you won’t pay extra if you buy life insurance through Policygenius rather than straight from an insurance carrier.
Unless you choose Policygenius’ accelerated underwriting product, the purchasing process will take days or weeks. The company says that’s natural when you’re making a decades-long financial decision that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. But there are much faster options in the digital marketplace.
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Policygenius Review: Where It Shines
I tried out the Policygenius website and app, and I talked directly with company representatives. I came away with the impression that Policygenius arrived at everything within its ecosystem through careful consideration.
This results in a product with the following benefits:
- Competitive quotes. Policygenius representatives told me that the company has been intentional in choosing the insurers with which it partners. They say that’s to ensure you have a range of suitable options without being overwhelmed.
- Live help. Policygenius claims that 76% of life insurance customers feel more confident buying a policy after talking on the phone to a licensed agent. A company representative told me that 84% of Policygenius customers say they need advice on the length of policy terms, amount of coverage and deciding which company to pick.
- Help with hard-to-place cases. If you have pre-existing medical conditions (or some other challenge getting approved for life insurance), the Policygenius agents can help. They may be able to find a product that fits your situation or figure out how to get approval for you better than you could on your own just by using the website or app.
- Representatives don’t work on commission. There’s no incentive for the reps to upsell you on a product you might not need.
- No lead generation activity. Policygenius doesn’t take your information and sell it to insurance companies. That’s comforting. No one likes being bombarded by unsolicited sales calls.
- Consumer-friendly product. Easy to use? Help available? Educational material? Check, check and check.
- Strong coverage calculators. The company’s tools help you determine how much life insurance coverage you need and give you a fast, painless estimate on your monthly premium.
Policygenius Review: Where It Falls Short
Like every company, Policygenius isn’t perfect:
- Limited to partners it chooses. Policygenius tends to work with larger, recognizable brands. The company wants you to purchase a policy through its site since that’s how it makes money, so it doesn’t want to dilute your purchase options with lesser-known or niche brands. That said, I found their price quotes to be very competitive when you input information for a healthy individual.
- Slower process than some competitors. For a digital brand, Policygenius moves at an analog pace. It can take days to get the full scope of your quotes, and it averages five to six weeks to get approval. The website pushes you to go through a person. Although agents don’t earn commissions, the process isn’t as hassle-free as some of the other digital options.
- Small points of confusion within the customer flow. There are multiple entry points to get life insurance quotes from the website. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I found it a little disorienting.
- Some partners fail to meet Clark’s standard for long-term viability. Money expert Clark Howard recommends that you purchase life insurance only from companies with at least an A+ rating from A.M. Best. And he says you should make sure the company has an A++ rating if you’re buying a policy with a term of more than 20 years. Some of the companies Policygenius partners with don’t meet that standard.
Before I finished my research for this Policygenius review, however, I expected to find more detractors or at least to uncover more significant downsides.
Examining Policygenius’ Term Life Insurance Options
| Gender/Age | Policy Amount | 20-Year Term Life |
|---|---|---|
| Female/30 | $500,000 | $22.98/month |
| $1 Million | $36.90/month | |
| Male/30 | $500,000 | $29.32/month |
| $1 Million | $48.89/month | |
| Female/50 | $500,000 | $78.29/month |
| $1 Million | $139.50/month | |
| Male/50 | $500,000 | $102.50/month |
| $1 Million | $188.29/month |
Policygenius offers quotes for terms of 10 to 40 years and coverage of $50,000 to $10 million.
In order to get quotes on its site, Policygenius asked me to provide the following information:
- Name
- Phone number
- Gender
- Date of birth
- ZIP code
- Marital status
- Annual income/spouse’s annual income (if married)
- Height/weight
- Criminal history
- Adverse driving details
- Military service
- Citizenship
- Finances
- Recent travel history
- Whether I use tobacco, alcohol, and/or other drugs
- Whether I engage in any hazardous activities (ex: scuba diving, rodeos, motorsports, rock or mountain climbing, etc.)
- Whether I (or any relatives) have had certain medical conditions (ex: ADD/ADHD, asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, stroke, etc.)
For women, the site also asks questions about current or recent pregnancies.
Policygenius itself doesn’t have an A.M. Best rating since it doesn’t actually issue insurance policies. When I entered my personal information into the quote tool, it showed me prices from the following companies (A.M. Best rating in parentheses):
- Brighthouse (A)
- Corebridge Financial (A)
- Foresters (A)
- Legal & General America (A+)
- Lincoln (A)
- Mutual of Omaha (A+)
- Pacific Life (A+)
- Protective (A+)
- Prudential (A+)
- Symetra (A)
- Transamerica (A)
None of the quoted companies have an A++ rating from A.M. Best, which Clark says is a requirement if you’re going to buy a policy with a term of more than 20 years.
If you isolate price, it’s hard to beat what Policygenius offers. That’s despite the company’s tendency to work with prominent brands. For example, a 30-year-old female with excellent health would pay as little as $22.98 per month for a 20-year term policy with $500,000 coverage purchased through Policygenius.
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Although it wasn’t pushy or prominent, Policygenius also showed me a whole life product quote. But Clark thinks whole life insurance is a bad idea for almost everyone.
Policygenius Also Offers These Insurance Products
I previously mentioned the company’s traditional, slower application process. But Policygenius has developed a relatively new product called SimplySelect, which it offers in collaboration with the insurer Brighthouse Financial.
It’s an accelerated underwriting product attached to the equivalent of a telemedicine appointment. You don’t have to submit to an in-person medical exam that involves blood and urine tests. And the insurer says it typically takes only 24 hours to receive a decision once you’ve completed all the requirements.
Brighthouse SimplySelect offers up to $3 million in coverage without the high rates typical of simplified term life insurance.
Policygenius focuses heavily on life, home and disability insurance. But it also offers quotes for these types of insurance:
- Renters
- Auto
- Pet
- Vision
- Long-term care
- Jewelry
- Identity theft
- Travel
Final Thoughts
Policygenius is well-funded. Its founders are savvy marketers. And the brand has a reputation for spending big on advertising.
That combination tends to make me skeptical of a company’s product quality. But it only took a few minutes to understand that Policygenius has used its resources to keep customers — not just acquire them — by offering a variety of products, well-known brands, and different levels of touchpoints based on customer research.
Policygenius wants you to go through a gatekeeper who advises you over the phone. It will take an average of five to six weeks before you get an actionable offer according to the company website. Whereas — at a company such as Fabric — the whole purchasing process can take just “a matter of minutes” for some people.
But Policygenius can be a timesaver when it comes to shopping for term life insurance. You can get quotes from 20+ companies just by entering your information once.
Also, if you want a person to help you with your purchase decision, it’s better for it to be someone who won’t make more money by directing you toward a certain decision. Policygenius checks that box.
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That said, using Policygenius doesn’t bypass Clark’s primary criterion for selecting a term life insurance company. You still need to make sure the company you choose to get coverage with has an A++ rating from A.M. Best.
