Colonial penn whole life insurance 9.95 per month

Colonial Penn Life Insurance Review: Quick Coverage, but Limited PayoutsColonial Penn Life Insurance Review: Quick Coverage, but Limited Payouts

updated Nov 2, 2022

Editor's Rating

Final expense insurance for those that want quick coverage.

Good for

• Final expense insurance
• Quick turnaround coverage
• Flexible coverage lengths

Bad for

• Income replacement
• Low-cost term life insurance
• Terminally ill consumers

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NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer complaint and customer satisfaction data.

Bottom line: With a high volume of complaints and relatively low coverage limits, you’ll likely find better options elsewhere.

Financial strength rating

• No medical exams required for coverage.
• Guaranteed coverage available to applicants up to age 85.

• Far more complaints to regulators than expected for a company its size.
• Coverage amounts are relatively low.

3.0

NerdWallet rating 

NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer complaint and customer satisfaction data.

Bottom line: With a high volume of complaints and relatively low coverage limits, you’ll likely find better options elsewhere.

Financial strength rating

• No medical exams required for coverage.
• Guaranteed coverage available to applicants up to age 85.

• Far more complaints to regulators than expected for a company its size.
• Coverage amounts are relatively low.

How we review life insurance companies

In our life insurance reviews, our editorial team considers the customer and the insurer. These are some of the factors we take into account:

• Term life insurance offers temporary coverage and a guaranteed payout if the policyholder dies during the term.

• Permanent life insurance typically lasts a lifetime and builds cash value that can be borrowed against in the future.

• No-exam life insurance issues coverage without the need for a medical exam.

Financial strength. We use AM Best ratings to confirm an insurer’s long-term financial stability and ability to pay claims. For life insurance, NerdWallet typically recommends considering insurers with ratings of A- or higher. Here’s the breakdown:

Complaints. These ratings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The best life insurance companies have fewer than the expected number of complaints.

Buy online. This indicates whether an insurer allows you to apply for and buy a policy completely online.

For decades, Colonial Penn has focused on selling life insurance to older customers, including a guaranteed issue whole life policy for people 50 and older. The Philadelphia-based insurer is owned by CNO Financial Group, which is also the parent company of Bankers Life.

Why you can trust NerdWallet: Our writers and editors follow strict editorial guidelines to ensure the content on our site is accurate and fair, so you can make financial decisions with confidence and choose the products that work best for you. Here is a list of our partners and here’s how we make money.

Colonial Penn life insurance

3.0

NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer experience, financial strength ratings and complaint data.

Colonial Penn earned 3 stars out of 5 for overall performance. NerdWallet’s ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer experience, complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and financial strength ratings.

Colonial Penn life insurance policies

Whole life insurance. Colonial Penn offers whole life insurance to those ages 40 to 75 (50 to 73 for men and 50 to 75 for women in New York). Coverage amounts range from $10,000 to $50,000 ($5,000 to $25,000 in New York). The application asks health questions, but the insurer doesn’t require a medical exam.

You can add an optional living insurance rider to your policy. This accelerated death benefit allows you to access 25% to 50% of your payout early if you’re diagnosed with certain cancers or debilitating chronic illness or you suffer a heart attack or stroke. However, the chronic illness option isn't available to applicants ages 65 to 75.

Guaranteed acceptance life insurance. This policy is open to people ages 50 to 85 (50 to 75 in New York), and acceptance is guaranteed. Applicants don’t need to answer health questions or take a medical exam. Colonial Penn sells coverage in units, and you can buy up to 15 units. For context, one unit offers $689 worth of coverage and costs $9.95. The full death benefit isn’t paid out if the insured person dies during the first two years of taking out a policy.

Colonial Penn customer complaints and satisfaction

Over three years, Colonial Penn has drawn far more than the expected number of complaints to state regulators for a company of its size, according to a NerdWallet analysis of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Where Colonial Penn stands out

Colonial Penn doesn’t require a life insurance medical exam for its policies, including its traditional whole life insurance. But healthy people can generally get better prices from companies that consider more medical information when setting rates.

Where Colonial Penn falls short

Colonial Penn’s advertising may be misleading to those who aren’t familiar with its pricing structure. The insurer says throughout its website and in commercials that premiums can be locked in for as little as $9.95 a month, but this price will earn you less than $700 in coverage.

The company's accelerated death benefit rider is also unusual. You need to choose coverage for heart attack or stroke, cancer or chronic illness, and you’ll be able to tap into your policy’s payout only if you develop the condition you chose or if you’re diagnosed as terminally ill (with a life expectancy of 12 months or less).

Whether you need help with your application or want to learn more about a policy, Colonial Penn’s live chat feature allows you to choose the type of specialist you’d like to speak with. Once you are a policyholder, you can make premium payments online, but you’ll need to download a form to file a life insurance claim or change beneficiaries.

Colonial Penn sells a supplemental health insurance policy, Active Care, that pays out in the event of accidental injury or critical illness.

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Life insurance buying guide

When comparing rates, be sure the quotes are for the same amount of coverage over the same period of time. It’s also important to make sure the policy’s medical requirements match your needs. For example, if you want to skip the life insurance medical exam but don’t mind answering health questions, confirm that the application process for each policy you're comparing aligns with that.

Price may not be the biggest driver behind your decision to buy. Look at the number of consumer complaints each company receives, as high numbers can be a red flag about the quality of service.

Life insurance ratings methodology

NerdWallet’s life insurance ratings are based on consumer experience, complaint index scores from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for individual life insurance, and weighted averages of financial strength ratings, which indicate a company’s ability to pay future claims. Within the consumer experience category, we consider ease of communication and website transparency, which looks at the depth of policy details available online. To calculate each insurer’s rating, we adjusted the scores to a curved 5-point scale.

These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.

Insurer complaints methodology

NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2019-2021. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.

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