Erie Family Life Insurance Company Review 2021 - Investopedia
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The Erie Family Life Insurance Company is not one of our top-rated life insurance companies. You can review our list of the best life insurance companies for what we think are better options.
Pros Explained
- High coverage amounts available: Some life insurance companies have fairly low coverage limits, such as a maximum death benefit of $500,000. Erie Family Life Insurance Company offers policies with up to $10 million in coverage.
- Accelerated death benefit included: With most insurers, an accelerated death benefit rider comes at an additional cost. With Erie's policies, this rider is included and doesn't increase your premiums.
- Coverage available without a medical exam: Erie's ERIExpress plan allows you to get up to $500,000 in coverage in minutes, without having to go through the hassle of a medical exam.
Cons Explained
- Only available in select states: Erie is a fairly small life insurance company licensed in Washington, D.C., and 11 states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. If you live in another state, you'll have to purchase insurance from a different company.
- Life insurance must be purchased through agents: While some companies allow you to buy insurance over the phone or through their websites, that's not the case with Erie. To purchase a policy, you must contact an insurance agent. Erie agents work solely on commission, so they have financial motivation to guide you toward certain products.
- Limited information online: Erie doesn't include very much information about its available plans or riders online. Instead, it encourages customers to contact an agent for information about coverage details, fees, riders, and premiums. The limited information can make it difficult to compare its plans to other companies' policies.
The Erie Family Life Insurance Company is a relatively small company. In 2020, its annual premiums totaled just $204 million. By contrast, Northwestern Mutual—the largest writer of individual life insurance based on direct premiums written—had over $11.2 billion in annual life premiums.
Available Plans
The Erie Family Life Insurance Company sells group and individual term, whole, and universal life policies. While most of its policies are fully underwritten, its ERIExpress plan is a simplified issue policy and doesn't require a medical exam.
Erie has four life insurance options:
Term Life Insurance
If you're looking for a simple, affordable plan, term life insurance may be for you. Term life policies provide a death benefit for a specific period of time. If you pass away during the policy's term, your beneficiaries will receive a lump-sum death benefit.
With the Erie Family Life Insurance Company, you can choose a term of 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. If you purchase term life insurance and later decide you need a permanent life insurance policy, Erie allows customers to convert their policies to whole or universal life policies regardless of their health.
Whole Life Insurance
Unlike the temporary coverage that term life policies provide, whole life insurance gives you permanent protection. Whole life policies can also accumulate cash value, giving you the option of borrowing against that value later on to cover major expenses.
With an Erie whole life plan, you can get up to $10 million in coverage, leaving your beneficiaries a substantial benefit to provide for their long-term needs. Whole life policies are available to individuals ages 85 or younger.
Universal Life Insurance
Like whole life policies, universal life insurance lasts for your lifetime and can grow cash value. However, universal plans are more flexible than whole life insurance. You can adjust your premiums and your death benefit if your finances or goals change, and you can borrow or withdraw your cash value when you need it.
ERIExpress Life
ERIExpress Life is an option customers can use to buy either term or whole coverage without a medical exam. To apply, customers simply answer a few health questions. Eligible applicants can get $10,000 to $500,000 of term or whole life coverage.
Available Riders
When you buy a life insurance policy, most companies offer insurance riders. By utilizing riders, you can get additional coverage, purchase insurance for family members, or use a portion of your death benefit to pay for expenses if you become ill. While riders usually cost extra, they can be a valuable addition to your policy.
The Erie Family Life Insurance Company offers the following riders:
Accelerated Death Benefit
If you become terminally ill and have a life expectancy of two years or less, the accelerated death benefit rider allows you to use some of your policy's benefit amount while you're still living. The accelerated death benefit rider is included at no additional cost.
Child Term
When you buy a policy, you can use the child term rider to get up to $10,000 in term life coverage for your children 18 or younger. The policy ends when the child turns 25, and your child may opt to convert it to another policy at that time.
Guaranteed Insurability
With the guaranteed insurability option, you can purchase additional insurance at different stages of your life without having to answer medical underwriting questions.
Long-Term Care Rider
Available to whole and universal life policyholders, the long-term care rider can provide you with financial support if you require care from a nurse or health aide after an accident or illness.
Customer Service
The Erie website is barebones in terms of tools, policy information, or calculators. For details about Erie's policies or to find out information about its pricing, you must contact one of Erie's independent insurance agents.
While Erie's website is limited for prospective customers, its offerings for existing policyholders are much more robust. Policyholders can make payments online, start a claim, and download necessary forms.
In September 2020, Erie launched a new app for customers to manage their policies from their phones. Available for both Android and iOS devices, policyholders can view and send plan documents, make payments, view past statements, and contact a local Erie agent.
If you need assistance with your policy, you can contact customer service at 800-458-0811, Option 3. You can also send a secure message through Erie's website. Customer support is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. EST.
Complaint Index
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects all the complaints customers submit and uses them to calculate companies' complaint ratios. The ratios are a measure of the number of complaints submitted relative to the company's share of the insurance market.
The industry standard for complaint ratios 1.0. If a company has a ratio above 1.0, that means customers submitted more complaints than the NAIC expected for a company of its size. Likewise, a company with a ratio below 1.0 received fewer complaints than expected.
As a small insurer, very few customers have submitted complaints about the Erie Family Life Insurance Company.
In 2019 and 2020, Erie Family Life Insurance Company's complaint ratio for individual life insurance was 0.00; no complaints were submitted about the company. In 2018, the last year with available data, the company's complaint ratio was 0.23, much better than the industry standard.
Third-Party Ratings
When you purchase life insurance, you want to know that the company is financially sound and able to pay out any claims if the worst should happen. AM Best is a credit rating agency that evaluates insurance companies' financial stability.
In 2021, AM Best affirmed Erie Family Life Insurance's A (excellent) rating, while Erie Insurance Group received an A+ (Superior) rating. In the press release announcing the ratings, AM Best cited Erie's balance sheet strength, extensive independent agent network, and large market share in its home states as its rationale for the ratings.
Because Erie only sells life insurance in 11 states, it was not included in the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study that compared and ranked top life insurance companies.
Cancellation Policy
As with other insurance companies, you're entitled to a 10-day "free look" period when you purchase life insurance from Erie. During that time, you can cancel your policy and get a full refund. Once the free look period ends, how cancellations are handled is dependent on the type of coverage you have.
With term life insurance, you can cancel at any time without penalty. However, Erie won't refund the premiums you paid.
With whole and universal life policies, there may be a surrender charge. However, you may get some of your accumulated cash value if you've held your policy for several years before canceling.
To end your policy, contact your Erie insurance agent.
Price
The Erie Family Life Insurance Company doesn't have a calculator or rate chart on its website. The only way to get information on its pricing is to request a quote from an insurance agent. However, Erie does state on its site that a healthy 35-year-old man can purchase $250,000 of term life coverage with a 20-year term for $18 per month.
As with other life insurance companies, Erie requires you to select either "male" or "female" when you apply for insurance. Being nonbinary doesn't disqualify you from getting life insurance. However, you should be aware that most insurance companies haven't updated their underwriting processes to reflect a current awareness of gender issues.
Competition
The Erie Family Life Insurance Company offers several life insurance options, high coverage, and multiple optional riders. However, the company is only licensed in 11 states.
If you live outside of Erie's service areas, consider Northwestern Mutual, the largest life insurer in the country. The company has 12 different life insurance options and multiple optional riders you can use to customize your policy. Northwestern Mutual also has an excellent reputation for customer service. In the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. individual Life Insurance study, Northwestern Mutual was ranked fourth out of 23 companies based on its customer service, product offerings, and pricing.
Northwestern also has received remarkably few complaints from customers; in 2020, its complaint ratio was just 0.07, well below the industry average. It also stands out from Erie in that policyholders may qualify to receive dividends. In 2020, Northwestern Mutual paid $6.2 billion in dividends.
| | Erie Family Life Insurance Company | Northwestern Mutual |
|---|---|---|
| Market Share | N/A | Largest in the U.S., 8.2% |
| Number of Plans | 4 | 10 |
| Dividends for 2020 | N/A | $6.2 billion |
| Wellness Program Discounts/Quit Smoking Incentives | N/A | N/A |
| Service Method | Agents | Agents |
| AM Best Rating | A (Excellent) | A++ (Superior) |
| Complaints Trend | 0.00 | 0.07 |
If you live within one of the 11 states where the Erie Family Life Insurance Company is licensed to sell life insurance, you can get up to $10 million in coverage. It's a good option for those with high incomes or young families that would need a substantial amount of financial assistance if the breadwinner wasn't there to provide for them. However, Erie's service area is limited, and you have to go through agents to get information or to apply for insurance. If you're looking for a more direct way to get insurance, you'll have to apply with another company.
Methodology
Our reviews of life insurance companies are based on a quantitative methodology that analyzes each insurer on their stability and reliability, customer service, claims experience, diversity of product lines, and cost. We compare the terms of each type of policy offered—including available coverage amounts, optional riders, and premium payment options—with that of other major life insurance companies. Lastly, we look at how the company is rated by third-party organizations to determine its reliability and overall reputation.
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