Minnesota Life Insurance Review – Products, Customer Service, & Ratings
Last Updated: 01/17/2018
AM Best Grade: A+ (Superior) 5 stars
Address: 400 and 401 Robert Street North, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
Phone: 1 (651) 665-3500
Website: www.securian.com
Also Known As: Minnesota Life Insurance Company, Minnesota Life, Securian Life Insurance Company, Securian Financial Group, Inc., Securian
Minnesota Life Insurance Company is the life insurance subsidiary of Securian Financial Group, an American mutual holding company with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Securian, as a whole, has over 16 million clients in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, and employs over 6,000 associates and representatives in North America. Securian provides insurance, investment, and retirement products as well as trust services and financial planning. Chris Hilger currently resides as the company’s CEO.
Quick Review Guide:
- Company History
- Insurance Products
- Product Pricing
- Underwriting Niches
- Customer Service & Approval Process
- Financial Stability & Ratings
- Why We Like Minnesota Life
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Company History
In 1880, Russell Door knew he was destined for something more. That’s why he founded the Banker’s Association of Minnesota on August 6th, making it the first life insurance company in Minnesota. In 1901, the company decided to change its name to Minnesota Life Insurance Company – a name that they kept for almost century. Minnesota Life continued to expand its products and services, and acquired Allied Solutions in 2004; Allied Solutions is one of the largest distributors of products in the credit union market, which allowed Minnesota Life to grow its marketing presence and product offerings quite a bit. In 2005, The company officially adopted Securian as their enterprise brand. Ten years later, Chris Hilger took over as CEO. Recently, Securian has expanded into Canada through the purchase of Canadian Premier Life Insurance Company, as well as all its affiliates (Legacy General Insurance Company, CRI Canada, and Selient).
Insurance Products
Now we can get to the good stuff – Minnesota Life’s insurance products. Like stated above, Minnesota Life is just a subsidiary of Securian, who provides more than just life insurance policies. But for the sake of this review, we will solely be focusing on those. Here’s a list of what the company offers:
- Term Life Insurance
- Permanent Life Insurance
- Universal Life Insurance
- Variable Universal Life Insurance
- Indexed Universal Life Insurance
- Survivorship Life Insurance
- Whole Life Insurance
First off, let’s talk about their term life insurance products. Term life insurance is generally the most common approach people take when purchasing life insurance because it tends to be more affordable. Two other key benefits include: the tax-free death benefit and the ability to convert most term life policies into permanent coverage (as long as it is within Minnesota Life’s guidelines). One drawback to term life insurance is that it doesn’t usually accumulate cash value. When you buy a term life policy, it is generally between 10-30 years. During that time, your premiums stay fixed each year until your policy ends. So if you need life insurance for a certain period of your life (aka until your kids move out), term life insurance is the way to go.
Minnesota Life also offers a no-exam term program called WriteFit Express. With this policy, you can apply for up to $249,999 in coverage, and typically be approved within 48 hours. This policy is available to clients in fair to excellent health, and even has an option for tobacco users (which is very rare).
Next we have permanent life insurance. As you can see above, there are different variations of permanent life insurance. Universal life insurance and whole life insurance are pretty similar, except for a few things: both are permanent, but with universal life insurance, you can be flexible on when you pay your premiums and how often you pay them (within reason). Another added benefit of permanent life insurance is the cash value accumulation; universal life provides cash value accumulation on a tax-deferred basis.
There are two variations of universal life insurance: indexed and variable. Indexed universal life insurance combines death benefit protection with cash value accumulation through an account that credits interested based on the increase in stock market indexes, without having to directly risk investing in the stock market. With this policy, you will never earn less than zero percent if the market performs poorly due to the Index Account. Variable universal life insurance is similar to universal life due to the fact that they both accumulate cash value, but variable universal life allows you to invest your cash value into separate accounts (similar to mutual funds), and you get to choose which of the separate accounts is available to use. Another perk of variable universal life that whole life insurance does not offer is the fact that there is no endowment age, which is the age when your cash value equals your death benefit amount (usually 100 years of age for whole life insurance). This basically means that you can receive a higher rate-of-return with a universal life policy versus the fixed rates-of-return that whole life offers.
Last, but not least, we have survivorship life insurance. This policy insures two lives (usually two partners), and the death benefit is not paid to beneficiaries until the second insured person has passed away. Some perks of survivorship life insurance include it being cheaper versus buying two separate policies, it’s easier to buy most of the time, and you can preserve/build your estate without allowing it to get taxed over the years.
Product Pricing
The other big question: how much is my policy going to cost? Let’s say you are a 30-year-old female who doesn’t smoke, falls into the “excellent” category, lives in California, and are looking for $500,000 in coverage. For a 20-year-term with Minnesota Life, it’s going to cost you about $24.20 a month. Compared to other life insurance companies, Minnesota Life is about average when it comes to cost.
Nevertheless, this is just an estimate. There’s a lot of deciding factors when it comes to your rates and which health class you belong to. If you have a certain medical condition or play a hazardous sport, please call one of our licensed agents and let them know your specific conditions and concerns. They’ll help decide if Minnesota Life is the best life insurance company to suit your needs!
Underwriting Niches
You know how we just said different factors come into play when getting a rate for your policy? That’s where underwriting niches come in. Basically, each company has certain categories that they are more lenient in (ergo, a niche). Let’s take a look at what Minnesota Life’s are:
To qualify for “preferred select” (Minnesota Life’s highest rate class), you must have been nicotine/tobacco-free for at least 3 years. However, to qualify for one step down, the “preferred” rating, you only have to have been nicotine and tobacco-free for 12 months. Like stated earlier, tobacco users can still qualify for their no-exam policy too; they can forgo a medical exam and be placed into the “standard tobacco” rate class.
Blood Pressure
Minnesota Life only requires a maximum blood pressure level of 145/90 to qualify for their “preferred” rate class, and that’s with or without treatment. Many companies won’t allow you to take medication and still rank that high, so Minnesota Life is definitely at an advantage in this category.
Aviation
According to Minnesota Life’s underwriting guide, all pilots are eligible for “preferred” pricing, depending on their experience or flying activities. However, they may be charged an extra cash premium, or not be given additional aviation coverage.
Cholesterol
Minnesota Life requires a cholesterol level of 240 or less and a cholesterol/HDL ratio of 5.0 or less to be eligible for their “preferred select” rate class. Their “preferred” rate class is a little more lenient though, requiring a cholesterol level of 260 or less, and a cholesterol/HDL ratio less than or equal to 6.0.
Customer Service & Approval Process
In addition to an A+ rating, Minnesota Life has been BBB accredited since 1996. In the past three years, there have only been 22 complaints, seven of which have been closed in the past year. For such a big company, 22 is a very low number in terms of complaints. We weren’t able to find many customer reviews about the company, but rest assured, we would not work with a company that we didn’t believe wholeheartedly in.
If you are getting life insurance through your employer, Minnesota Life typically will approve you automatically without requiring any underwriting. If you are applying on your own, you must complete a few steps before approval. First, you complete the application – the insurance company may ask you to complete a health questionnaire or physical exam depending on your application. After all of that is completed, Minnesota Life will notify you if you are approved or declined for coverage. The entire process can take anywhere from two to twelve weeks, depending on your application, health history, and amount of coverage chosen.
Financial Stability & Ratings
While there wasn’t any information on the financial strength of Minnesota Life Insurance specifically, we did find the financial stability of Securian Financial Group as a whole. As of 2016, Securian had almost $1.2 trillion of insurance in force, $70.5 billion in assets under management, and delivered more than $4.9 billion in statutory benefits to their clients. Even though Securian has not updated their website to include 2017’s financial results yet, we can only assume that their numbers have grown in a positive direction due to their immense stability.
Securian Financial Group’s Financial Stability Ratings:
- A.M. Best: A+ (Superior)
- Fitch: AA (Very Strong)
- Standard & Poor’s: A+ (Strong)
- Moody’s: Aa3 (Excellent)
- Comdex: 92/100
Why We Like Minnesota Life
So why do we like Minnesota Life? Not only are they a financially stable and reliable company, but they care about their employees as much as they care about their clients. Securian had a 95 percent associate retention; if they are that committed to making their employees happy, you can bet that they’ll go just as far (if not farther) to do the same with their clientele. To summarize, here are the key points of why Minnesota Life is a great company:
- More than a 135-year history of greatness
- Term, no-exam term, universal, whole, and survivorship life insurance options
- Various underwriting leniencies
- Additional policy benefits
- Affordable pricing
- Employees who care about their clients
- Very high ratings from the big five independent rating companies
Term Life Advice is an owner-operated life insurance agency that works directly with highly-rated life insurance companies including Minnesota Life Insurance. This company could be the ideal fit for you; but it is always best to shop around and compare rates to make sure that you are matched with the best possible company.
If you’d like to get an accurate quote based on your age and health, or to determine if Minnesota Life is your best choice for coverage, give us a call today toll-free at: 855-902-6494. Our services are free, and our agency can quickly compare your options and rates by asking you a few questions about your health and lifestyle.
You can also request a free instant quote online below to instantly compare rates from more than 60 highly-rated life insurance companies in less than a minute.
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