If you haven’t seen a Colonial Penn commercial, you’re not watching enough TV. But is there more to this Company’s products than their catchy TV commercials?
Check out our summary of Colonial Penn life insurance pros and cons below to find out.
(And if you’re looking for more a comprehensive review of Colonial Penn’s guaranteed acceptance life insurance plan , including customer reviews, rates, and an application walk-through, please see our full review, linked above.)
Who Is Colonial Penn?
Headquartered in Pennsylvania, Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company focuses on selling final expense insurance policies to seniors.
It pitches itself as a provider of affordable life insurance coverage, primarily through its $9.95 per month guaranteed acceptance plans.
Colonial Penn’s primary offering is life insurance that combines simplified underwriting with low death benefits.
Charitable Activity
Colonial Penn is also trying to give back. The Company has partnered with the American Heart Association (AHA) since 2020 to support its Healthy for Good campaign. This program helps people to change health and lifestyle by gradually changing their diet and incorporating more exercise into their days.
CNO Financial Life Insurance Companies
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company is owned by CNO Financial Group, a financial services company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.
Through its subsidiary insurance companies, CNO provides 3.2+ million policies to retired individuals and working-class Americans.
The CNO family of brands also includes the following companies: Bankers Life, Washington National, PMA USA, DirectPath, and MyHealthPolicy.
Burial Insurance
15 companies competing for your business
97% of the time we beat Colonial Penn
30 days to get your money back, no questions asked
* Based on website quote requests, through 2/28/23.
(Check your rate to see their rates vs. ours)
Whole Life Insurance Product Options
Colonial Penn offers two types of whole life insurance policies:
- Permanent whole life insurance
- Guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance
These policies have a low maximum death benefit, however, so they will appeal only to those who are looking for coverage for their final expenses (and not income replacement).
Note that Colonial Penn does not sell term life insurance policies. This is highly preferrable to Globe Life, which sells term life coverage marketed as burial insurance coverage. We believe this is highly misleading.
None of Colonial Penn’s life insurance policies requires a medical exam. And if you purchase their guaranteed acceptance policies, you don’t even have to answer health questions!
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Pros
First, look at some positives of buying a life insurance plan from Colonial Penn.
Colonial Penn's guaranteed acceptance life insurance policies are available to adults 50-85. The price you pay, however, does not depend on age or medical history.
Both of the Company's whole life insurance products have no medical exam required. In addition to this, Colonial Penn's flagship $9.95 per month plan does not even have health questions!
Colonial Penn's applications are 1-2 pages and can be completed entirely online.
Every Colonial Penn life insurance plan builds cash value (that is, it puts a portion of your premium payments into a savings account for you).
Colonial Penn has an A- rating from A.M. Best, which means it is in great financial health and will have an easy time paying claims on its current life insurance policies in-force.
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Cons
Now, let’s take a look at the downsides of purchasing a life policy from Colonial Penn:
Better Business Bureau customer complaints show that a large fraction of complaints had to do with problems filing a claim or delayed payouts. When your loved one passes away, this is the last thing you want to deal with.
Many complaints about Colonial Penn revolve around the company's sales practices. The Company has a long history of being pushy with their sales tactics. Colonial Penn has made strides in improving its sales practices, but many customers still feel that the agents are overly aggressive.
Colonial Penn offers essentially one type of life insurance overage: burial insurance (also known as funeral insurance or final expense insurance). The Company does not sell term life insurance coverage and it does not sell any policies (permanent or term) that
As we compared prices, we found that Colonial Penn customers typically pay higher premiums for the same amount of coverage.
Burial Insurance
15 companies competing for your business
97% of the time we beat Colonial Penn
30 days to get your money back, no questions asked
* Based on website quote requests, through 2/28/23.
(Check your rate to see their rates vs. ours)
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Ratings
Colonial Penn has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau; however, in our experience, these ratings are not very trustworthy.
Colonial Penn Customer Complaints
Colonial Penn has 183 total complaints in the last three years. Of those, 124 complaints were closed in the last 12 months.
The majority of these complaints have to do with a “problem with a product or service.” As we read through these Colonial Penn customer reviews, we found that they had to do with:
- Difficulties filing a life insurance claim
- Mistakenly rejected claims
- Delayed payouts
Conclusion: Should You Buy Life Insurance From Colonial Penn?
Colonial Penn is a very well-known life insurer that serves a unique need that others in the life insurance industry do not fulfill. However, we won’t beat around the bush:
We do not recommend buying a whole life insurance policy from Colonial Penn, for the vast majority of people.
While the $9.95 per month price appears attractive, the truth is that you will receive very little coverage for that price (~$500). Check out our detailed piece on Colonial Penn’s life insurance coverage and rate chart for more.
Unless you are looking for coverage to fund a direct cremation, which costs only ~$1,000, you will be much better off purchasing a burial insurance policy from a company like AARP or Mutual of Omaha.
The cost per dollar of coverage is simply too high to justify purchasing life insurance from Colonial Penn.
We hope that this piece on the pros and cons of Colonial Penn’s life insurance policies was helpful to you! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send us an email, and we’ll get back to you shortly.
Warm Regards,
The GetSure Team