Bestow Life Insurance Review: 100% Online (No Exam)

Who Is Bestow Life Insurance?

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Dallas, Bestow is an online life insurance broker that sells term life insurance in all states except New York.

Bestow is one of a new wave of online life insurance companies, similar to competitors like Ethos Life Insurance and Fabric Life Insurance, that offer a 100% online experience – from quote to application to claim.

Bestow offers term life insurance (and only term life insurance), but it makes up for its lack of product diversity by taking customer experience a step further than its competitors. Bestow guarantees no medical exam required for all pre-qualified applicants.

Is Bestow Life Insurance Legit?

While you may not have heard of Bestow (yet), it is a highly reputable life insurance company.

Bestow has an A+ rating from the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and a 4.7 star TrustPilot rating, from 587 unique reviews.​

To top it off, Bestow is owned by some of the most prominent venture capital firms in the U.S., including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Felicis Ventures, and Morpheus Capital.

How Does Bestow Work?

When you buy a life insurance policy, there are typically two companies involved, the broker and the carrier.

In this arrangement, Bestow is the broker. It handles all customer-facing aspects, namely:

• The application process
• Underwriting (analyzing your risk and deciding the right monthly price for you)
• Claims processing
• Customer support

The carrier in the above example is North American Company for Life and Health Insurance. This is the company that issues the formal policy contracts and pays out on claims.

Will Bestow Pay Out?

When you buy life insurance, what you’re buying is essentially a promise from your insurer. (A promise to pay you money in the future if a certain event occurs).

Should you be worried about payout with a Bestow policy?

There are two good reasons that say “no”.

Reason #1. Bestow’s Carrier Partner Has A (Very) Long Track Record

When you buy a policy from Bestow Life Insurance, you are entering into a contract with the life insurance carrier Bestow has partnered with, North American Company for Life and Health Insurance. And this company, the carrier, is the one responsible for paying out the death benefit.

Even if Bestow goes bankrupt and shuts down, your coverage and your right to receive your death benefit payout will stay the same.

And if you’re now wondering if you can rely on their carrier partner, the answer is an easy and resounding yes. North American Company for Life and Health Insurance has been issuing and paying out on life insurance policies for the past 135 years (since 1886).

And if that weren’t enough, they also have an A+ financial stability rating from A.M. Best, the rating agency that is the gold standard in the life insurance industry.

Reason #2. There’s A Government Backstop In Place

And for those who really like to dot their i’s and cross their t’s, here’s one more reason you have nothing to worry about when it comes to payout.

Like many other financial services verticals, life insurance is regulated by the government (in this case, state governments).

In the rare case that your insurance carrier goes bankrupt, your state insurance regulator will make sure that your policy is sold to another carrier.​

Your premium payments would then go to this second carrier, and they would be responsible for paying out your policy’s death benefit.

It’s similar to the loan industry. If your lender went bankrupt, would you be off the hook for paying back your loan?

Of course not (no one gets that lucky!). Your loan would simply be sold to another company and you would then have to pay back that lender.

What Types Of Life Insurance Does Bestow Sell?

Bestow sells one type of policy: term life insurance.

Coverage amounts range from $50,000 at the low-end and policies can be as large as a 1.5 million dollar life insurance policy. Term lengths can be 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years.

Bestow does not sell permanent life insurance (e.g., whole life insurance) and does not have a guaranteed issue policy (often referred to as “burial insurance”).

Bestow wants to make life insurance simpler, and the fact is, permanent life insurance simply does not provide the value to customers that term life insurance policies do. Therefore, Bestow life insurance policies come in only one flavor, the only flavor you need.

Who Can Get A Bestow Policy?

To be eligible for a Bestow policy, you need to meet three criteria:

• U.S. resident (of any state except New York)
• Between 18-60 years old
• No felony convictions on your record

Beyond this, there are no official approval criteria. However:

TrustPilot reviews suggest that Bestow favors younger adults who are in above-average health. Specifically, two recent reviewers were declined for having a high BMI (Body Mass Index).​

BMI is not always in an individual’s control though, so it’s understandable that these declines were considered unfair.

But it isn’t too surprising given that Bestow does not have a medical exam.

Without concrete knowledge of how healthy an individual is (from a physical or blood test), Bestow has to play it safe and decline individuals who are actually low risk.

Bestow Term Life Insurance Rates

Rates For Men

The table below shows the rates that men aged 30, 40, and 50 years old would pay for a range of term life insurance policies:

• 10-year term, $500K in coverage
• 10-year term, $1 million in coverage
• 20-year term, $500K in coverage
• 20-year term, $1 million in coverage

(These data assume that the policyholder is a non-smoker who lives in California.)

Rates For Women

Similarly, the table below shows pricing for women aged 30, 40, and 50 years old, for the same four types of policies.

As with the above, this assumes that the policyholder is a non-smoker and lives in California.

Bestow’s Online Application Process

Bestow has one of the fastest, easiest life insurance applications I’ve seen.

Here is what it looks like:

Step 1. Fill Out Quote Form

Navigate to Bestow’s home page and click “Get a Quote.” Fill in the form with your gender, birth date, height, weight, and zip code. Then click Get Estimate.

Step 2. Choose Policy Options

Use the toggle and slider to choose your desired term length (how long you want this policy to last) and coverage amount (the amount of your death benefit payout).

Step 3. 5-Minute Application

The next step is the application, which you can finish in 5 minutes. The 1st section is just basic contact info. The 2nd and 3rd sections ask about health and lifestyle. E.g., about recent weight loss, diagnosed medical conditions, how much you drink on a weekly basis, etc.

Step 4. Instant Decision

Assuming Bestow does not see any red flags in your application, you will be offered the chance to e-sign your application and receive an instant decision.

Filing A Life Insurance Claim With Bestow

How does the claims process work for Bestow policies? There are three basic steps:

1. Form Submission: You fill out a claim form on Bestow’s website (as shown in the screenshot)
2. Claim processing: Bestow works with the insurance carrier to process the claim and handle any disputes (which are rare)
3. Payout: The insurance carrier contacts the beneficiary to get their payments details and pays the claim (usually by wire transfer).

Bestow’s goal is to process all claims within 10 days or less.​

Online Bestow Life Insurance Claim Form

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Bestow is a fantastic option for individuals who are looking for the convenience of a 100% online application process and who are in average to above-average health.

If that describes you, get started requesting a quote at Bestow.com.

And of course, if you have any lingering questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send us an email at [email protected].

Warm Regards,
The GetSure Team