Prudential Life Insurance Review | 2024 (2024)

Prudential scored highly in several key areas of our review standards. It offers one of the most robust policy portfolios among insurers and offers many riders to help you customize your life insurance coverage to meet your unique situation. It receives an A+ financial strength rating from AM Best.

Prudential also ranks high for its easy online application process but is about average regarding ways to communicate with the company. However, according to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Individual Life Insurance StudySM and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) complaint index, it excels in customer satisfaction.

Life insurance is a contract between a policyholder who agrees to make premium payments and an insurer that agrees to pay a death benefit to designated beneficiaries when the policyholder dies. The premium costs and policy amounts vary depending on several factors, such as age, gender, health and lifestyle.

Some whole life insurance policies have a cash value in addition to the death benefit value, functioning as a savings or investment account that earns interest and can be borrowed against in certain situations.

Learn more: What is life insurance and how does it work?

When shopping for a life insurance policy:

• Choose the type: term or whole life
• Identify potential riders to customize the policy for you
• Determine the amount and time you need coverage
• Ensure competitive quotes are for the same coverage
• Check each company’s financial health and customer ratings

Age restrictions vary by policy, with coverage available on select policies up to 90 years old. Some are more limited, such as SimplyTerm, which only issues a 30-year term option to individuals who are non-smokers between 18 and 55 and smokers between 18 and 45.

Prudential offers the following types of policies.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance allows a policyholder to buy coverage for a specific period, generally between 10 and 30 years. If the insured person passes away during that period, the insurance company will pay a predetermined amount to the beneficiaries named in the policy. When the policy period ends, the policy is no longer in force, and the death benefit is forfeit.

Many companies offer term insurance policies, and you can see our top term life insurance providers here.

Prudential offers the following term life insurance policies:

• SimplyTerm. Applicants aged 18 to 55 can purchase SimplyTerm through a fully online process. Coverage ranges from $100,000 to $1 million for 10-, 15-, 20- or 30-year level premium periods.
• Term Essential. This policy offers term lengths of 10, 15, 20 or 30 years, a conversion option and Prudential’s Living Needs Benefit, which accelerates your death benefit if you become terminally ill. If you keep the policy after the level-premium term ends and choose not to convert to a whole life policy, your premiums will increase each year as outlined in your contract and stop at age 95, when the policy ends.
• PruTerm One. This product offers death benefit protection that is renewable annually for maximum flexibility. If your needs change or become longer-term in scope, you may also convert your coverage to a permanent policy within the first five years.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole Life Insurance is a permanent life insurance policy that provides coverage for the policyholder’s entire life as long as they pay premiums on time. Whole life policies also have a cash value component that term policies do not, meaning you can borrow against the premiums you’ve paid into the policy in most cases.

Prudential Life Insurance offers the following whole life policy:

Prudential Final Expense Life Insurance. This policy helps loved ones cover final expenses such as funeral and burial costs, end-of-life medical expenses, or other immediate expenses after you die. Choose from coverage amounts of $5,000 to $30,000. This product is available to those aged 50 to 85. Final Expense Life Insurance offers riders that include a temporary accidental death benefit, a terminal illness benefit and an accidental death benefit rider.

Read more: Top whole life insurance companies

Universal Life Insurance

A universal life policy can provide long-term or even permanent coverage instead of coverage for a set period. It also offers several additional benefits, including tax advantages, cash value growth and flexibility to change the policy as your life changes. You can pay the minimum to keep the policy in force or pay more for faster cash value accumulation and a longer no-lapse guarantee.

Life Insurance Riders

Prudential Life Insurance offers the following universal life policies:

• PruLife Essential UL. Prudential’s universal life insurance product offers coverage starting at $25,000 with a maximum limit of $65 million.
• PruLife SUL Protector. This policy protects two people and pays a death benefit when both policyholders die. There is a no-lapse coverage guarantee if you pay sufficient premiums and meet other requirements. Coverage starts at $250,000.

Prudential also offers several indexed universal life, survivorship universal life, indexed variable universal life and variable universal life insurance policies.

Prudential Riders

• Accidental death benefit
• Accidental death benefit for chronic and terminal illness (BenefitAccess)
• Accelerated death benefit for terminal illness (Living Needs Benefit)
• Children’s level term rider
• Children’s protection rider
• Enhanced cash value rider
• Enhanced disability benefit rider
• Estate protection rider
• Overloan protection rider
• Survivorship accidental death benefit for chronic and terminal illness (Survivorship BenefitAccess)
• Living needs benefit
• Waiver of monthly deductions
• Waiver of premium

Life insurance is competitively priced throughout the industry. While each insurer has its underwriting methods to determine policy costs, several factors remain constant. The premium you pay will normally depend on the following:

• Age
• Health and medical history
• Gender
• Lifestyle
• Policy type
• Coverage amount
• Credit standing

Below is a snapshot of Prudential’s term life insurance rates for a 25-year-old male.

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*quotes are for $100,000 in coverage based on preferred, non-tobacco health ratings.

Prudential falls in the middle of the pack compared to other insurers regarding customer service in J.D. Power’s 2022 U.S. Individual Life Insurance StudySM but receives far less than the average number of complaints for a company of its size, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

To understand how real consumers feel about Prudential’s service, we read more than 100 actual policyholder reviews on aggregator sites like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and TrustPilot.

Prudential Financial gets mixed reviews from the Better Business Bureau BBB. Some of the negative reviews we read focused on lackluster communication and mishandling of funds. Here are some examples:

“I tried to reach the financial professional who sold me the policy ten years ago, but his phone has been disconnected for a year or so. Talking to their customer reps about anything other than [my phone] number and the last four of my social is just like talking to a wall. They’re aggressively indifferent. Unbelievable.” —Judith S via BBB

“I received my check, cashed my check and they say they don’t have it. I got a notice of policy lapse if not received by 6/29/2022. Check was cashed in April. They have acknowledged receiving a copy of the cashed check and my April [bank] statement showing the check was cashed. Made three calls since the original notice, and it’s STILL under review.” —Paul D via BBB

“Sarah was patient and clear about the process I was entering into. She was reassuring and kind. She followed up to see if I had any questions or issues. She stayed with me until everything was settled and signed. A lovely person to deal with when having a tough go of things.” —customersandradee via TrustPilot

“I’ve recently had to apply for short-term disability a couple of days ago through these guys. The application process was pretty easy. The problem is every time I try to log into the site it says I have the wrong password. It won’t let me change my password, either. I’m not going to keep bugging the customer service reps because you have a broken site.” – Andrew via TrustPilot

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Prudential is exceptionally stable, according to credit rating agencies like AM Best, and offers a variety of life insurance products that you can customize with a wide range of riders. It’s also a solid choice for term life insurance with generous conversion options and living benefits.

Although some policies are quotable online, you will likely need to work directly with a Prudential agent or company to help you decide which policy and riders are best for your unique situation. We recommend securing life insurance quotes from at least three providers to ensure you find the right coverage for your budget and needs.

Methodology: Our System for Rating Life Insurance Companies

Our team researches and ranks life insurance companies using an in-depth scoring system that considers the factors most important to consumers like you. Our analysis includes a comprehensive review of each provider we feature based on available coverage, customizability, availability, customer service and company reputation. Here are the factors we take into consideration when rating life insurance providers:

• Brand trust (40%): Life insurance payouts can exceed $100,000 or more, which makes choosing a reputable and trustworthy insurance provider important. To assess brand trust, we use J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction surveys, AM Best credit rating scores and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) complaint index. The higher a company scores in each area, the more points it receives.
• Coverage (33%): The more policy options a life insurance company offers, the more opportunities you have to obtain the right coverage for your specific needs. For this reason, we give companies the most points for offering multiple types of life insurance, including various term, permanent and no-exam options.
• Availability and ease of use (19%): Since life insurance coverage options can be complex, we consider the ways a customer can reach a company — and how easy communication is. For this category, we research how many communication channels a company offers for general customer support, claims processing and the application process. Companies earn the most points for offering various ways to interact with an agent, both in-person and online.
• Riders (8%): Companies offering various life insurance riders or endorsem*nts allow policyholders to better customize their coverage. In this category, we determine how many riders a company offers and award the most points to providers with more than 10 options.