A Thoughtful Review of Globe Life Insurance Company
This Globe Life Insurance review might not be kind. However, they are a storied company with millions of policy holders, so they can take some criticism every now and then.
On the Globe Life Insurance website, you will see a headlining advertisement that states – one dollar buys you $100,000 worth of life insurance. As we all know however, ads can be deceiving.
As you take a closer look, that $1 only buys coverage for the first month and then the rates only go up from there. Is that how you want to start your relationship with your life insurance company?
Is Globe Life the right choice for you and your family?
Probably not.
The sad truth is this. Most people who come across Globe Life are looking for a policy that is simple to understand and will pay for final expenses when they die. This is known as final expense insurance, and it’s a great choice for most families.
Unfortunately, Globe Life doesn’t even offer traditional final expense life insurance.
The only policy that Globe advocates will continue to get more and more and more expensive until you cannot afford it at all.
Do you really want a Globe Life Insurance plan that gets more and more expensive as you get older?
Would you like to play hot potato with a ticking time bomb, getting prohibitively expensive past the ages of 65 or 70? Now you know the catch. Now that “$1 for $100,000” doesn’t sound so great, does it?
If you want to find better options for your family and your coverage, click the link below and run some quotes for yourself. Otherwise, continue on with our Globe Life Insurance review to learn more.
Globe Life Insurance Review and Overview
Globe was founded in 1951, and it is part of a larger company in the $500M to $750M insurance market space. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Torchmark Corporation, which provides life and supplemental insurance to lower and middle income American families.
They provide policies to over 4 million people, mainly through their “Employee Services Division” which services the government employee sector. Globe in New York, specializes in supplemental insurance for the senior market.
How do you get in touch with Globe Life?
Globe Life Insurance Company
3700 S. Stonebridge Drive
McKinney, TX 75070
877-577-3860
https://www.globelifeofnewyork.com
Torchmark Corporation’s home office is located in McKinney, Texas, a suburb thirty miles north of Dallas.
Globe Life Insurance Company History
Globe Life Insurance Company of New York is one of the nation’s largest insurance providers for the lower and middle income market. Furthermore, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Torchmark Corporation, they have even more presence in the insurance marketplace.
Torchmark is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Their marketplace presence and millions of customers indicate a strength that, unfortunately, does not translate into competitive policies.
It’s actually surprising that a company this large cannot provide better coverage at a better price, particularly since they’ve been around since the 1950s.
How is Globe Life rated for financial strength?
Globe Life Insurance, Torchmark, and all remaining subsidiaries have a superior rating with the A.M. Best Company, which serves as a trusted and reliable independent insurance analyst for the industry.
In July 2017, the companies received an A+ rating. A.M. Best bases these ratings on company integrity, effectiveness of the management team, and financial performance. The insurance industry relies on the firm of A.M. Best to rate the financial stability of insurance carriers.
Globe Life Insurance Products Offered
Globe offers the typical life insurance options, but there are some hidden catches within the policies that can create unexpected wrinkles in the desired smoothness of life insurance.
Globe Whole Life Insurance for Children
Globe offers whole life policies, however they don’t really market these to adults. They really market their whole life policies for children, and these child policies are pretty good. Their whole life policies for children can have a value up to $20,000 and they are level for life.
Globe Whole Life Insurance for Adults
For seniors who want to leave their families with financial stability, a small whole life policy makes great sense. These policies provide lifelong coverage, and the policy actually has a cash value that grows over time. They’re tax deferred so you won’t pay taxwhile the cash is accumulating, and there is an option for you to borrow money against these policies or cash in the policy at any given time.
Globe of NY does have a simplified issue whole life policy for up to $25,000. It is similar to other final expense plans, except the qualifications are much more stringent.
You must be able to answer “no” to the following two questions to receive level coverage starting day one:
Within the past 3 years, has any applicant:
- Used a wheelchair on a daily basis in the home due to illness?
- Had or received treatment for any disease or disorder of the liver (including hepatitis C) or hemophilia or lupus?
- Had or been treated for mental disorder (including mental retardation) or any brain disease or disorder?
- Had or been treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, or any chronic disease or disorder of the lungs?
- Had diabetes that required treatment with insulin?
- Had or been treated for seizure disorder or epilepsy?
- Been confined to a hospital three (3) or more times?
- Had or been treated for a disease or disorder of the heart, arteries, or circulatory system including stroke,heart attack, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease or heart valve disorder?
- Been advised by a physician to have medical or diagnostic tests to determine if they have a disease or disorder of the arteries, heart or circulatory system, but have not yet completed those tests?
During the past 10 years, has the applicant been diagnosed as having, received treatment for, or been advised to take tests to determine if he/she has cancer (other than skin), leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, sarcoma or other malignant tumor or growth?
You can do better than Globe for Final Expense Insurance, Burial Insurance or Whole Life Insurance
You see, there are other companies just as financially strong as Globe who will issue day one 100% level whole life coverage with much more lenient underwriting.
We are able to consistently get approvals for all of these conditions two years after they have happened. We also know of other companies in the same market who will approve level coverage one year after certain conditions, like life insurance after a heart stent.
Long story short, you have better options if you are looking to Globe for a final expense policy or small whole life plan.
Does Globe have a No Exam Term Life Insurance Policy?
These policies are advertised correctly as no-medical exam policies, and they, indeed, do not require a medical exam. Globe doesn’t even require a physician’s statement in the application process; however, as stated earlier, there is always a catch.
First, they have short form and long form application. If a person fills out the simplified application (short form), there is no family history required. However, if they think you are a higher medical risk, they’ll ask you to fill out the long form and provide a family medical history.
Then, they are likely to charge you more based on the family history you were required to provide. Globe is not known for providing high-risk policies; therefor, you will likely see a premium that seems unreasonably high.
Globe Life Insurance places heavy limits on the amount of insurance you can buy on a no-exam policy. In fact, they offer one of the lowest max amounts in the industry at $100,000. In comparison, most other no-exam policies offered by competing companies offer $250,000 , which is over well over twice the dollar amount that Globe is willing to offer.
Although the words “no exam” may sound appealing, that is a misrepresentation of the attractiveness of these policies at Globe
Many relatively healthy people opt for the no exam option to avoid hassle of completing an exam. By avoiding this hassle, at Globe Life, they will have run up their insurance tab enormously, not to mention they will be receiving a lower quality politicly with far less coverage.
All applicants are categorized as substandard risk, meaning every applicant will pay noticeably more money for less coverage. These policies assume you are in poor health, when in reality your health status, following a simple exam, might qualify for a better policy with a lower rate.
Globe overcharges the healthy policy holders in order to compensate for the potential monetary loss to insure unhealthy and high risk policy holders who did not complete an exam. The practice of charging healthy and unhealthy policy holders the same rates does not benefit the majority their customers.
Globe Life’s “no-exam policies” are coincidentally one of the industry’s most expensive
Let’s talk about pricing. The headliner of $1 for $100,000 worth of insurance, is a prime example of false advertisement. In reality, the dollar only covers the first month of your premium.
Globe Life Insurance may appear cheap primarily, but the policies are guaranteed rate schedule policies -meaning your rates are slated to go up at specific intervals, resulting with you, the policy holder, seeing much higher rates just months after the seemingly inexpensive initial months.
Globe’s questionable advertising strategy is used to trick those seeking low rates, and will result in much higher monthly rates than most of the rates within competing companies.
Globe does not work well with people who have pre-existing conditions
Again because they are uninterested in investing in the potential monetary burden of insuring a high-risk applicant. You are better off going with a company focused on embracing high-risk applicants with health complications.
Globe also offers term life insurance policies, which are a viable option for many people because they provides coverage for a term specified by the policy holder. These predetermined terms are usually ten, twenty, or thirty years.
The policy does not accumulate cash value, but instead pays out a benefit if you die within the term of the policy. Generally, term policies are more affordable than whole life policies.
Although term life policies are in fact typically more affordable, Globe’s term life policies are not competitive amongst other companies in the industry.
Additionally, they do not allow policyholders to convert their term life policy into a whole life policy at any point. Unfortunately, most other insurers do, and this creates yet another downside to choosing Globe Life Insurance.
Globe’s term policies do not have guaranteed premiums
This is extremely non-traditional in the industry. Typically, both whole life and term policies have guaranteed premiums; however, Globe, despite its large company size and ownership by any even larger and publicly-traded company, does not offer their policy holders a guaranteed premium.
Instead, Globe bundles their pricing in five-year increments, only guaranteeing a premium rate for five consecutive years. For example, if you were to buy a thirty-year policy with Globe, you would risk unpredictable changed in premium costs 6 times.
That is unnecessary!
Although you may only need five or ten years of coverage, the bottom line is that almost any other competing company within the industry, big or small, old or new, is willing to offer you guaranteed premiums. Glove Life Insurance is not.
In comparison, Globe policies result in at least three times higher monthly rates for their policy holder than a majority of other major insurance providers.
Customer Service at Globe Life Insurance
Despite Globe’s singular strong point in customer service, their ability to get policies into place quickly, their overall tone of putting the company’s financial gain ahead of the needs of it’s customers is a far more prominent testimony to the company’s priorities.
Remember, if you are seeking a company to insure your life, shouldn’t you be able to trust them with your life?
A company willing to headline their advertising campaign with misleading information, putting their potential policy holders at risk for financial crisis and unprecedented rate increases, is a company that has a leading focus on their business, not on their customers.
Due to Globe’s large company size, when contacted, you will receive a generic quote, which may or may not be what you would pay once you had completed the application process.
Globe’s inability to address their large clientele on a personal level, results in applicants being lumped into large categories alongside others who may or may not be seeking the same financial, medical, or policy needs.
This process may be cost and time effective for the business itself, but for the majority of the customers, especially those who are in fair to good health, the process does not benefit them or their wallets at all.
Globe Life Insurance only scores a B rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The BBB scale runs from A+ to F, but what does this scale mean? What exactly is a company graded on? Here are some of the BBB’s 13 criteria: trust, honesty, integrity, transparency, and honoring promises.
Many competing insurance providers can proudly display extensive testimonies of customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, Globe sees high traffic in customer complaints for their dishonest and misleading advertising campaign.
The company also receives numerous complaints about responsiveness and billing issues. Customers report being charged long after their policies had been cancelled, while others express frustration about policy lapses due to billing issues.
Sadly, the headlining false advertisement that decorates Globe’s image, often makes their company seem like a quality choice for life insurance.
For others, Globe’s large company size and long history make them appear reputable and trustworthy. Sadly, if applicants were able to see just beyond these distractions, they would quickly continue their search elsewhere for a quality, trustworthy, and reliable insurance provider.
Life insurance has grown into an enormous industry, and it is filled with companies that strive to provide their policy holders with the best possible rates, premiums, fairness and honesty, customer service, and peace of mind.
Globe does provide life insurance, but its unlikely that they will be able to provide the best policy for you and your loved ones.