If you have been shopping around for life insurance policies, you have probably run across AIG Life Insurance.
They are one of the biggest life insurers in the world and serve customers across 80 different countries.
If you are interested in learning more about AIG Life, you’ve come to the right place.
In this review:
- About AIG Life
- Company Ratings
- Life Insurance Products
- Life Insurance Riders
- Eligibility and Application Process
- Pros & Cons
- FAQs
About AIG Life
AIG Life has a somewhat unique founding story when compared to other life insurance companies.
They were originally founded in 1919 by an American businessman named Cornelius Vander Starr who was living in Shanghai at the time.
He eventually returned to the United States and opened the first American AIG offices in New York.
In the century since its founding, AIG has grown into an insurance industry giant.
Currently headquartered in Houston, they are the fifth-largest life insurance provider in the United States.
They employ more than 49,000 people worldwide, and their revenue is estimated at around $50 billion.
Their major differentiator is their ability to provide flexible and affordable insurance policies to insureds across the globe.
AIG Direct is the arm of AIG that sells life insurance policies. American General Life underwrites all AIG life insurance policies.
The difference is that AIG Direct life insurance policies can be purchased online, whereas other policies must be purchased directly through an AIG agent.
You can choose to have an agent assigned to your policy if you would like.
Agents can offer personalized advice and assistance, but there is no difference in obtaining quotes whether you go through AIG Direct or an agent.
AIG Life Financial Ratings
Understanding an insurance company’s rating can help you gauge whether or not they will treat you well as a customer or crumble financially anytime soon.
AIG has exceptionally strong financial ratings but has, unfortunately, poor customer relations.
Let’s start with the good news. AIG has been consistently ranked well for its financial stability and creditworthiness.
A.M. Best
A.M. Best ranks the financial strength of life insurance companies. They awarded AIG an A rating, which indicates that they believe AIG to be stable and able to pay customer claims.
Moody’s
Moody’s, a leading provider of credit ratings and risk analysis, gave AIG an A2 rating.
This is among their highest scores available, which means that they believe AIG is a low-risk company for bankruptcy.
Standard & Poor’s
Finally, Standard & Poor’s rated AIG an A+. Just like in grade school, an A+ is the highest rating available from Standard & Poor’s.
This score means that they believe that AIG has high creditworthiness.
AIG Customer Reviews
Now, moving onto the bad news. AIG has had pretty poor reviews from customers and many complaints to state regulators over the years.
They have also received poor ratings from bureaus like the BBB and J.D. Power.
The latter ranked AIG 15th out of 23 reviewed life insurance companies. J.D. Power analyzes customer’s experiences with life insurance companies and ranks them accordingly.
Their analysis of AIG means that they were not impressed by the handling of customer issues or client relations.
AIG Life Insurance Products Offered
One of the amazing features of AIG is that they offer several different types of life insurance policies.
You have many options when it comes to term or whole life insurance policies.
Here are all of the life insurance products offered by AIG.
Term Life
Term life insurance is considered the most basic type of life insurance coverage.
It protects the insured for a specified period of time and will issue a payment to the beneficiary if the insured dies during their term.
AIG offers two term life insurance products to their customers: QoL Flex Term and Select-a-Term. Customers can choose between 18 different term lengths, which range from 10 years to 35 years.
The policyholder can convert both to a permanent policy at any point.
AIG QoL Flex Term
The QoL Flex product includes a “Quality of Life” accelerated death benefit.
This feature allows you to access funds from your policy if you are diagnosed with a chronic, critical or terminal condition during your policy term.
AIG Select-a-Term
In contrast, the Select-a-Term product only offers an accelerated death benefit if the insured is diagnosed with a terminal condition.
AIG offers term life coverage from $100,000 to $2 million. You can qualify for coverage as high as $10 million, but you will need specific approval for that amount. Your premium payments will increase annually throughout your term, and you can renew the policy up until you turn 95 years old.
Through AIG, you are allowed to ladder your life insurance policy to meet your specific needs.
This means that you can determine an exact term and coverage amount and combine policies to meet your needs.
This is extraordinarily helpful for people needing specific accommodations for their circumstances.
Whole Life
Whole life insurance is exactly what it sounds like; your life insurance policy will cover you throughout your entire life as long as you continue to make your payments.
AIG offers several different types of whole life insurance coverage that can suit your needs.
AIG Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Policy
The first type of whole life insurance policy that you can purchase through AIG is called a guaranteed issue whole life policy.
This is also known as final-expense or burial insurance.
These policies generally have lower coverage amounts ($25,000 or less), but they do not require any kind of medical exam or questionnaire to qualify for coverage.
AIG’s guaranteed issue whole life product is issued to insureds between the ages of 50 and 80 years old. This policy will pay out the full death benefit to your beneficiary after two years of coverage.
If you die within the first two years of coverage, they will only pay out 110% of the premiums you’ve paid. Compared to other burial insurance policies, this is lower than average.
AIG Universal Whole Life Policy
AIG also offers what is known as a universal whole life policy. These policies include a cash value component that accumulates tax-free until you access it.
They offer both guaranteed universal and indexed universal life insurance. For guaranteed universal policies, the cash value accumulates at a fixed interest rate of 2%.
With the indexed universal policy, your cash value is invested in an index account. Your cash value accumulates according to the index’s performance.
You can qualify for AIG’s universal whole life policy if you are between the ages of 18 and 80 years old. This policy pays the full death benefit to your beneficiary whenever you pass.
They have a minimum coverage amount of $50,000 and can go up to as high as you can qualify for.
AIG Variable Universal Whole Life Policy
Finally, AIG offers a variable universal whole life policy, which allows insureds the opportunity to build their cash value through investments.
This is similar to the indexed universal like policy, but it allows for a wider variety of investment types. Also, it does not have a performance or participation cap, which means that your investments have the potential to grow at a higher rate.
With the variable universal life policy, you must be between 18 and 80 years old. The face values start at $100,000 and can go as high as the millions.
Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D)
In addition to their term and whole life products, AIG also offers an accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) product.
This is an accident policy that pays out if the insured dies in an accident or is dismembered.
This product does not require a medical exam and is available to applicants between the ages of 18 and 80 years old.
AIG offers different levels of payouts depending on the extent of your dismemberment after an accident.
The company covers death, loss of two separate limbs, and loss of sight in both eyes at 100%.
Loss of sight in one eye, loss of one limb, paraplegia, and hemiplegia are only covered at 50%.
You should note that any injury or dismemberment that is not caused by an accident will not be covered under this policy.
Life Insurance Riders Offered
AIG offers several life insurance riders that can be added to your policy to customize coverage.
Here are some of the available riders that you can add to your AIG life insurance policy:
- Accidental death benefit riders provide accidental death coverage to your life insurance policy. It provides up to $250,000 on top of your policy’s face value if you die in an accident. This coverage expires when you turn 70 years old.
- Child rider provides life insurance coverage to all of your children under one rider. You can purchase coverage between $500 and $25,000 for each child. This coverage will expire when the child turns 25 or when you turn 65.
- Terminal illness riders allow you to receive a portion of your death benefit while you’re still alive if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. This is the only rider that is included with AIG’s term life insurance policies.
- Waiver of premium rider will allow you to skip your premium payments if you become disabled for at least six months. You are permitted to continue skipping your payments if the disability persists. The only exception to this rule is if you are above 60 years old. In this case, the coverage will last one year or until you turn 65.
Eligibility and Application Process
Your application process can differ depending on which AIG life insurance product you choose. Here is how it typically goes.
Request a Quote
First, you need to request a quote from them on a policy. You can do this by either going online or calling them and providing some basic information about yourself.
Speak with an Agent
From there, you need to wait for an AIG agent to reach out to you. They will ask you about your medical history and other personal factors that would impact your final quote.
Complete a Full Application
Next, you are required to complete a full application. You will also be asked to schedule a medical exam so that a doctor can determine if there any health factors that would impact your rates. If you choose the guaranteed whole life policy, you are not required to take a medical exam.
Underwriting Process
This is the part where you will have to wait while the underwriting takes place. It will typically take about two weeks for AIG to review/approve your policy. If you like the quote and want to bind the policy, you can choose to purchase it once the quote is delivered. They will deliver your policy electronically.
As far as their underwriting guidelines go, AIG is pretty flexible. You won’t be automatically declined for conditions like diabetes or sleep apnea.
They will even approve you if you are a marijuana user, which is pretty unique. However, there are better rates available for people who have other medical conditions, such as having high cholesterol.
Pros and Cons of AIG Life
Here are the pros and cons of purchasing your life insurance from AIG.
Pros
- Many term length options: AIG has 18 different term lengths that you can choose from. This is much more than you would typically be offered with another term life insurer.
- Ways to access your money: AIG offers customers several ways to access their death benefit or cash value. They offer a feature called Accelerated Access Solution, which allows you to access a portion of your death benefit if you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness. They also offer a Lifestyle Income Solution feature that lets you access your death benefit after age 85.
- Online policy management: In the digital age, it’s important that we can access and manage important financial policies online. Fortunately, AIG understands this and allows online policy management for all of their customers.
Cons
- High number of complaints: AIG has scored below average for customer satisfaction according to J.D. Power. They have also received an extraordinary number of complaints to state regulators for a company of their scale.
- No online quoting: While AIG recognizes the importance of online policy management, they are still old school when it comes to applications and quoting. You will need to submit an application to an AIG agent to receive a quote.
- Required medical exam: AIG requires a medical exam for the vast majority of their products. They do not require an exam for their guaranteed whole life policy, but you will need to apply for and be approved for it.
FAQs
Is AIG Life a good life insurance company?
Customers are on the fence about whether or not they think that AIG is a good company.
While their financial ratings are exceptional, they have received an unusually high number of complaints against them over the years.
If it’s important for you to have a company that treats its customers well, I recommend extending your search to other life insurance companies.
Who owns AIG Life?
American International Group, or AIG, is independently owned and operated. However, they are made up of several smaller companies, including:
- American General Life Companies
- AIG Direct
- AIG Life and Retirement
- VALIC
- Western General
Does AIG Life pay out?
AIG has been consistently rated highly for its financial strength and creditworthiness. They have received among the highest ratings from various oversight agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. Given this, you should not expect any issues with AIG’s ability to pay your claim.
Is AIG Life the Best Choice for You?
Life insurance is a big purchase. It is meant to protect your family in case the worst comes to pass.
That is why it is important to take your time and do your research before settling on a certain policy or company.
Not everyone is knowledgeable about insurance, which is where I come in.
I can help you find the perfect policy and company for your specific needs.
Check out more of my articles to learn more about life insurance and find the best choice for you.
