Speak with an experienced advisor! 877-800-0450Purchasing life insurance is always a task that can bring some fear of the unknown into play. Am I choosing the correct policy? Am I even working with the correct life insurance company? These could be a few questions going through your mind and causing some anxiety and stress.
Today, we wanted this article to be fully geared towards providing you with an in-depth American National Life Insurance (ANICO) review. Something many consumers may not be aware of is the additional benefits a company like ANICO can offer. You see, all life insurance companies have some positives and negatives.
That’s our job to explain and filter through the results with you. However, American National Life Insurance Company offers some of the best living benefits built into their life insurance policies that we have seen across the industry.
If you aren’t entirely familiar with what that means, that’s okay. We are going to cover that in depth for you as well. Let’s kickstart things with a few of the basics.
Who Is American National Life Insurance Company?
American National has been in the game for a long time. Since 1905 to be exact. In 1905 William Lewis Moody Jr founded ANICO and initially offered several lines of insurance and financial products including the following.
• Life Insurance
• Annuities
• Health Insurance
• Home and Auto Insurance
• Credit Insurance
• Pension Plans
American National is considered a publicly traded company as opposed to a Mutual life insurance company. This only means that individuals own shares of ANICO as opposed to policyholders partaking in the profits in the form of dividend payments.
While mutual life insurance companies have some strengths, this is not something to get very hung up on when it comes to your life insurance policy choices and options. Life insurances core purpose is to provide protection to your family in case the worst-case scenario ultimately occurs. Your death.
Publicly traded companies will surely take care of this just as well as any mutual life insurance company will.
American National Life Insurance Financial Ratings
American National is currently recognized as one of Forbes “100 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies”. They have held down this spot for quite some time as well. From 2009-2017, they were given this honor each year. Currently, they boast the following financial ratings.
• A.M. Best– A- Excellent
• Standard and Poor’s A- Excellent
Both ratings being awarded by two of the major rating agencies is something that shouldn’t be ignored when considering American National to handle your family’s life insurance needs.
If this isn’t enough to make you feel warm and cozy about your decision to work with American National, let’s not forget they sit on over 2 billion dollars in assets. That’s another huge positive in the life insurance and financial services industry.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the products offered by American National.
American National Products Offered
American National will currently offer life insurance coverage in a few different forms. Term, Universal and Whole life are the primary three options you will have when working with them. Within these categories, you also have additional options available such as the following.
• Indexed Universal Life Insurance
• Variable Universal Life Insurance
American National Life Insurance, Term Life Insurance Coverage
One of the most popular options is always going to be term life insurance with American National. Currently, ANICO offers term life insurance policies that range from 10-30 years in coverage terms. Your available options would be the following.
• 10 Year Term
• 15 Year Term
• 20 Year Term
• 25 Year Term
• 30 Year Term
American National also is well known for being extremely affordable and offering premiums that won’t ever rise which is known as “level premium term life insurance.”
They offer a wide variety of additional riders and benefits that can be built into your policy and offer “convertibility options” that will allow you to move your term life insurance policy into permanent coverage if you wish to exercise this option.
No-Exam Options with American National Life Insurance
Another huge benefit that American National offers that sets them apart is the ability to purchase a policy without needing a medical exam. This often appeals to many consumers searching for the best life insurance companies to work with without needing that pesky medical exam to take place.
Currently, ANICO is only offering this no-exam life insurance option for policies up to 250,000 in coverage. You would still be allowed to select from the range of policy durations discussed previously. 10-30 years.
The previously mentioned positives about American National are only scraping the surface. The primary goal we had today was to really dive into an often-ignored benefit that some life insurance companies offer within the policies. This is known as living benefits.
American National is one of the best in the industry to consider if you are looking for living benefits so let’s dive into how this may help you and what they really have to offer.
A Deep Look into Living Benefits with American National Life Insurance
Living benefits are what this article is all about and again, something consumers need to start taking seriously. It’s not a dressed-up marketing tactic and can surely provide some real relief when you need it most. First, let’s cover a few of the basics about ANICOS living benefits. With ANICO, living benefits are known as (ABR’s) or Accelerated Death Benefit Riders.
The entire idea behind these benefits is to provide a partial and or a full life insurance benefit if you meet the criteria while living. Yes, you read that correctly. Let’s repeat it. It’s designed to provide you “cash” death benefits while LIVING.
There are two ways this can happen with American National. Here’s a sneak peek.
Partial Acceleration
This is where you can be paid a portion of your policies death benefit if you meet the criteria of having either critical, chronic or a terminal illness. We will touch on these shortly.
Full Acceleration
This is precisely what it sounds like. This is when you can receive the cash from the entire life insurance policy if you meet the criteria laid out in your policy. Once the policy has been paid into your hands, your coverage will then be terminated.
The idea is for you to have access to your cash not only at death. This will help provide financial relief to your family in a time of need and when you would specifically be in financial ruin in most cases without this option.
If you weren’t aware, long term care and disability insurance doesn’t always come to the rescue in certain situations.
The Three Ways to Qualify for Accelerated Benefits with American National
Here is the three-ways you can qualify to receive these benefits in the event something does happen if you have a life insurance policy with ANICO.
Terminal Illness Benefits With ANICO
To be eligible with American National for this benefit, you would need to be expected to live 24 months or less except in the states of CT, FL, and NY. In these states, you can still qualify, and the product is available, but you would need to be diagnosed and expected to live 12 months or less.
This option is also available for all rate classes which merely means even if you are preferred plus or sub-standard high-risk rating due to something such as being type 2 diabetic, you can still count on this benefit providing you relief and count on qualifying for the coverage without an issue.
Chronic Illness Benefits with ANICO
Chronic illness with American National Life insurance will be available, and you will become eligible when you are unable to perform 2 of 6 daily living activities. These activities include the following.
· Bathing
· Continence
· Dressing
· Eating
· Toileting
· Transferring
Once you are unable to perform 2 of these activities, you will have a 90-day waiting period before your benefits are available. This is normal with many lines of insurance with substantial payouts. The same typically applies to workers comp claims, disability claims, and even long-term care insurance.
Critical Illness Benefits with ANICO
Under the Critical Illness Rider, you will be eligible to receive cash payouts while living if you are diagnosed by a certified physician with a critical illness which can be defined as the following.
• Heart Attack
• Stroke
• Invasive Cancers
• End Stage Renal Failure
• ALS
• Major Organ Transplants
• Blindness
• Paralysis
• Arterial Aneurysms
• Central Nervous System Tumors
• Major Multi-System Trauma such as (Injury to 3 or more Major Organs)
• AIDS
• Severe Disease of Any Organ
• Severe Central Nervous System Disease such as Parkinson’s Huntington’s, MS, Encephalitis or others with long term lasting effects or decreased life expectancy.
• Major Burns
• Loss of Limbs
What we have listed above is the primary criteria to qualify for the actual cash in hand with American Nationals living benefits, but it’s also important to understand some of the other specifics and how these policies really work. Let’s dive into some of those details now.
Is Their A Minimum Death Benefit Amount with American National Living Benefits?
Yes, with ANICO, your minimum coverage amount for terminal illness coverage is 25,000, and with critical and chronic care your minimum coverage amount will be 50,000.00. This means your face value of your policy must be these stated minimums to have the living benefits coverages available.
What About Maximums with ANICO’s Living Benefits?
Yep, maximums are part of the puzzle as well. With American National, the maximum coverage or living benefit face amount is 2,000,000 for ages 0-65 and 1,000,000 for ages 66 plus. Either one of these based on the ages is perfectly okay amounts to expect to accelerate in the event tragedy does strike.
How Much of The Death Benefit Will American National Give Me?
American National breaks down payouts based on life expectancy. For example, let’s assume your life expectancy after qualifying for either critical, chronic or terminal illness looked something like the example below. The corresponding percentages are what you can expect American National to forward you while living.
· 15-17 Years Life Expectancy- 25% Advance of Face Value
· 10-12 Years Life Expectancy- 50% Advance of Face Value
· 5-7 Years Life Expectancy- 75% Advance of Face Value
· 1-2 Years Life Expectancy- 90% Advance of Face Value
How Fast Can I Expect Payment from American National for Living Benefits?
If you do qualify for one of the “triggers” to activate your living benefits, American National makes it very clear in the policy readings that they take 30 days to process the claim. This is also assuming you don’t have the 90-day waiting period.
If you did have 90 day waiting period, the 30-day processing time and waiting period would coincide with each other meaning you don’t have to add an additional 30 days to your 90 days wait. Once the 90-day waiting period over, you would qualify for the living benefits and the money would be processed to you.
How Can I Spend My Cash from My Living Benefits?
Whatever you please. Ideally, the point is to provide relief for massive medical cost, but that doesn’t mean you have to do this. Let’s assume you also rack up some credit cards during a 90-day waiting period for your benefits paying to fly in family to visit a sick family member or even just to cover medical expenses.
If this is the case, you are free to clear that debt with your living benefits and use your money freely on whatever you choose.
American National does not place any restrictions on how you spend your cash once it’s in your hands.
Does Living Benefits Require Any Additional Work During the Application?
No, with American National, you won’t have to go through any extra steps to add these benefits to your policy. In the State of New York, you will have to complete what’s known as a supplemental application form for the chronic care benefits, but outside of that, your application will be as easy as 1,2,3.
When Do We Recommend Using Your Living Benefits with American National?
Living benefits are designed to do one thing. Provide benefits to you but while alive and not dead. If you have this benefit in your current American National policy, you should exercise them in the following situations.
· When You Qualify for Them Due to Medical Conditions
· When your Family is in Financial Strain because of the Said Medical Condition
· When Death Benefits May Not be the Number 1 Priority
Whoa, Why Did You Mention When Death Benefits Aren’t a Priority?
It’s important to understand that these benefits don’t come to you for free. Whatever benefits you take in the form of living benefits, will be deducted from your final face value of your policy. Here is an example.
Let’s assume you originally purchased a 30-year term policy when you were 44 years old. Initially, you needed to protect your children and wife in case you happened to meet your maker prematurely. Now you are 63 years old, your children are out of the house, and your home is paid off.
In this situation, you surely don’t need something such as a 500,000-life insurance policy to go to your children anymore for protection in the event you pass away. Who does the need the cash though? You and your wife.
If this is the case, wouldn’t it be better to protect your wife from losing your home that you worked your entire life to pay off and keep medical cost to a minimum? That’s a great example of how living benefits can help you.
A Quick Example of Living Benefits in Action
Let’s assume you were diagnosed and told you had 5-7 years to live and opted to accelerate 75% of the cash to pay out to cover in-home medical care, medications, and some significant surgery cost. Your policy was initially been for 500,000.00 at the time of purchase.
If you accelerate this cash and are in the situation/example that we illustrated above, American National will send you 375,000 cash while living. The remaining 125,000.00 will be provided to your beneficiaries at your death.
Overall seems like a no brainer to me if you ended up in this situation and a small news flash for you. A vast majority of the US population will end up in this situation. None of us are invincible, and it can happen to you.
Are Any Fees Associated with Living Benefits with American National?
Yes, American National advertises that you will pay an administrative fee that is NOT to exceed 500.00 dollars.
Also, if you fall into a sub-standard category and still want living benefits to your policy, they may access what’s known as a “flat extra fee” on your coverage not to exceed 5.00 dollars per 1000.00 in coverage.
What If I Want to Get Started Right Now?
If you have heard enough and realize the massive benefits this could provide to your and family, we recommend you get started by filling out our instant quote form. After doing so, you will be displayed rates from all top-rated companies including American National.
Alternatively, you can always opt to give us a call today. We are still here to help, and we specialize in life insurance that includes living benefits. Any additional questions you may have we can be sure to answer quickly and professionally for you.
Putting It All Together, Don’t Ignore the Perks of Living Benefits
At the end of the day, American National Life Insurance company has always been a top-rated company and been one of our favorites. The addition of living benefits is just more icing on the cake. We believe firmly in living benefits and think they can be equally as important in providing death benefits to your family.
At the end of the day, there is one thing in life that’s guaranteed and 1 thing in life that is very likely. Death is guaranteed, and high-medical cost and care are very likely. Why not start purchasing life insurance policies that can cover both events instead of remaining only half protected?
The choice is yours. What are you going to do about it?
