Transamerica Life Insurance Company Review
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Leslie Kasperowicz
Farmers CSR for 4 Years
Leslie Kasperowicz holds a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Winnipeg. She spent several years as a Farmers Insurance CSR, gaining a solid understanding of insurance products including home, life, auto, and commercial and working directly with insurance customers to understand their needs. She has since used that knowledge in her more than ten years as a writer, largely in the insur...
Farmers CSR for 4 Years
UPDATED: Dec 4, 2023
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Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different life insurance companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about life insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything life insurance-related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by life insurance experts.
UPDATED: Dec 4, 2023
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right life insurance coverage choices.
Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident life insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one life insurance provider and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider.
Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different life insurance companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
On This Page
Transamerica Life Insurance Company offers a variety of different types of life insurance options. You can choose from term life, whole life, universal life, and final expense plans. In addition to the multiple life insurance options, Transamerica offers services such as retirement solutions, mutual funds, annuities, Medicare supplement and a variety of employee benefit plans.
Transamerica specializes in providing competitive life insurance rates for individuals, families, and seniors. They also offer life insurance options that require no medical exams which can be found on the term life insurance and whole life insurance coverage.
Transamerica has a wide range of policies, but do they have one that meets your needs? Use this in-depth review to explore this company and its available insurance products.
Transamerica Life Insurance
- A+ Rated Company
- Living Benefit Features
- Flexible Term Life Insurance Options
- Competitive Life Insurance Rates
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Transamerica Company History
Established in 1928 as a holding company for Bank of Italy (later Bank of America), Transamerica is a private insurance and financial services company.
Transamerica originally operated out of San Francisco, where it built the iconic Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper in 1972. The headquarters is now in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with satellite offices throughout the country with their products being offered by independent agents that can be located throughout the entire United States.
Over the years, the company has focused on delivering a diverse range of financial services and insurance plans. The financial services include retirement plans and pension plans, while the insurance options have grown to cover almost every type of insurance imaginable.
Transamerica is also committed to the health and well-being of its customers. It founded the Transamerica Institute, which provides education on retirement issues and trends. It also researches common health care issues that employees and consumers face.
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Professional Ratings and Financial Strength
Transamerica Life Insurance Company maintains positive professional ratings from the most trusted rating agencies within the industry.
The A.M. Best rating agency gave Transamerica an A+ score of “Superior” for financial strength. The rating provided by A.M. Best can provide both current and potential customers with the peace of mind that the insurance company has the financial stability to pay on claims.
Transamerica has also received high ratings from Fitch, Moody’s, Standard & Poors and even an A- with the Better Business Bureau.
A life insurance company’s financial ratings are just as important as the coverage or the rates they are offering for coverage. You can rest assure that Transamerica has some of the best ratings within the insurance industry.
Transamerica Company Ratings:
| A.M. Best | Fitch | Moody’s | S&P Global | Comdex | J.D. Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | A+ | A1 | AA- | 93 | 780 |
Overview of Transamerica Life Insurance Products
As mentioned, Transamerica Life Insurance Company offers many different life insurance plans, including term life, indexed universal life, whole life, and final expense. Their most popular insurance products include:
- Trendsetter Super (Term Insurance)
- Trendsetter LB (Term Insurance)
- Financial Foundation IUL (Indexed Universal Life Insurance)
- Final Expense Solutions (Whole Life Insurance)
Here is a closer look at some of the popular Transamerica life insurance policies.
Trendsetter Super (Term Insurance)
Transamerica offers two types of term life insurance – Trendsetter Super and Trendsetter LB. These options are well suited for both individuals and families, especially with young children. If you’re looking for an affordable term life insurance option, Trendsetter Super will be the one to look at out of their available options
The Trendsetter Super policy offers the following advantages:
- Coverage up to $10 million
- No exam underwriting ($25,000 – $99.999)
- Multiple contract lengths
- Issue ages up to 80
- Optional policy riders
- Option to convert to permanent coverage
- Renewable to age 105
With Trendsetter Super you can choose from contract length that ranges from 10 through 30 years. Depending on your health, age, and budget, you can apply for coverage from as little as $25,000 up to a maximum of $10 million in death benefit protection.
Regardless of the contract length, the rate will be locked in for the entire duration of the term contract.
With Trendsetter Super, you have the option to convert the policy to a permanent life insurance policy as long as it is done prior to age 75. When converting the policy, you do not need to take a medical exam or provide evidence of insurability, as it falls under the guidelines of guaranteed approval.
The policy also includes streamlined underwriting guidelines for faster processing. This is a common advantage for Transamerica policies, allowing you to finalize your future planning quickly. We will admit that individuals with a history of medical issues may experience longer underwriting times especially if medical records are needed.
The income protection option is available on both the Trendsetter Super and Trendsetter LB options. This is a free benefit that allows you to structure how the death benefit payout would be paid to your beneficiary over time. Keep in mind that this is optional as the traditional payout would be a lump sum payment to the beneficiary.
Optional policy riders can be added to the life insurance coverage. These riders include accidental death benefit rider, children’s insurance rider and disability waiver of premium rider.
Trendsetter Super is available to applicants ages 18 up to 80 years old. This makes Transamerica one of just a few life insurance companies to offer term life insurance coverage to applicants over the age of 75.
| ISSUE AGES: | Issue Ages for face amounts under $100,000 |
| DEATH BENEFIT AMOUNTS: | $25,000-$10,000,000 |
| HEALTH CLASSES: | Preferred, Standard & Tobacco |
| RIDERS: | Accelerated Death Benefit (Included) |
| CONVERTIBLE: | Yes up to age 70 or 75 if coverage was approved Preferred Plus |
| RENEWABLE: | To age 105 |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES | *A leader in maximum issue ages |
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Trendsetter LB (Term Insurance)
Trendsetter LB is the second type of term life insurance coverage offered by Transamerica. This coverage offers the same death benefit protection as the Trendsetter Super but with a few additional benefits.
For example, the LB in the name of the coverage is short for living benefits. Transamerica is one of the first life insurance companies to have designed a life insurance policy that provides both death benefit protection along with financial protection against an unexpected chronic, critical or terminal illness.
The Trendsetter LB term life insurance coverage offers the ability to accelerate a percentage of the death benefit in the event of a medical condition that falls within the category of a:
- Critical Illness
- Chronic Illness
- Terminal Illness
If an illness meets the qualifications for a payout, you can receive an accelerated cash benefit to be used however you would like while you are still alive.
In addition to living benefits, Trendsetter LB includes multiple contract lengths with the potential for fast underwriting. However, this policy offers less coverage compared to the Trendsetter Super policy.
The maximum amount of coverage that can be applied for is $2 million. While it offers a lesser maximum coverage than the Trendsetter Super, it provides the option for a higher amount of coverage for those that want to skip the medical exam. If you wish to pass on taking a medical exam, you can apply for a death benefit amount of up to $249,999.
The Trendsetter LB policy also includes the same optional riders that can be found purchased with the Trendsetter Super coverage. An additional rider exclusive only to the Trendsetter LB coverage is the Monthly Disability Income Rider.
In addition to living benefits, the monthly disability income rider can provide up to 24 months of income due to an injury resulting in the loss of being able to work.
What are the advantages of Transamerica Living Benefits?
- Living benefits
- Multiple terms
- Fast underwriting
- Coverage up to $2 million
- Optional riders
| ISSUE AGES: | Issue Ages for face amounts under $99,999 |
| DEATH BENEFIT AMOUNTS: | $25,000-$2,000,000 |
| HEALTH CLASSES: | Preferred, Standard & Tobacco |
| RIDERS: | Accelerated Death Benefit (Included) |
| CONVERTIBLE: | Yes up to age 70 or 75 if coverage was approved Preferred Plus |
| RENEWABLE: | To age 105 |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES | *No exam underwriting $25,000 - $249,999 |
Financial Foundation IUL
(Indexed Universal Life Insurance)
The Financial Foundation Index Universal Life (FFIUL) policy is one of the most flexible life insurance options offered by Transamerica. This coverage offers permanent life insurance protection with the ability to earn cash value growth.
The advantages of the FFIUL policy include:
- Tax-deferred earnings
- Flexible premiums
- No lapse guarantee protection
- Basic and indexed crediting accounts
- High caps on indexed accounts
- No participation rate
- Living benefits
- Long Term Care coverage up to $2,000,000
- Several optional policy riders
Transamerica Financial Foundation IUL (FFIUL) offers policyholders the ability to earn cash value growth through interest credited to the cash value account. This is done by allocating a portion of the premium payments to go into either a Basic Interest Account or an Indexed Interest Account.
The Basic Interest Account provides a guaranteed minimum interest rate of 2% while the Indexed Accounts which consists of indexes from both the Global Index and S&P 500 offer a guaranteed minimum interest rate of 0.75%.
Should you participate in allocating premiums within the Indexed Accounts, you can expect a cap on the interest rate as high as 15% on The Global Indexed Account and a 13.75% cap on the S&P 500 Indexed Account. Both index accounts use an annual point-to-point crediting method.
Since Transamerica does not have a participation rate, premiums may be allocated to all three interest account if desired. However, this could limit the potential earnings when the market is performing better than the others. Transamerica is also known for offering some of the highest caps among many of its competitors that offer indexed universal life insurance.
FFIUL does offer a limited no lapse guarantee meaning that as long as you make the required minimum premium payment, your policy will not lapse due to change in the cost of insurance and the death benefit will be paid to your beneficiary.
FFIUL also offers many tax advantages. Your beneficiaries receive Federal income-tax-free death benefits. You also get tax-deferred earnings on the interest from the accumulated cash value as well as tax-free loans and withdrawals on the cash values.
Identical to the Trendsetter LB term coverage, FFIUL also offers the built-in living benefit riders known as the chronic, critical and terminal illness riders at no additional costs. These riders are subject to state availability.
Along with the living benefit riders is a large selection of optional policy riders that can be added onto the coverage for an additional cost. These include:
| ISSUE AGES: | 0-85 |
| DEATH BENEFIT AMOUNTS: | $25,000-$10,000,000 |
| HEALTH CLASSES: | Preferred Elite Non-Tobacco: (Issue Ages 18-70) |
| GUARANTEED MINIMUM INTEREST RATES: | Index Accounts: 0.75% |
| MINIMUM NO-LAPSE GUARANTEE PERIOD: | Issue Ages 0 – 45: 20 years |
| RIDERS: | Accidental Death Benefit Rider |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES | *Protection: Federal income tax-free death benefit. |
Final Expense Solutions (Whole Life)
Final expense policies provide coverage to ensure that your loved ones do not need to cover funeral costs. The expenses associated with death can easily exceed $10,000. Transamerica offers three final expense options that can be used to help with funeral expenses:
Immediate Solution: Provides full level death benefit protection beginning day one. Applicants who have a history of good health will be a good candidate for this coverage. It will also offer a lower premium payment for coverage.
10-Pay Solution: Provides full level death benefit protection beginning day one with all premiums being paid within the first ten policy years. This coverage is identical to the Immediate Solution coverage but offers the ability to have a paid-up policy in 10 short years. This option will be costly, but after the 10th year, you will never have a premium payment again.
Easy Solution: Offers graded death benefit for the first two years that is equal to all premium payments paid plus 10% interest. The full death benefit is payable beginning policy year three. This option is designed for applicants that have health conditions that are considered high risk.
With any of the three Transamerica Final Expense Solution coverage options, you do not need to be elderly to obtain a policy. These options are suitable for people between the ages of 0-85. They are especially a good option for both healthy applicants and even those with those who may have some health issues.
Qualification will be based on answers to the medical questions listed on the application along with additional underwriting results. Applicants who apply and have severe health risks may be declined and will need to consider a guaranteed issue coverage if desired.
Why choose a final expense policy instead of a traditional policy? These policies offer the following advantages:
- Permanent life insurance
- No Medical Exam
- A fast, simplified underwriting process
- Ideal for seniors but not limited to any age
- Premium is locked in once you purchase
The final expense policies provide the most streamlined underwriting process. While Transamerica works quickly to process applications for all plans, you may not wait as long for these options. In some cases, Transamerica offers approval in one or two days.
The final expense policies include three optional riders:
- Accidental death benefit rider
- Accelerated death benefit rider
- Child protection rider
The only drawback to the final expense policies is that the amount of coverage is limited. It really should only be considered if you are looking to cover smaller expenses such as a funeral or small remaining debts that do not require a large amount of life insurance.
LEVEL BENEFIT PLAN | 10 PAY SOLUTION PLAN | EASY SOLUTION PLAN |
|
| ISSUE AGES: | 0-85 | 0-85 | 0-80 |
| DEATH BENEFIT AMOUNTS: | $1,000 - $50,000 (issue ages 0-55) | $1,000 - $50,000 (issue ages 0-55) | $1,000 - $25,000 (issue ages 18-80) |
| HEALTH CLASSES: | Preferred, Standard & Tobacco | Preferred, Standard & Tobacco | Standard (No Tobacco Distinction) |
| RIDERS: | Accelerated Death Benefit (Included) Nursing Home Benefit (Included) Accidental Death Benefit (Optional) Children/Grandchildren Rider (Optional) | Accelerated Death Benefit (Included) Nursing Home Benefit (Included) | None |
| COVERAGE DURATION: | Guaranteed to age 121 | Guaranteed to age 121 | Guaranteed to age 121 |
DEATH BENEFIT PAYOUT | Immediate - First Day Full Coverage | Immediate - First Day Full Coverage | Graded - First 2-Years Equal to 100% Return of Premiums + 10% Interest |
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Additional Transamerica Products
Besides the insurance products discussed, Transamerica offers a non-participating whole life policy. With the individual policy, you can receive coverage between $2,000 and $3 million.
The whole life policies offer a flexible no exam option if you require less than $25,000 in coverage. However, if you want more than $25,000 in coverage, you need to complete a medical exam.
Transamerica also has a wide range of financial services, including:
- Retirement solutions
- Mutual funds
- Annuities
- Exchange-traded funds
Transamerica can help you map out the rest of your life, with a combination of financial solutions and insurance policies.
Transamerica Underwriting Strengths
Transamerica underwrites several medical impairments. The company has stated that their goal is to offer the best rate based on an applicant’s overall risk regardless of the health classification that has been applied for. However, there are some areas and risks in which Transamerica underwriting highly excels at. These include:
- Asthma
- Cancer Survivors
- Commercial & Private Pilots (Non-Students)
- Family Health History (Gender Specific Cancers)
- Hypertension
| Preferred Plus | Preferred | Standard Plus | Standard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tobacco Use | None Past 5 Years | None Past 2 Years | None Past 2 Years | None Past 2 Years |
| Cholesterol | 230 | 260 | 300 | * |
| Chol/HDL | 5.0 (5.5 Age 70+) | 5.5 (6.0 Age 70+) | 6.2 (6.07 Age 70+) | 7.0 (7.5 Age 70+) |
| Blood Pressure | 135/85 | 145/85 | 148/88 | * |
Is Transamerica Legit?
Transamerica tries to provide options for everyone. No matter your health, age, or income, you can find a policy that meets your needs. However, to get a better sense of whether Transamerica is right for you, explore the pros and cons.
Pros
- Offers many different insurance policies
- A+ rating from A.M. Best
- A- rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- Long history and positive track record
Cons
- Receives occasional customer service complaints
- No Guaranteed Universal Life Insurance Options
- No Whole Life Insurance Option with Dividend Potential
One of the main strengths of Transamerica is the diverse range of insurance products. Term life, whole life, universal life, and final expense options are available.
Transamerica also has positive ratings from the BBB and A.M. Best. This is not surprising, as the company has provided dependable solutions for many decades. Transamerica has become a trusted provider of insurance policies and financial services.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) provides scores based on the number of complaints a company receives.
The median score is “1.00.” A higher score means that the company received more complaints than the national average. Transamerica has a score of 2.00, which is slightly higher than the national average.
The company only has a couple of drawbacks. One issue is the number of customer service complaints, which is a frequent issue with major financial companies.
When you need assistance, you may need to wait on the phone for quite a while before speaking with a customer service representative. Receiving support via email also takes patience, as you may not get an immediate response.
Transamerica does provide customer login portal better known as MyTransamerica.com, which allows you to manage your coverage online. Through the website, you can change your mailing address, access policy forms, and pay your premium. If you want to make any other changes to the policy, you need to contact customer service.
The customer service issues are minor grievances against an otherwise highly rated company. Transamerica is a trusted company that continues to offer flexible options.
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Summary – Should You Get a Transamerica Life Insurance Quote?
If you want an affordable insurance policy from a highly-rated life insurance company, Transamerica should have you covered.
Transamerica Life Insurance is one of the leading insurance providers. Its selection of policies should cover almost any financial or health situation.
If you are worried about getting disqualified due to preexisting health issues, the company offers plans at very competitive rates.
For healthy adults, you can get coverage up to $10 million with the Trendsetter Super policy. With the Trendsetter LB policy, you can get living benefits with the option to get an accelerated death benefit.
Transamerica also offers index universal life with its FFIUL policy. Your policy can accumulate value through an index fund. However, these policies also include higher premiums and a little risk.
The final expense policies round out the selection of options from Transamerica. These three policies include competitive pricing and fast approval. With the expedited underwriting process, approval may only take one or two days.
These policies come from a company with a strong reputation in the insurance industry. Transamerica has offered quality services for over nine decades.
If you want affordable premiums and reliable service, Transamerica likely has an option to fit your needs. With our online quote form, you can get a Transamerica life insurance quote quickly.
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Leslie Kasperowicz
Farmers CSR for 4 Years
Leslie Kasperowicz holds a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Winnipeg. She spent several years as a Farmers Insurance CSR, gaining a solid understanding of insurance products including home, life, auto, and commercial and working directly with insurance customers to understand their needs. She has since used that knowledge in her more than ten years as a writer, largely in the insur...
Farmers CSR for 4 Years
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about life insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything life insurance-related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by life insurance experts.