2019 Primerica Life Insurance Review
Are you considering Primerica? Are you already a Primerica policy holder? Are you just curious and would like to learn more about Primerica? If you answered YES to any of these questions, it's VERY LIKELY (like 99% likely) that you were introduced to and/or sold on Primerica from a friend, family member, colleague or co-worker.
Is that an accident? HECK NO That is EXACTLY what Primerica wants. Coincidentally, that is the exact same business model deployed by the world's 8th largest company (by market cap), Facebook.
Primerica Pros
I was intrigued by Primerica because, having worked in banking and currently working in the brokerage industry, I understood that they were offering a valuable service to their clients. Primerica is a spinoff from Citi (now Citigroup) CITI. Citi offers just about every financial product under the sun and they use Primerica as a sales force of their many products.
1) Very Expensive - 25% more expensive than the average policy and many times 40%+ more expensive. Case Study: Husband (31 year old healthy non-smoker) and wife (28 year old healthy non-smoker) insured for $750,000 each and a combined premium of $158 per month with Primerica vs. $83 per month with Pacific Life.
2) Lesser guarantee periods- Although you purchase a 25, 30 or 35 year term policy from Primerica, your rates are only guaranteed for the first 20 years. You pay more than you would for a twenty year level term policy, yet you are still ONLY guaranteed for 20 years. Oh, and by the way, the fact that Primerica has never raised rates, or raised anyone's premium on a 25, 30 or 35 year term policy is irrelavent because those products have not been around for more than twenty years. Either way, their product is more expensive.
3) Terminal Illness Rider- Again this is stated as a positive by most Primerica reps, however the fact is that Primerica's Terminal Illness rider IS NOT AS GOOD AS OTHER COMPETITORS IN THE MARKETPLACE. There are companies that will offer up to 75% and 750k terminal illness riders for NO additional charge and unlike Primerica will not charge interest on the use of this benefit, Primerica offers 70% up to $400K in terminal illness living benefits.
4) Only 3 Rate classes. Most companies offer at least four (no tobacco) rate classes and an additional two to three rate classes for tobacco users, which effectively helps to lower their premiums.