Allstate Life Insurance Review 2024

Katia Iervasi
By Katia Iervasi 
Updated
Edited by Caitlin Constantine

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Allstate

3.0

NerdWallet rating 
Bottom line: Allstate sells term life insurance on its site and offers coverage through various partner companies.

on Nerdwallet

Financial strength rating

Strong

Online purchase

Yes

NAIC complaints

Far more than expected

Policies offered

Term & permanent
insurance-product-card-logo

on Nerdwallet

Allstate

3.0

NerdWallet rating 
Bottom line: Allstate sells term life insurance on its site and offers coverage through various partner companies.

Financial strength rating

Strong

Online purchase

Yes

NAIC complaints

Far more than expected

Policies offered

Term & permanent

In our life insurance reviews, our editorial team considers the customer and the insurer. These are some of the factors we take into account:

Policies offered. There are many types of life insurance on the market, and they fall into three key categories:

  • Term life insurance offers temporary coverage and a guaranteed payout if the policyholder dies during the term.

  • Permanent life insurance typically lasts a lifetime and builds cash value that can be borrowed against in the future.

  • No-exam life insurance issues coverage without the need for a medical exam.

Financial strength. We use AM Best ratings to confirm an insurer’s long-term financial stability and ability to pay claims. For life insurance, NerdWallet typically recommends considering insurers with ratings of A- or higher. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Exceptional: A+, A++.

  • Strong: A-, A.

  • Moderate: B, B+.

Complaints. These ratings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The best life insurance companies have fewer than the expected number of complaints.

Buy online. This indicates whether an insurer allows you to apply for and buy a policy completely online.

Allstate sells a term life insurance policy directly to consumers. The company’s agents also offer third-party term and permanent life insurance policies from other carriers.

Why you can trust NerdWallet: Our writers and editors follow strict editorial guidelines to ensure the content on our site is accurate and fair so you can make financial decisions with confidence and choose the products that work best for you. Here is a list of our partners, and here’s how we make money.

Allstate life insurance

3.0

NerdWallet rating 

Allstate earned 3 stars out of 5 for overall performance. NerdWallet’s ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer experience, complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and financial strength ratings.

Allstate life insurance policies

Term life insurance. Allstate has a proprietary term life insurance policy that is available in 27 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. You can buy $100,000 to $50 million in coverage via Allstate's site without taking a life insurance medical exam. Policies are open to people ages 18 to 80 and last 10 to 40 years.

Outside of those states, you can purchase term policies from other insurers, such as Protective Life, Lincoln Financial and John Hancock, through Allstate's network of agents. There’s an agency locator tool on the website.

Permanent life insurance. If you’re in the market for a permanent policy, you can purchase whole life insurance, universal life insurance and variable universal life insurance through one of Allstate’s agents.

Once purchased, policies are managed by the issuing partner. For example, if you buy a Protective Life term life policy from Allstate, your policy will be managed by Protective Life. And if you buy an Allstate term life insurance policy, Allstate will be your point of contact.

Allstate customer complaints and satisfaction

Over three years, Allstate has drawn far more than the expected number of complaints to state regulators for a company of its size, according to a NerdWallet analysis of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

More about Allstate

Life insurance aside, Allstate offers a range of property and casualty insurance products. For details, see our reviews:

The company offers discounts for bundling policies together, so existing customers may find extra savings.

Life insurance buying guide

Before you start comparing companies, choose the type of life insurance you want, such as term or whole life. Decide which life insurance riders, if any, you want the policy to include. Calculate how much life insurance you need and how long you want the coverage to last. Check that the insurers you’re considering offer the coverage you’re looking for.

When comparing rates, be sure the quotes are for the same amount of coverage over the same period of time. It’s also important to make sure the policy’s medical requirements match your needs. For example, if you want to skip the life insurance medical exam but don’t mind answering health questions, confirm that the application process for each policy you're comparing aligns with that.

Price may not be the biggest driver behind your decision to buy. Look at the number of consumer complaints each company receives, as high numbers can be a red flag about the quality of service.

For more guidance, see our life insurance buying guide.

Life insurance ratings methodology

NerdWallet’s life insurance ratings are based on consumer experience, complaint index scores from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for individual life insurance, and weighted averages of financial strength ratings, which indicate a company’s ability to pay future claims. Within the consumer experience category, we consider ease of communication and website transparency, which looks at the depth of policy details available online. To calculate each insurer’s rating, we adjusted the scores to a curved 5-point scale.

These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.

Insurer complaints methodology

NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2019-2021. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a Freeway’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.

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