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NerdWallet
at a glance
- NerdWallet ranking: No. 15 life insurance company (out of 23 evaluated).
- Relatively low volume of consumer complaints to state regulators.
- Only sells policies through financial professionals.
Overview
MetLife established Brighthouse Financial in 2017 to sell life insurance and annuities to individuals. MetLife, meanwhile, focuses on products sold as employee benefits. Brighthouse Financial life insurance policies are sold only through financial professionals.
» MORE: The best life insurance companies
Find out more about each element that goes into our Brighthouse Financial review by clicking below.
NerdWallet rank: 15th
Brighthouse Financial ranked No. 15 out of 23 large companies evaluated by NerdWallet. NerdWallet’s life insurance company rankings take into account insurers’ A.M. Best ratings, volume of consumer complaints to state regulators and J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction scores.
A.M. Best financial strength rating: A (Excellent)
Brighthouse’s financial strength is “excellent,” according to ratings agency A.M. Best.
Financial strength is important because it indicates how well an insurer can pay claims. It’s especially important when choosing a life insurance company because claims might not be made until decades after a policy is purchased.
Consumer complaints: Better than the median
Brighthouse drew fewer than the median number of complaints to state regulators in 2017 for a company of its size, according to the latest data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
The association assigns a complaint ratio score to insurance companies, based on the number of complaints to state insurance commissioners, adjusted for market share. The median score is 1. A score less than 1 means fewer complaints. The average score, weighted for market share, for Brighthouse and its life insurance subsidiaries was 0.18 in 2017.
J.D. Power ratings: Better than most
J.D. Power has not yet scored Brighthouse for customer satisfaction. MetLife, which established Brighthouse, scored “better than most” companies for most measurements and ranked “about average” for customer interaction in a 2017 J.D. Power customer service survey. MetLife ranked No. 2 overall out of 24 companies included in the survey.
More about Brighthouse Financial
Term life: Brighthouse offers terms of 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. The annual price and coverage amount stays level throughout the term.
Universal life’s fast access to cash value: The company’s Premier Accumulator Universal Life policy gives access to most or all of a policy’s cash value within the first few years. The company says its low surrender charges (the fee policyholders pay in the early years to access cash value) make this possible.
