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Bestow Life Insurance Review 2024
Assistant Assigning Editor | Life insurance, disability insurance, health care
Katia Iervasi is an assistant assigning editor at NerdWallet. An insurance authority, she previously spent over six years covering insurance topics as a writer, where she loved untangling complicated topics and answering readers’ burning money questions. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication and has studied writing, fact-checking and editing with Poynter. Her writing and analysis has been featured in The Washington Post, Forbes, Yahoo, Entrepreneur, Best Company and FT Advisor. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Katia currently lives in New York City.
Assigning Editor | Insurance, data journalism
Lisa Green leads the life insurance team and oversees insurance-focused data journalism at NerdWallet. A professional journalist since high school, she was an insurance writer at NerdWallet before becoming an assigning editor. Previously, Lisa spent more than 20 years as an editor at The Tennessean in Nashville, where she led business and consumer coverage for several years. At The Tennessean, she was part of a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for coverage of devastating floods in Middle Tennessee. Her work has also won awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Lisa is an alumna of the Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also studied data journalism with the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, business editing with the American Press Institute and writing, editing and news research with the Poynter Institute. In addition to her work at NerdWallet, Lisa is a real estate investor and has taught a seminar on how to earn college scholarships. She is based in Nashville.
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Bestow
on Nerdwallet
Online purchaseThis indicates whether the company offers a way to apply for and purchase policies entirely online.
Policies offeredTerm policies last a set number of years, while permanent policies typically last a lifetime. No-exam policies don’t require a medical exam.
Pros
- Quick coverage without a life insurance medical exam.
- Wide range of term lengths.
Cons
- Can’t add riders to your coverage.
- Policies not available in Maine and New York.
on Nerdwallet
Bestow
Online purchaseThis indicates whether the company offers a way to apply for and purchase policies entirely online.
Policies offeredTerm policies last a set number of years, while permanent policies typically last a lifetime. No-exam policies don’t require a medical exam.
Pros
- Quick coverage without a life insurance medical exam.
- Wide range of term lengths.
Cons
- Can’t add riders to your coverage.
- Policies not available in Maine and New York.
We make every effort to rate each company we review. However, we’re sometimes unable to provide a NerdWallet star rating for insurers that work with multiple third parties to underwrite their policies. That’s because the quality of the policy you get may vary depending on the coverage options, financial strength and other factors of each separate underwriting company.
Launched in 2017, Bestow is an insurtech company that sells term life insurance online. To apply, you’ll answer a series of questions about your health and lifestyle, with no need for a medical exam. Then, Bestow pulls data and uses algorithms to determine whether you qualify for coverage.
Bestow is based in Dallas and sells policies in all states except Maine and New York. Unlike most insurtechs, Bestow issues its own policies.
» MORE: Compare life insurance quotes
Bestow life insurance policies
Term life insurance. Bestow offers term life insurance to people 18 to 60 years old. You can choose a policy lasting 10, 20 or 30 years, with coverage ranging from $100,000 to $1.5 million.
The company specializes in instant life insurance, which means eligible applicants can get covered right away without having to take a medical exam. But you can’t customize your policy with life insurance riders.
Bestow life insurance rates
Below are monthly rates for a 20-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy from Bestow. These are sample rates for a nonsmoking man and woman in excellent health — the final quote you’re offered will depend on factors like your age, health, lifestyle, occupation and driving record.
Age | Monthly rate - man | Monthly rate - woman |
|---|---|---|
20 | $35.94 | $18.89 |
30 | $37.64 | $22.16 |
40 | $63.06 | $45.52 |
50 | $150.58 | $106.28 |
Source: Insurer's site. Rates reflect the super preferred class and were generated on 1/22/24. | ||
More about Bestow
Bestow’s site is clean and easy to navigate. You can get an initial quote by entering your birth date, height, weight, self-identifying gender, ZIP code and nicotine use, then apply for a policy after that.
If you have questions about your policy, you can contact the team via live chat, email or phone (there is no mobile app available). If you’re a beneficiary, you can start the claims process on Bestow’s site.
Also of note for beneficiaries, Bestow offers access to Empathy’s services in 20 states at no cost. The platform guides you through end-of-life administrative tasks, such as filing a life insurance claim, planning a funeral and submitting an obituary.
» MORE: Best life insurance companies
How to contact Bestow
Bestow can be reached by:
Phone: Call: 800-835-8803
Email: Send a message to [email protected].
Live chat: Chat with a live Bestow representative by clicking the chat bubble at either the top or bottom of the site's page, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST.
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 2020-2022. To assess how insurers compare with 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 company’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.