MetLife Life Insurance Review: Few Coverage Options and High Rates for Smokers
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While MetLife has a wide range of property and casualty insurance products, such as home and auto insurance, they currently just offer simplified issue term coverage for those that want life insurance. Therefore, MetLife doesn’t have solutions if you want permanent life insurance coverage, and you’ll significantly overpay for term coverage if you don’t have any pre-existing conditions.
MetLife’s term life insurance policies have the standard variety of coverage options and are well-priced if you don’t smoke. However, if you are a smoker and want no medical exam life insurance, you are likely to get better rates elsewhere.
- Term Life Insurance
- Customer Reviews & Complaints
- Payments
- Filing a Claim
- Other Life Insurance Policies
MetLife No Medical Exam Term Life Insurance
While MetLife used to offer a wider variety of life insurance products, they now only offer simplified issue term life insurance to individuals. Applying for a policy is quite quick as there’s no medical exam, and you can often get a decision within one business day.
The minimum death benefit for term coverage is $25,000 and, depending on your age, MetLife offers the following term lengths and maximum coverage amounts:
| Age | Term Lengths | Maximum Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 18-49 | 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years | $500,000 |
| 50-54 | 10, 15 or 20 years | $500,000 |
| 55-59 | 10, 15 or 20 years | $350,000 |
| 60-64 | 10 or 15 years | $250,000 |
| 65-69 | 10 years | $200,000 |
MetLife Term Life Insurance Rates
MetLife’s term life insurance policies have level premiums for the initial policy term. After the initial term, the policy converts into 1-year annually renewable coverage, meaning your premiums increase each year according to your age. So, if you bought a 10-year term policy that had a monthly premium of about $11, you would pay that amount for the first 10 years of coverage. Starting in year 11, your monthly premium might increase to $13, then to $16 in year 12. The longest term coverage will last is until you turn 95.
No medical exam life insurance policies are always much more expensive than fully underwritten coverage, so we don’t recommend them if you have pre-existing medical conditions that would preclude you from passing a medical exam. Given that, when compared to other simplified issue term policies, MetLife’s life insurance rates are reasonably competitive for non-smokers.
However, as you can see below, MetLife’s quotes are significantly higher than those from other insurers for smoker.
MetLife Term Life Insurance Riders
MetLife’s term life insurance policies all offer an accelerated death benefit rider at no additional cost. This rider allows you to receive a portion of your policy’s death benefit while you’re still alive if you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness (meaning less than 12 months to live). This can be very helpful for your family as serious illnesses often come with high medical bills which you may have trouble paying out-of-pocket. You can request to accelerate between $20,000 and $250,000 (up to 100% of the policy’s death benefit).
MetLife also offers an accidental death rider which pays an additional death benefit on top of your policy if you pass away due to a qualified accident, such as a car crash. Only about 5% of deaths occur due to an accident but, if you feel your family would need additional assistance if you passed away suddenly, MetLife offers the following coverage options:
| Accidental Death Benefit (Ages 18-69) | Accidental Death Benefit (Ages 70-89) | Additional Premium |
|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $12,500 | $2.50 per month |
| $50,000 | $25,000 | $5.00 per month |
| $100,000 | $50,000 | $10.00 per month |
| $150,000 | $75,000 | $15.00 per month |
Just note that the accidental death benefit reduces by half once you turn 70 and coverage ends when you turn 90.
MetLife Customer Reviews & Complaints
MetLife has an A+, or Superior, financial strength rating from A.M. Best and receives a proportionately low number of negative reviews as compared to the amount of business they write. The majority of customer reviews for their life insurance products are positive, featuring that it’s a smooth and easy process to purchase coverage. However, the company does receive some poor life insurance company ratings as well, primarily around challenges contacting and interacting with their claims department.
MetLife Life Insurance Payments
While MetLife doesn’t offer the option to make payments via credit card, you can pay for insurance through direct bill or electronic funds transfer (EFT). Direct bill payments can be made annually, twice a year, quarterly or monthly, though there are discounts for paying less frequently. EFT payments can only be made monthly from your checking or savings account.
Filing a Claim for MetLife Term Life Insurance
If you purchase coverage from MetLife, you should let your beneficiaries know they will need the following items to make a claim if you pass away:
- Life insurance policy
- Death certificate (should be a certified death certificate if the death benefit is greater than $100,000, which can be provided by a funeral director)
- Proof of accidental death, such as police reports (only if you have accidental death coverage)
- Claim form (available on MetLife’s website)
Your beneficiary will also be asked if they want the death benefit as a check or to have it placed in a Total Control Account. A Total Control Account acts like a checking account that’s managed by MetLife, but it earns a low interest rate and comes with a variety of restrictions and fees (for example, all checks have to be for at least $250). Given this, we would recommend your beneficiary take a check so they can manage the money as they best see fit.
Other Life Insurance Policies from MetLife
If you’ve heard about MetLife offering other forms of life insurance, that was previously the case but, aside from simplified issue term life insurance, they don’t offer other lines of individual life insurance anymore.
MetLife spun off the majority of their individual life insurance business into a new company called Brighthouse Financial, which now offers the traditional term life insurance and universal life insurance policies that used to be available through MetLife. MetLife also used to offer guaranteed acceptance, also called guaranteed issue, whole life insurance. This was sold as a final expense insurance, or burial insurance, product to handle end-of-life costs. This is no longer available through MetLife or Brighthouse Financial.
MetLife continues to offer group life insurance coverage through employers, however, the terms of this change according to the company you work for. Through workplaces, MetLife provides:
- Basic and supplemental group term life insurance
- Whole life insurance
- Group universal life insurance
- Group variable universal life insurance
Maxime is a Director at ValuePenguin focusing on the insurance industry. Previously she was the Director of Product Marketing at CoverWallet, a commercial insurance startup, and helped launch NerdWallet's personal insurance business. Maxime has contributed insurance insights and analysis to Forbes, USA Today, The Hill, and many other publications.
Editorial Note: The content of this article is based on the author’s opinions and recommendations alone. It has not been previewed, commissioned or otherwise endorsed by any of our network partners.