MetLife Whole Life Insurance Review
In this article, you will find our MetLife whole life insurance review, but we will start by looking at the company first.
MetLife stopped selling directly to consumers’ life insurance products at the beginning of 2017 MetLife. They rebranded to Brighthouse Financial… So you will not be able to get a new MeLife whole life insurance.
(Read the full report here)
Brighthouse Financial is the new name that you may find for MetLife in your old policies or statements. We have received many questions about who Brighthouse Financial is. The reason for the name change is that MetLife re-branded itself as Brighthouse Financial. Also, they sold their agents and field force to MassMutual.
Brighthouse Financial does not offer whole life insurance. If you would like to get a good alternative to MetLife’s whole life, you should probably consider MassMutual whole life. As a matter of fact, MassMutual was the one that purchases and merged a large portion of their business with MetLife.
MetLife sells and services many types of insurance policies, including whole life insurance. So how does their whole life insurance stack up to the competition?
The company is one of the largest insurance providers, with tens of millions of customers spanning more than 60 countries. Since its founding in 1868, MetLife has established a reputation for being one of the top insurance providers regarding price, service, and coverage type.
In this review, we will cover the following topics:
The Good
Top Rated
If you are concerned about doing business with a company that has a less than stellar rating, you don’t have to worry about MetLife.
For more than 100 years, the company has provided customers with a high level of service, all in a stable financial environment. This has led to some of the best ratings in the industry, which include:
- A.M. Best Rating: A+
- Standard & Poor’s Rating: AA-
- Moody’s Rating: Aa3
Does MetLife have the highest ratings in the industry? It does not really stand out from the crowd with consistent ratings towards the top end of the scale.
Participating Whole Life Insurance
First of all, MetLife’s whole life insurance products are participating. So this means that they get paid a dividend on top of the guaranteed interest rate. The dividend is not guaranteed and is based on company performance and profitability. For whole life insurance to have a good performance on the cash value and death benefit growth, it needs to be participating whole life insurance.
Hands-On Shopping Experience
The primary drawback of many insurance companies is the inability to shop for coverage online. MetLife fights against this by providing an online system that allows for ease and efficiency during the research and purchase process.
If you are the hands-on type, you will thoroughly enjoy everything about the MetLife website.
Competitive Pricing
MetLife does not have the cheapest whole life insurance products, but it is far from the most expensive. Considered the middle of the pack in terms of pricing, you never feel like you are paying too much when you do business with MetLife.
Compare any MetLife whole life insurance quote to the competition, and you will find some that are cheaper and some that are more expensive. When you add in the other benefits, such as a streamlined shopping experience and top-notch customer service, you can see why so many customers rely on this company.
The Not So Good
Lack of Payment Options
If you are the type who is okay with paying by check or bank transfer, you will not have any problem with MetLife.
Conversely, if you want to use a credit card to pay for your policy, perhaps on an auto-charge basis, you will run into some issues with MetLife. The inability to pay with a debit or credit card may mean you have to juggle some funds around when the time comes to make a premium payment.
Non-Mutual Company
This is the main downside to MetLife Whole Life Insurance. Today MetLife is committed to paying a dividend; however, we are not sure how long that commitment will last. MetLife is not a Mutual company. Mutual companies base their business practices on paying dividends to all policyholders.
MetLife is a stock company, and they have to keep shareholders happy, not the policyholders. So when you run an illustration with MetLife, keep in mind that their dividend commitment could be lower than companies like New York Life, MassMutual, Ohio National, etc.
Finances
As a publicly-traded company, there is a lot of financial information available on MetLife. Some of the details worth noting include:
- 2015 operating earnings of $5.5 billion.
- Full-year 2015 net income of $5.2 billion, or $4.57 per share.
- Total operating earnings for the Americas of $1.2 billion in 2015.
Products
Here is the product list for MetLife’s whole life insurance. The main difference between all of these products is how long you will pay for them.
- MetLife Promise Whole Life (PWL) – Premiums for 100 years.
- MetLife Promise Whole Life 120 (PWL 120) – The best product for the death benefit. You will pay premiums for 120 years.
- MetLife Promise Whole Life Select 10 (PWL 10) – This whole life is fantastic for cash value accumulation. Your premiums will only last 10 years.
- MetLife Promise Whole Life Select 20 (PWL 20) – Only pay premiums for 20 years and have a fantastic balance between cash value and death benefit.
- MetLife Promise Whole Life Select 65 (PWL 65) – This product is used often for retirement purposes. Pay premiums until age 65.
Riders
MetLife offers a wide range of riders. So here is a list of the available riders (additional features) that you can select for your whole life insurance. Be aware that some of these riders come with an additional cost.
Free Riders
Enhanced Care Benefit – You can access up to 90% of the death benefit if you have a prolonged illness.
Acceleration of Death Benefit Rider – You will be able to access a portion of the death benefit if you are terminally ill.
Paid Riders
Disability Waiver of Premiums Benefit – If you become totally disabled for 6 months you will not have to pay premiums on the policy, but you keep the policy in force.
The Enricher® Rider – This rider will add more cash to your policy. It is a great rider for people using life insurance as an asset or looking to grow cash value faster.
Accidental Death Benefit Rider – As the name says, it adds more death benefit than would pay in case of accidental death.
Children’s Term Rider – Gives more term insurance on any legal children you may have. This is insurance on the kids, not for the kids, that is an important distinction.
Flex Term Rider – You can add more term coverage with this rider that goes along your whole life. The best use for this rider is if you want to make your whole life insurance more “affordable” or you want a higher death benefit for a certain price.
Guaranteed Insurability Rider – You will have the ability to get more whole life insurance without having to do another medical. This rider can be great if you get whole life insurance on kids. That way the will have the option to add more coverage when they are older.
Applicant’s Waiver of Premiums Benefit – Similar to the waiver of premium, but this rider waives the premiums if the parent of an insured child becomes disabled.
Many of these riders are valuable, but some are critical to have a waiver of premium rider.
Dividend Rate
MetLife has committed to making its whole life insurance a competitive product with anyone in the market place. However, MetLife’s whole life insurance dividend for 2017 is 4.70%. As we mentioned, they stopped issuing new policies to individuals, but the dividend is 4.7% on current existing policyholders. Check out the current existing policyholder announcement here: MetLife drops dividends.
Here is the history of the dividend since 2000.
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| 7.60 | 7.60 | 7.35 | 7.10 | 6.60 | 6.60 | 6.25 | 6.25 | 6.25 |
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| 6.25 | 6.25 | 5.75 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 5.25 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 5.00 | 4.7 |
The dividend has decreased over the last 16 years; however, keep in mind that interest rates have steadily decreased over the same period of time. The way the dividend has decreased is similar to the competition. However, the current dividend is not among the highest in the industry. There are multiple companies with a dividend rate in the high 6% range, like MassMutual and Penn Mutual.
Final Word
When you focus on the right companies, shopping for whole life insurance can be a simple process. As one of the best providers in the industry, MetLife serves millions of customers.
Finally, MetLife’s whole life insurance was among the best in the market. In most of our comparisons it rates among the top 3 constantly. You cannot go wrong with Snoopy, but unfortunately, they do not sell life insurance products directly to consumers anymore.
