Last Updated: June 2020
If you are considering Ladder Life Insurance Company, you have come to the right place.
In our review below, we will cover essential aspects of Ladder Life Insurance including coverage options, how to purchase a policy, and what makes the company unique.
We will also provide a list of other top life insurance companies to compare rates and help you find the right carrier.
- About Ladder Life Insurance
- Ladder Life Ratings
- Life Insurance Products Offered by Ladder Life
- What Makes Ladder Life Insurance Unique?
- How to Apply for Life Insurance with Ladder Life
- Pros & Cons of Choosing Ladder Life
- Compare Ladder Life to Other Top Rated Companies
Life Insurance is Boring. Let’s Get To The Root Of It! Here are the key takeaways…
Ladder Life is a newer direct to consumer life insurance company. They use a full-online platform to sell life insurance through Fidelity & Allianz. Ladder Life offers competitive term life insurance for healthy individuals between ages 20 and 60. They are not great for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
About Ladder Life Insurance
Ladder Life Insurance Company is one of the newest startup life insurance companies in the market.
Currently, Ladder Life Insurance markets life insurance products to consumers between the ages of 20 and 60. Ladder Life was initially launched in California in January of 2017. Since 2017, Ladder Life has continued to expand into 49 states excluding New York.
We see this often in the life insurance industry. Companies will sometimes expand into New York last due to strict laws and regulations on life insurance products and the marketing tactics used to entice consumers to purchase.
History of Ladder Life
Being only two years old, certainly makes Ladder Life one of the newest companies in an extremely competitive market with other well-known giants such as MetLife, Protective Life, among others.
Ladder Life was founded by Jamie Hale, Laura Hale, Jeff Merkel, and Jack Dubie and originally was founded to help fill a void where consumers can purchase life insurance quickly online and without much hassle.
How Ladder Life Insurance Works
Ladder Life chose a creative and catchy name to describe how they offer and market products to consumers. The idea is simple. Picture your life insurance as a ladder. As your needs decrease, Ladder will allow you to step down your coverage and adjust your premiums on the fly, meeting your needs while keeping your cost consistently lower.
This is, of course, assuming your needs don’t increase, in which case you would be “climbing back up” the ladder in coverage and increasing your monthly premiums.
Ladder Life doesn’t depend on physical locations to market products and allows consumers to go online or call the company directly to purchase and learn about life insurance options.
Typically, companies like Ladder will run this model and dump a heavy portion of the budget into marketing dollars.
Ladder Life Ratings
Financial strength ratings help consumers to get a good idea as to how financially stable a life insurance company is and how likely they are to pay claims to loyal policyholders.
Here are the ratings for Ladder Life Insurance:
- A.M. Best: N/A (see below)
- Affordability Index: 7.6
- Ease of Applying: 9.8
- Customer Service: 9.1
- COMDEX Ranking: N/A
A.M. Best is the industry benchmark for financial strength in the life insurance industry. The other three metrics are based on a number of factors including our industry knowledge of Ladder Life compared with other companies. The COMDEX ranking is a composite score that considers A.M. Best and other top ratings agencies.
Learn more about our process for reviewing life insurance companies here.
It should also be noted that all of Ladder Life’s term life policies are issued by Allianz which currently holds an “A+” financial strength rating (the 2nd best rating possible).
Fidelity also underwrites policies for Ladder Life. Fidelity is backed by an “A-” rating which is considered stable. Overall, financial strength is not something you should be concerned with when considering Ladder Life.
BBB Ratings and Consumer Complaints
Ladder Life currently has good BBB ratings.
In 2019, Ladder Life is being afforded an “A+” rating with the BBB, and according to Trust Pilot, Ladder Life is recognized with a 9/10 for overall customer satisfaction. This is based on consumer reports that the process is easy and a great experience.
Overall, it may be a bit too early to tell what complaints may surface in the future, but for now, it appears Ladder Life is offering excellent service and an easy to use platform for consumers.
Life Insurance Products Offered by Ladder Life
Now it’s time to take a dive into the products offered by Ladder Life Insurance Co. The only policies currently available to purchase with Ladder Life are term life insurance policies.
- To qualify for the term policies, you must be between the ages of 20 and 60.
- The minimum life insurance coverage amount is 100,00.
- The maximum life insurance coverage amount is 8,000,000.
- You can choose 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30-year terms.
No Exam Coverage Offered by Ladder Life Insurance
Direct to consumer models, such as Ladder Life, are based around the no-medical exam life insurance products. This simply means that if you can be approved for coverage, you won’t need to undergo a medical exam.
Other life insurance companies use this same model, except they still require a licensed life insurance agent to sell you the product physically.
Examples include other powerhouse life insurance companies such as:
The problem you run into with companies like Ladder Life Insurance is that they often state that you are going to go through a quick and easy process. However, pre-existing health conditions are going to come back to negatively affect the outcome.
Ladder Life still reserves the right to request a medical exam based on your health background. If that’s the case, you would have to have a registered medical professional pay you an office visit or home visit to complete an exam that includes test such as the following:
- Blood Pressure Readings
- Height
- Weight
- Pulse
- Medical Questionnaire
- Medication History
Rates for Ladder Life Insurance Coverage
Ladder Life is known for its unique term policies and offers competitive rates for those products. It is one of the only companies that allows you to renew a life insurance policy for either one year or five years, depending on your preference.
For the duration of the term you choose to renew for, your policy premiums will be locked in at one price, so you never have to worry about your rates changing.
However, failure to renew will either result in increased premiums after 1 or 5 years or the life insurance policy being canceled/lapsed.
What Makes Ladder Life Insurance Unique?
Three things make Ladder Life unique and give them an edge over the competition.
Ladder Life’s Online-Platform Makes it Easy & Convenient to Purchase Life Insurance
First, they have a top-tier online platform for purchasing life insurance. The downfall to this platform is that life insurance isn’t necessarily easy to understand for all consumers. Many people still prefer to work with a knowledgeable expert when deciding about their protection and purchasing life insurance.
You Can Increase or Decrease Your Coverage
Secondly, we love that you can drop down coverage or increase coverage as your needs increase or decrease. This is rare and not something you see all other life insurance companies currently offering to consumers.
You Can Renew Your Policy for 1 or 5 Years
Lastly, we like and believe the ability to renew your policy for 2 different durations is unique. The ability to renew for one year isn’t necessarily unique and is often referred to as Annual Renewable Term life insurance with other reputable companies. But the ability to choose 1 or 5 years is something you don’t see very often in the marketplace.
Optional Life Insurance Riders Availability with Ladder
This is a downfall of Ladder Life. Currently, they don’t offer any unique riders you can add to your policy for an additional premium per month.
While riders aren’t always necessary to add to your coverage, they can certainly be beneficial.
Who Should Consider Ladder Life?
Ladder Life is a good company to get a quote from if you are healthy and looking for term life insurance.
If you prefer to work purely online, and want to pay for convenience, they’re a great option. Also, always remember that they only accept individuals ages 20-60. If you fall out of this age group, you will have to consider working with another life insurance company instead.
Ladder Life is not a great company for individuals with a long list of medical conditions. The expedited and fully online purchasing platform for life insurance often comes with stringent underwriting guidelines. This makes it very difficult for anyone to get life insurance that may be taking medications, have prior hospitalization, or that have other major health issues.
How to Apply for Life Insurance with Ladder Life
Applying for coverage with Ladder Life is about as easy as it gets. To begin, you can use the handy calculator on Ladder Life’s website.
This will help you determine how much coverage you will need since you are skipping the step of working with an independent agent. After you determine your desired coverage amount, you can simply begin applying, which is going to ask you a series of personal demographic questions, followed by a series of lifestyle and health questions.
Based on the answers you provide during this phase will determine if you are approved, require an exam, or if you are entirely declined for coverage altogether.
What If I’m Declined Life Insurance Coverage with Ladder Life?
This is perhaps the biggest problem of working with a company such as Ladder Life.
If you are declined for coverage, you don’t have many alternative options. Well, no options that Ladder will necessarily assist you with. This is one of the reasons we always recommend working with an independent life insurance agent instead.
The likelihood of being declined for life insurance for some individuals is high. When this happens, having a life insurance agent who can continue to shop your case with high-risk life insurance companies is a great benefit.
Pros & Cons of Choosing Ladder Life
Anytime we review a life insurance company, we like to compile a list of the most significant pros and cons of choosing them as your provider.
Pros
Here are what we believe to be the most significant benefits of choosing Ladder Life.
- Fast and Easy Application Process
- Competitive Rates for Healthy Individuals
- Unique Term Life Insurance Products Available
Cons
On the flip side, all life insurance companies have flaws. Here’s what we believe to be the biggest downfalls of choosing Ladder Life.
- Bad for High Risk or Unhealthy Individuals
- Only Serves or Offer Coverage for Ages 20-60
- No Help from a Licensed Life Insurance Agent
Compare Ladder Life to Other Top Rated Companies
Regardless of what company you choose for your life insurance, you should always do your homework.
Compare rates and options with several life insurance companies before ultimately making your decision. It’s your best chance at getting approved for coverage and your best chance at being approved at affordable and competitive rates.
Be sure to compare Ladder Life to our 10 best life insurance companies or find reviews on over 50 companies and agencies here, before making your decision.
Here are some other companies to review that offer no medical exam life insurance policies.
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