Symetra Life Insurance Company was established in 1957 and is based out of Bellevue, Washington. Symetra Financial Corporation is a completely owned subsidiary of the Japanese life insurance giant Sumitomo Life. In New York, a subsidiary, First Symetra National Life Insurance Company of New York, is authorized to market Symetra Life’s policies.
Reasons Why
Same-day decision available: In our survey of 91 life insurance providers, we found that fewer than half can make instantaneous determinations on applications. Symetra typically returns a response within 25 minutes. The majority of other candidates hear back from companies within the stated time frame. The time it takes to process your application will be based on the information you provide on your application.
Charitable giving rider included at no cost: Symetra streamlines the process of leaving a charitable bequest to your favorite causes after your passing. The rider’s charitable giving provision lets you give one percent of the policy’s death benefit to a nonprofit of your choice.
Affordable term coverage: Symetra’s policies were among the least expensive of the 31 term life insurers for which we gathered quotes, especially for applicants in their mid-40s.
Cons
High minimum coverage amount: Symetra is not a viable option if you need a small insurance to meet last expenses because of its high minimum coverage level. It has a high minimum coverage level of $100,000 compared to the $1,000-$10,000 offered by many of the other firms we looked into.
No whole life insurance: Many people choose to purchase a whole life insurance policy. Symetra is not the right choice if you’re looking for lifetime protection.
Complaint Index
Symetra Life Insurance Company receives a significantly lower number of complaints than other organizations of a comparable size.
This evaluation was conducted using information from the NAIC’s complaint index. Each insurer is assigned an overall score on the NAIC complaint index based on the ratio of complaints received to market share. At 1.00, that’s where we start from. Companies with an index of 1.00 receive the typical number of complaints for their size, while those with an index of less than 1.00 receive less complaints than expected. A score above 1.00 indicates customer dissatisfaction with the company.
Since the full picture of a company’s performance can’t be gleaned from a single year’s worth of customer complaints, we looked at data from three years to compare and contrast. Symetra Life Insurance Company obtained a score of 0.327 during a three-year period, which is significantly lower than what was anticipated.
Third-Party Rating
Symetra has a solid balance sheet and healthy financial position. AM Best, an impartial ratings agency, evaluates more than 16,000 insurance companies throughout the world every year. With an A (Excellent) rating from AM Best, an organization that evaluates insurance companies’ financial health, Symetra appears to be in a very strong position to fulfill its financial commitments, including the payment of claims.
AM Best’s grading system ranges from A++ to D.
Policies Available
Symetra provides both permament and mix of term life coverage options.
Term Life Insurance
If you pass away during the policy’s specified term, which is often between 10 and 30 years, your beneficiaries will get a death benefit. Unlike permanent life insurance, the cash value of term life insurance does not grow over time. On the other hand, you’ll make consistent premium payments for the course of the contract’s length. Symetra’s term insurance are renewed after the initial term ends and can be changed to permanent coverage.
Universal Life Insurance
One form of permanent life insurance is universal life coverage. Lifelong protection is possible with adequate premium payments. You can earn interest, take out loans, and withdraw money from this sort of insurance in addition to the death benefit.
Because premiums and death benefits can be changed over time, universal life insurance is more adaptable than whole life. This adaptability comes without as many assurances, though. It may be necessary to pay more premiums later on if the cash worth doesn’t grow as fast as predicted or if you don’t pay enough in first years.
Indexed Universal Life Insurance
There is a kind of universal life insurance known as “indexed policies.” Your cash worth is tied to an index fund rather than being invested directly in the stock market. Your savings will grow in tandem with the index fund’s performance. You won’t lose money if the index fund goes down because your money isn’t invested directly in the fund. This makes the policy safer than universal life insurance. However, just as losses have bounds, so do gains.
Available Riders
You can personalize your life insurance policy after you decide on the right policy type for you. Riders are supplemental coverage options that can be added to a policy. There is a wide variety of riders for Symetra.
Child Rider
If you have dependent children, they can be protected financially in the case of your death by adding a “child rider” to your existing life insurance policy. When your child turns 18, the rider can usually be changed to a permanent policy.
Waiver of Premium
You may not be able to keep up with your insurance payments if you suffer a serious injury and are rendered unable to work. If you fail to make a payment on your bill, your insurance will be cancelled. However, if you add a “waiver of premium” rider to your policy, your premium payments may be excused under certain circumstances.
Accidental Death Benefit
If your death is the result of an accident, your beneficiaries may receive an additional death benefit through an accidental death benefit rider. If you were killed in an auto accident, for instance, your beneficiaries would receive the standard death benefit as well as the additional sum specified in the rider.
Accelerated Death Benefit: Terminal Illness Rider
One form of accelerated death benefit is a “terminal illness rider.” If you have been diagnosed with a terminal disease, you may be eligible to receive the death benefit from your life insurance policy while you are still alive. This rider is included at no extra cost in several of Symetra’s policies.
Accelerated Death Benefit: Chronic Illness Rider
If you have been diagnosed with a terminal disease, such as mental incapacity, this rider, which is also an accelerated death benefit, will allow you to receive a portion of your life insurance assets. Two of the six “activities of daily living” must be lost for you to qualify. This rider is included at no extra cost in several of Symetra’s policies.
Charitable Giving Rider
Symetra’s charitable donation rider is available on select policies. Upon your passing, 1% of your death benefit might be allocated to a charity of your choice.
Customer Service
To reach Symetra’s support team, dial 800-786-3872. It’s business hours are Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. You can send an email to the company by filling out a web form.
Methodology
We ranked over 90 insurers across five broad categories including financial soundness, customer happiness, product and feature variety, the overall buying experience, and cost, using a methodology we developed based on consumer objectives and life insurance firm fundamentals.
We used 55 different indicators and collected over 5,000 data points to accomplish this. We examined insurers’ results across a variety of measures by classifying them into categories and scoring them accordingly.
