9 Best Online Life Insurance Companies for 2023

Almost all causes of death are covered with Fabric Premium, including accidents or unexpected illness. However, in cases of suicide within two years of the policy’s issue date, or in cases where the company discovers dishonesty in your application, your family won’t receive benefits.

Customers are able to purchase coverage through Fabric in all U.S. states with the exception of Montana. Also, if you’re a California or New York resident, you must purchase Fabric Instant before you can upgrade to Fabric Premium.

If all you want is an affordable policy to cover accidental death, Fabric Instant is an option. You only need to be age 25-50 to qualify, and there’s no physical exam required. You can actually be covered the moment you submit your application online! Plus, you can pay month-to-month for as long as you’d like to keep the policy, until age 60.

Fabric takes their services above and beyond simple life insurance. They offer two free unique tools to assist you in your financial planning: Fabric Wills and Fabric Vault.

Considering that nearly 60% of Americans do not have a current written will, it’s obvious that we tend to shy away from awkward subjects like this. Fabric Wills solves this problem by guiding you through the process to painlessly create a legal will. This will ensure your assets will be distributed as you intend and appoint a guardian for your children.

Another (free) perk is Fabric Vault, which assists you in organizing all of your important financial accounts in one location. Your appointed family members will be able to access your banking, investing, mortgage, retirement, and any other financial accounts in case of your incapacitation or death.

Unlike the standard six week industry wait time, Ladder promises a real-time decision on your life insurance policy. You can get a quote, apply online for the policy, and be done in 5 minutes–all without having to visit with an agent. There are no medical exams on applications for coverage up to $3 million. For applicants seeking more than $3 million, a quick lab may be required to receive your final price. The policy terms range from 10 to 30 years, with amounts from $100,000 to $8 million.

How does Ladder offer such quick quotes and decisions? The company takes customer-reported data and information from outside databases–the same ones used by traditional insurers–to quickly assess your insurance riskiness via a proprietary algorithm. By doing this in real-time, they can leverage the power of technology to make a better experience for their customers.

In addition, Ladder also allows you to dial down your insurance coverage when your needs change (i.e. laddering your term life insurance). For instance, when you pay off your mortgage or when your kids leave the household, you may not need as much insurance coverage. With Ladder, you can lower your insurance coverage–saving you money–when you no longer need it.

Currently, Ladder offers term life insurance residents all states between the ages of 20 and 60.

Bestow is unlike other online life insurance providers because they underwrite the policies they offer in-house with their own technology. That technology is called “accelerated underwriting.” This process is unlike manual underwriting, which requires in-person interviews, a medical exam, lab tests, and paperwork. Instead, accelerated underwriting asks you basic questions about your lifestyle and health, then uses data and technology to verify that information.

You should be prepared to answer questions about your health and lifestyle. This will include things like your height and weight, tobacco usage, extreme hobbies, future travel plans, and weight loss history. The application process and website are both easy to navigate, beautifully designed, and even a little fun go through.

Bestow offers customizable term life insurance in 10-year and 20-year terms, with coverage ranging from $50,000 to $1 million. The premiums start as low as $8/month for a 10-year coverage policy.

How can Haven Life do this? They start with the self-reported information on your application, and they then use an algorithm to instantly evaluate your application using information gathered from public databases. This information includes:

• Your prescription history
• Information from the Medical Information Bureau
• Motor vehicle records

All of this is information that traditional insurers use to evaluate applicants, but Haven Life’s algorithms are able to provide a decision in real-time and offer you a quote so you can decide if you want to start coverage or not. The policies offered have up to 30-year term lengths and $2 million dollar benefits.

Once you have submitted your application, the site will notify you whether or not you will need to undergo a medical exam to finalize your coverage. Some qualified, healthy applicants up to age 45 will not need to take the medical exam and face no added cost for the convenience of going without that exam.

If you do need an exam, you will have 90 days to complete it. In case your medical exam turns up information that changes your premium, Haven Life will contact you to let you know the increase (or decrease) in your payment. If you have any questions during the application process, or anywhere else along the way, there is customer support available by chat, phone, and email.

Haven Life is backed and wholly owned by MassMutual, a life insurer with an A++ (superior) rating from A.M. Best.

Policygenius is an independent insurance broker. As such, the site offers unbiased advice on more than two-dozen A-rated top insurance companies that have been researched and vetted by the Policygenius team. Your information is also kept safe on the site and will never be sold to a third-party vendor.

Working with an independent insurance broker means that commissions and marketing fees have already been calculated into the costs you see on the site. Each insurer pays PolicyGenius a commission for each policy sold, and those commissions are included in the prices listed on the site. The policy you find on PolicyGenius will cost you the same amount, whether you purchase through the site or buy directly from the insurer.

Policygenius also prides itself on its excellent customer service. Once you receive a quote for a specific policy, the site provides you with a support phone number to call for any questions or concerns. You are assigned a dedicated expert to help manage your application, and your expert will guide you through the process from beginning to end.

It’s important to note that applicants with pre-existing conditions may get better quotes from an independent insurance broker since an aggregate site is less likely to offer policies from specialty life insurers.

The five categories that make up Sproutt’s Quality of Life index (QOL) are:

• Movement
• Sleep
• Balance
• Nutrition
• Emotional Health

They have an interactive app on their website that allows you to estimate your own Quality of Life index. It walks you through a variety of questions, from the mundane (“How old are you?”) to the slightly odd (“Do you work more than one hour per day while on vacation?”). I scored as “Mentor of the Garden” which was the middle of five ranks.

Sproutt does not offer life insurance itself; instead, they are an insurance broker that makes money on commissions from referring you to life insurance companies for coverage. Since they’re not providing the coverage themselves, it behooves you to answer their questionnaire honestly since their GAIA system can use your answers to predict what kind of coverage and rates you’re likely to get from the insurance companies themselves. Sproutt isn’t measuring your cholesterol like the insurance company does, but they can take your questions on things like “how often do you eat fast food” and make a projection for which insurance companies are going to give you the best coverage and rates.

It takes about 10-15 minutes to go through most of the application process with Sproutt–depending on your answers, you may then need to have a call with one of their agents.

There is a wide range of policies, with terms from 10 years to 30 years. Benefit amounts go as low as $100,000 and up to $10 million. To receive a quick quote, you simply need to provide some personal details, such as:

• age
• height
• weight
• health background (including if your parents suffered from cancer or cardiac failure prior to age 60)
• tobacco use

The site gives you a pretty nifty sliding scale tool that tells you how much you can expect to pay in monthly premiums based on the term and benefit amount you choose.

While non-military members can qualify for and purchase policies through USAA, the offerings are mostly intended for military personnel and their immediate families. That is where the options truly shine.

To begin with, USAA has no “war exclusion clause.” Many term life insurers will not pay out benefits for war-related deaths. Obviously, such a clause would render life insurance useless for active-duty military personnel. Which is why there is no such clause for USAA policies. The company also does not hike up their rates for deployed service members.

In addition, active duty military members can access accelerated review to ensure their USAA coverage is in place before deployment. There is also a $25,000 severe injury benefit for all deployed service members carrying USAA term life insurance. If you are between the ages of 18 and 35, you can also add an additional $100,000 in benefits upon hitting a life milestone. These milestones include marriage, a baby, or a new house. Finally, the military future insurability rider allows service members to convert a military life insurance policy into a USAA policy upon retirement.

While USAA policies are an excellent option for military members, they are not necessarily right for everyone. To start, while getting a quote online is quick (and free!), it can take four to six weeks and a medical exam to get through USAA’s traditional underwriting. The company’s underwriting guidelines are also pretty rigid. This means any pre-existing conditions can disqualify you or make the available policies too expensive.

USAA is an excellent company that does everything it can to help its target customers. If you do not fit that target demographic, however, the term life insurance policies may not be exactly right for you.

Unlike the other sites on this list, SelectQuote does not offer you a quote online. When you fill out the requested information online, you are then directed to call an agent to receive your life insurance quote. (This seems to be a vestige of the company’s origins in the 1980s when a phone call was the only way to conduct such business). However, the company employs knowledgeable and efficient agents, so you are able to conduct your business quickly and effectively over the phone.

Generally, you can get your quote within a 10-minute phone call, and you will never have to go into an office.

The prices for healthy applicants are incredibly competitive. Because SelectQuote functions as an independent agent, you will not find lower prices anywhere for the specific premiums you are offered. The policy prices for applicants with pre-existing health conditions may not be as competitive. It’s also important to note that not all policies are available in all 50 states.

The majority of reviews praise the helpfulness of the insurance agents that you work with over the phone, but a few reviews describe the agents as pushy or following a script. Your mileage may vary.

SelectQuote has been in the business a long time, which means they have a streamlined and well-oiled process for helping life insurance applicants find the best policies for their needs.

The company has several policy options, including Velocity Term Life Insurance and Velocity ROP (Return of Premium) Term Life. The Velocity Term policy includes two riders at no extra cost: a living benefits rider, and a charitable giving rider. With the first, if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness that is expected to result in death within 12 months, you can receive a portion of the base policy benefits during that time. The charitable giving rider provides you with an additional death benefit of 1% of your total benefit (to a maximum of $100K) to your choice of a qualified charitable organization.

For a small monthly addition to your premium, you can also add a waiver of premium rider. With this option, if you are disabled for more than six months, your premiums are waived after six months. That waiver lasts either until the end of your disability, or you reach age 65, whichever comes first. (It is also only available to customers 55 or younger). The cost for this rider is minimal. It ranged from less than a dollar per month (on top of an $18 premium) for a $50,000 10-year policy, to an additional $27 per month for a $2 million 30-year policy (on top of a $190 premium). 

Velocity Term Life also allows you to convert your policy into permanent coverage prior to reaching age 65. Best of all, evidence of insurability is not required for such a conversion. That means you can protect yourself even if your health changes.

The ROP Term Life policy is a way for customers to receive their paid-in premiums back if they outlive their term of 20, 25, or 30 years. While this may sound like an excellent deal, remember that ROP policies can cost twice or even three times as much as a typical term life policy. Financially disciplined customers would do better to invest the difference between the two types of policies.

Once you have received your quote online, then you can get started with the purchasing options. Vantis aims to make buying your chosen policy as easy (and as DIY) as possible. All the Velocity life insurance options offer the option of expedited underwriting. Healthy customers can get a policy decision and option to buy in just a few minutes and without a medical examination. (Buying via the website without an exam is not available in California, Montana, or New York).

The Vantis website also offers a number of calculators, blog posts, and other tools. These will help you make the most educated decision possible about your insurance needs. The excellent user interface and cheery design make this a great way to enjoy learning about a somewhat grim topic.