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Prudential Life Insurance Review 2024
![Katia Iervasi](https://www.nerdwallet.com/assets/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/24-065-6706_Katia-Iervasi_background-bone-160x160.png)
Assistant Assigning Editor | Life insurance, disability insurance, health care
Katia Iervasi is an assistant assigning editor at NerdWallet. An insurance authority, she previously spent over six years covering insurance topics as a writer, where she loved untangling complicated topics and answering readers’ burning money questions. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication and has studied writing, fact-checking and editing with Poynter. Her writing and analysis has been featured in The Washington Post, Forbes, Yahoo, Entrepreneur, Best Company and FT Advisor. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Katia currently lives in New York City.
![Lisa Green](https://www.nerdwallet.com/assets/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/lgreen-user-avatar-160x160.jpg)
Assigning Editor | Insurance, data journalism
Lisa Green leads the life insurance team and oversees insurance-focused data journalism at NerdWallet. A professional journalist since high school, she was an insurance writer at NerdWallet before becoming an assigning editor. Previously, Lisa spent more than 20 years as an editor at The Tennessean in Nashville, where she led business and consumer coverage for several years. At The Tennessean, she was part of a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist team for coverage of devastating floods in Middle Tennessee. Her work has also won awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Lisa is an alumna of the Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also studied data journalism with the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, business editing with the American Press Institute and writing, editing and news research with the Poynter Institute. In addition to her work at NerdWallet, Lisa is a real estate investor and has taught a seminar on how to earn college scholarships. She is based in Nashville.
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![insurance-product-card-logo](https://www.nerdwallet.com/cdn/insurance/logos/prudential.jpeg)
Prudential
4.0
on Nerdwallet
Financial strength ratingThese ratings indicate an insurer’s ability to pay future claims.
Online purchaseThis indicates whether the company offers a way to apply for and purchase policies entirely online.
NAIC complaintsRatings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC.
Policies offeredTerm policies last a set number of years, while permanent policies typically last a lifetime. No-exam policies don’t require a medical exam.
Pros
- Variety of term and universal life options.
- Fewer consumer complaints than expected for a company of its size.
Cons
- Ranked below average in a recent customer satisfaction survey.
![insurance-product-card-logo](https://www.nerdwallet.com/cdn/insurance/logos/prudential.jpeg)
on Nerdwallet
Prudential
4.0
Financial strength ratingThese ratings indicate an insurer’s ability to pay future claims.
Online purchaseThis indicates whether the company offers a way to apply for and purchase policies entirely online.
NAIC complaintsRatings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC.
Policies offeredTerm policies last a set number of years, while permanent policies typically last a lifetime. No-exam policies don’t require a medical exam.
Pros
- Variety of term and universal life options.
- Fewer consumer complaints than expected for a company of its size.
Cons
- Ranked below average in a recent customer satisfaction survey.
In our life insurance reviews, our editorial team considers the customer and the insurer. These are some of the factors we take into account:
Policies offered. There are many types of life insurance on the market, and they fall into three key categories:
Term life insurance offers temporary coverage and a guaranteed payout if the policyholder dies during the term.
Permanent life insurance typically lasts a lifetime and builds cash value that can be borrowed against in the future.
No-exam life insurance issues coverage without the need for a medical exam.
Financial strength. We use AM Best ratings to confirm an insurer’s long-term financial stability and ability to pay claims. For life insurance, NerdWallet typically recommends considering insurers with ratings of A- or higher. Here’s the breakdown:
Exceptional: A+, A++.
Strong: A-, A.
Moderate: B, B+.
Complaints. These ratings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The best life insurance companies have fewer than the expected number of complaints.
Buy online. This indicates whether an insurer allows you to apply for and buy a policy completely online.
Dive deeper: Ratings methodology for life insurance
Founded in 1875, Prudential Financial is one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. The company offers a broad slate of universal and term life insurance policies, and allows policyholders to customize coverage with a range of riders.
» MORE: Compare life insurance quotes
Prudential life insurance rating
4.0
NerdWallet ratingPrudential earned 4 stars out of 5 for overall performance. NerdWallet’s ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account consumer experience, complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and financial strength ratings.
» MORE: Best life insurance companies
Prudential life insurance policies
Term life insurance. Prudential's term life insurance policies cater to people with different budgets and coverage needs. These are the options:
Term Essential: This affordable policy is available in 10-, 15-, 20- or 30-year terms, with a premium that stays level over the course of the term. If you decide to keep the policy after the term is complete, your premiums may increase. You can convert the policy to permanent life insurance, and you can enhance your coverage with riders.
PruTerm One: This policy is a type of annual renewable life insurance. It offers coverage for one year at a time, which may be useful for paying off short-term loans.
Permanent life insurance. Prudential offers several types of universal life insurance, indexed universal life insurance and variable universal life insurance, including survivorship policies. Survivorship life insurance insures two people on the same policy. The policy pays out when the second person dies.
Permanent life insurance policies typically build cash value. The cash value growth in the indexed policies is based on the performance of a financial index, such as the S&P 500. With the variable policies, you pick the underlying investments that will be the basis for cash value growth.
Prudential also sells final expense insurance, which is a form of whole life insurance that pays a small death benefit to cover funeral costs and other final expenses when an insured person dies. Customers ages 50 to 85 can purchase a policy with coverage as high as $30,000. Individuals in standard and modified risk classes have access to slightly lower issue age (50-80) and coverage range (up to $15k).
Prudential life insurance rates
Below are monthly rates for a 20-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy from Prudential. These are sample rates for a nonsmoking man and woman in excellent health — the final quote you’re offered will depend on factors like your age, health, lifestyle, occupation and driving record.
Age | Monthly rate - man | Monthly rate - woman |
---|---|---|
20 | $39.82 | $23.16 |
30 | $34.82 | $27.32 |
40 | $45.65 | $40.65 |
50 | $100.21 | $86.47 |
60 | $316.79 | $215.16 |
70 | N/A | N/A |
Source: Quotacy. Rates reflect the super preferred class and were generated on 7/5/23. |
Prudential customer complaints and satisfaction
Over three years, Prudential has drawn fewer than the expected number of complaints to state regulators for a company of its size, according to a NerdWallet analysis of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Prudential ranked No. 16 out of 22 companies in J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Life Insurance Study for overall customer satisfaction
Where Prudential stands out
Prudential's lineup of term life insurance policies caters to diverse needs. These include people who only want to buy a year of coverage at a time, as well as those on a budget or in the market for instant term life insurance. Prudential also offers life insurance for pre-existing conditions like HIV.
Where Prudential falls short
Prudential is a large company with a varied selection of life insurance policies. However, it could improve on its reputation with customers after getting a below average score in a recent survey.
More about Prudential
On the Prudential website, you can get a quote, learn about life insurance basics, update your personal details, change your beneficiary and make premium payments.
Prudential also offers a suite of financial products, like annuities, investments and workplace benefits.
![](https://www.nerdwallet.com/assets/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/image-2.png)
Life insurance buying guide
Before you start comparing companies, choose the type of life insurance you want, such as term or whole life. Decide which life insurance riders, if any, you want the policy to include. Calculate how much life insurance you need and how long you want the coverage to last. Check that the insurers you’re considering offer the coverage you’re looking for.
When comparing rates, be sure the quotes are for the same amount of coverage over the same period of time. It’s also important to make sure the policy’s medical requirements match your needs. For example, if you want to skip the life insurance medical exam but don’t mind answering health questions, confirm that the application process for each policy you're comparing aligns with that.
Price may not be the biggest driver behind your decision to buy. Look at the number of consumer complaints each company receives, as high numbers can be a red flag about the quality of service.
For more guidance, see our life insurance buying guide.
Methodology
Life insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet’s life insurance ratings are based on consumer experience, complaint index scores from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for individual life insurance, and weighted averages of financial strength ratings, which indicate a company’s ability to pay future claims. Within the consumer experience category, we consider ease of communication and website transparency, which looks at the depth of policy details available online. To calculate each insurer’s rating, we adjusted the scores to a curved 5-point scale.
These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
Insurer complaints methodology
NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2020-2022. To assess how insurers compare with one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.
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