Baltimore Life Insurance Company Review

Pros Explained

• 24-hour customer service: With many life insurance companies, customer support is only available Monday through Friday during certain hours. However, Baltimore Life’s customer service center is open 24 hours a day, seven day a week to answer your questions. 
• Multiple optional riders available: While some companies offer just a couple of riders, Baltimore Life has a lengthy list of optional riders you can add to your policy. Available riders include accelerated death, accidental death, children’s insurance, guaranteed insurability, and waiver of premium for disability. 
• Extensive educational tools: Baltimore Life’s website contains a wealth of information about life insurance and financial planning. It has videos and articles, printable guides, and calculators you can use to determine how much coverage you need. All of these tools can give you the foundation you need to make a decision about what policy to buy and feel confident in your choice. 

Cons Explained

• High number of consumer complaints: In 2021, Baltimore Life’s individual life insurance segment received a complaint ratio that was nearly twice as high as the industry index. 
• Some policies aren’t available in all states: While Baltimore Life is licensed in 49 states, it doesn’t sell all of its policies in each state. Depending on where you live, you may not be eligible for certain types of insurance. For example, residents of New York and Montana are ineligible for whole life coverage. 
• Most policies require medical exams: Nearly all of the company’s life insurance policies are fully underwritten. As an applicant, you’re required to get a medical exam, including bloodwork, to apply for coverage. 

Available Plans

The Baltimore Life Insurance Company sells term, whole life, universal life, and final expense policies. Most of its policies are fully underwritten and require medical exams, and you’ll have to contact an agent for details about the policies and to apply for coverage. 

Baltimore Life has six life insurance options: 

Term Life

Because term life insurance is temporary and provides you with coverage for a specific term, it tends to be cheaper than permanent life insurance. 

With term life insurance from Baltimore Life, you have level premiums for your policy’s initial term, and you can choose a term of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. After that, you can keep your policy in effect by renewing it until you reach the age of 100, but your premiums will increase as you age. Coverage amounts start at $25,000. 

Whole Life

If you want the security of permanent protection, a whole life policy may be a better option for you despite its higher cost. Whole life plans last for your lifetime; as long as you pay your premiums on time, your policy won’t expire. 

Whole life plans also have a savings component and can build cash value. As it grows, you can tap into it by taking out loans or withdrawals for major expenses, like a child’s college education. 

Baltimore Life’s whole life policies have guaranteed cash values that increase every year, and dividends may also be paid annually. The minimum face amount is $15,000. Whole life policies are not available to residents of New York or Montana. 

Single-Premium Whole Life

Baltimore Life’s single-premium whole life plan is for individuals that want to pay a one-time lump sum for a whole life policy. It's best for those that want to reallocate their assets or provide an income tax-free inheritance to their beneficiaries. 

Coverage amounts start at $5,000. It’s possible to get more than $500,000 in coverage, but your agent will have to work with Baltimore Life‘s main office to get approval. 

Senior Life: Silver Guard Whole Life

The Silver Guard plan is a final expense policy that is designed to pay for your burial and other expenses. It has guaranteed level premiums and guaranteed cash value accumulation. This insurance plan is available without a medical exam. Coverage amounts range from $2,500 to $25,000, and the policies are available to people between the ages of 50 and 80. 

Universal Life

With universal life coverage, you get permanent protection. However, universal life policies offer more flexibility than whole life policies. You can adjust your premiums and even your death benefit if your finances change. Baltimore Life’s coverage amounts for universal life policies start at $25,000. 

Generation Legacy

Baltimore Life’s Generation Legacy plan combines life insurance with an annuity. When you purchase a policy, you get two separate contracts: a single-premium immediate annuity and a limited premium payment whole life policy. Only people between the ages of 60 and 80 are eligible. 

Available Riders

The Baltimore Life Insurance Company allows policyholders to add optional insurance endorsements, also known as riders, to their plans to customize their coverage or to access their death benefits while living in certain circumstances. Not all riders are available on all policies or in all states, so talk to your agent about your options. 

Baltimore Life has the following riders:

Accelerated Death Benefits

With this rider, you can use up to 100% of your death benefit while you’re living in the following circumstances: 

• You are terminally ill with a life expectancy of 12 months or less
• You are chronically ill and in a qualified nursing care facility
• You are chronically ill and receiving extended care by a licensed home health agency or state-certified adult daycare

Accidental Death Benefit

By adding the accidental death benefit rider to your policy, your beneficiaries will receive a larger death benefit if you die as a result of an accident. 

Children’s Insurance

When you add the children’s insurance rider to your policy, you can purchase term life coverage for your child that lasts until they turn 25 or you turn 70, whichever occurs first. 

Disability Income Rider

By adding the disability income rider to your policy, you get coverage for non-occupational disabilities and illnesses. 

Disability Waiver of Premium

If you become disabled and are unable to work, the disability waiver of premium rider will allow you to stop paying your premiums while keeping your policy in force. 

Guaranteed Insurability

With the guaranteed insurability rider, you can purchase additional insurance without evidence of insurability. 

Customer Service

Baltimore Life has a 24-hour customer service center that is available by phone or secure online message. To contact customer support, call 800-628-5433.

All of Baltimore Life’s insurance policies are sold through agents. To reach an agent near you, fill out the contact form on the company’s website, and an agent will follow up with you. 

Baltimore Life has a robust website with educational materials. It has articles and videos that explain the different types of life insurance, printable resource guides, and calculators you can use to estimate how much coverage you need. 

Unfortunately, it has limited online functionality for policyholders. You can make payments through the site, but you have to start the claims process over the phone. 

Complaint Index

When shopping for life insurance, pay attention to companies’ complaint ratios released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). They are numerical scores that reflect the number of complaints that consumers submitted about a company relative to its share of the insurance market. 

The industry standard is 1.0; a ratio above that number means the company received more complaints than expected, and a ratio below 1.0 means the company received fewer complaints than expected. 

In 2021, Baltimore Life’s complaint ratio for its individual life insurance segment was 1.92, nearly twice the expected ratio. Because it was so high, we looked up the types of complaints that were submitted. Complaints were submitted by current policyholders and their issues concerned unsatisfactory settlements and denials of claims. 

Lawsuits

In 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Baltimore Life Insurance Company. The suit alleged that the company made unsolicited telemarketing calls to sell life insurance policies without the consumers’ consent. 

Third-Party Ratings

When you buy life insurance, you want to be confident that the company you choose will be financially sound and able to pay out any claims in the future. 

Baltimore Life has a B++ (Good) Financial Strength Rating from AM Best, the credit rating agency that evaluates insurance companies’ financial stability. While its rating isn’t poor, it is significantly lower than many of its major competitors. 

The three largest individual life insurance companies based on direct premiums written—Northwestern Mutual, New York Life, and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company—all have A++ (Superior) ratings, the highest available from AM Best.A lower rating indicates that AM Best believes that Baltimore Life is more vulnerable to underwriting and economic changes in the future than companies with higher ratings. 

Baltimore Life was not included in the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study that evaluated and ranked top life insurance companies. 

Cancellation Policy

As with all insurance companies, you have a "free look" period when you buy a life insurance policy from Baltimore Life. You have 10 days—longer in some states—to change your mind and cancel your policy to get a full refund. 

After the free look period expires, cancellation policies vary based on the type of insurance you have. With whole and universal life policies, there may be a surrender charge. With term life coverage, you can cancel without penalty, but you won't receive a refund of any premiums paid. 

Contact your agent to discuss your contract and to cancel your coverage. 

Price

Baltimore Life does not offer online quotes. To get a quote for any of its policies, you have to contact an insurance agent. In general, your premiums will be based on the results of your medical exam and application answers. 

Like other life insurance companies, Baltimore Life does require you to choose either “male” or “female” when getting a quote or submitting a life insurance application; there isn’t an option if you identify as nonbinary. While being nonbinary doesn’t disqualify you from getting life insurance, you should be aware that most insurance companies haven’t updated their underwriting processes to reflect an awareness of gender issues. 

Competition

Baltimore Life offers a range of insurance products and a lengthy list of optional riders. However, almost all of its policies require medical exams, and the company has received more complaints than is typical for a company of its size. 

If you’re looking for a company that sells simplified issue policies and has a better record of service, consider Haven Life. 

Haven Life is owned by MassMutual, a major insurance company. It sells fully underwritten whole life and simplified issue term life policies, so you can get up to $500,000 in coverage without a medical exam. Because the policies are underwritten by MassMutual, a company with an A++ rating from AM Best, you can be confident that the company will be able to pay out its claims or contractual obligations. 

MassMutual also has a much better complaint ratio than Baltimore Life; in 2021, its ratio was just 0.08 for individual life, much lower than the industry standard.

Methodology

We designed a comprehensive ranking methodology based on consumer priorities and life insurance company fundamentals to rank more than 90 insurers across five general categories: financial stability, customer satisfaction, product and feature variety, the overall buying experience, and cost.

In order to do this, we collected over 5,000 data points and scored each company based on 55 metrics. We grouped metrics by category to see how insurers performed in each; we then weighted category scores to determine how companies performed overall.

To learn more, read our full Life Insurance Methodology.