Erie Insurance Life Insurance Review

Pros Explained 

• No-exam policies available up to $500k: Those 55 or under can apply for life insurance via the ERIExpress process without a medical exam. Coverage is available up to $500,000. 
• Get a same-day decision: Life insurance coverage can become effective the same day you submit your application for an ERIExpress life policy. 

Cons Explained 

• Only available in 12 states: Erie Insurance is not widely available throughout the country.
• Can’t get a quote online: You must speak with an agent directly over the phone to get a term quote. Many of our best life insurance companies offer online quotes for term coverage.

Complaint Index 

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) tracks insurance company complaints and calculates a complaint index to help consumers compare companies. The NAIC complaint index has a baseline score of 1.00. If a company has a complaint index over 1.00, it means it received more complaints than expected for a company of its size. If the index is below 1.00, the company received fewer complaints than expected for its size. 

Averaged over three years, Erie’s complaint index is 0.81. This means the company received far fewer complaints than expected over the last three years.

Third-Party Ratings

AM Best provides Financial Strength Ratings on companies in the insurance industry. This rating measures the financial strength and the stability of the insurance company, as well as the likelihood it will meet its contractual insurance obligations. 

Erie Family Life Insurance Company earned an AM Best's rating of A (Excellent). AM Best provides financial ratings for insurance organizations and is well respected in the industry. An “A” rating is the third highest score an insurance organization can receive. 

Policies Available 

Erie Insurance offers a few different types of life insurance policies, including term, whole, and universal life insurance. It’s important to understand the differences between these policies to determine which one may best suit your needs.  

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance policies offer temporary coverage that lasts for a set number of years. Erie Insurance offers term life insurance for five, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. 

Policy face amounts and premium payments will remain consistent during the term you select, and you’ll have the option to convert your term policy to a permanent plan if you choose, which provides coverage for the entirety of your life. Convertible term policies allow you to exchange temporary coverage for permanent coverage, regardless of health, occupation, or hobbies.

If you’re 55 or younger, you may qualify for the company’s ERIExpress Life product, which provides an instant-issue term life policy for as much as $500,000 in coverage. 

Whole Life Insurance

A whole life insurance policy provides protection for your entire life instead of just a set term. This means your beneficiaries are protected for the rest of your life, as long as you pay the scheduled premium. Whole life insurance policies accumulate cash value, and you may be able to borrow against or withdraw from the cash value. Whole life insurance policies offer protection that won’t decrease and payments that won’t fluctuate. Erie offers coverage amounts as low as $10,000 up to $10 million. 

Similar to the ERIExpress Life product for term insurance, if you’re 55 or younger you may qualify for an ERIExpress whole life policy that has up to $500,000 in coverage.

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance is designed to provide lifetime coverage like a whole life insurance policy but may have a less expensive price tag. You may be able to adjust your coverage amount over time and skip premium payments if you need to, as long as the cash value in your policy is sufficient to cover policy costs. Like a whole life insurance policy, a universal life insurance policy accumulates a cash value you can borrow against or withdraw from. 

Available Riders

Adding one or more riders to your life insurance policy may allow you to add more coverage or even use your death benefit while you’re still alive. Let’s take a look at some of the riders you can add to your life insurance policy with Erie Insurance. 

Guaranteed Insurability Rider 

With the guaranteed insurability rider from Erie Insurance, you have the option to purchase additional insurance later on even if your future circumstances make you “uninsurable.” This flexibility allows you to increase your death benefit without answering any health questions. You must be 40 or younger to purchase this rider, and it isn’t available with all plans. 

Child Rider 

Erie Insurance’s children’s term insurance rider allows you to add limited amounts of term insurance coverage on your children without purchasing a separate policy.

Waiver of Premium 

The waiver of premium rider allows you to keep your term, whole, or universal life policy in good standing in the event that you become disabled and unable to work. 

ADB: Terminal Illness Rider

Erie Insurance offers a terminal illness accelerated death benefit rider, which gives you early access to the death benefit if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness. Erie's terminal illness rider allows for half of the policy’s death benefit to be accelerated, or used early. The terminal illness rider is included without any extra upfront cost.

ADB: Long-term Care Rider 

You can pay to add a long-term care accelerated death benefit rider to an Erie universal or whole life policy. This rider provides financial support in the event that you need long-term care, such as daily care from a nurse or health aide for an extended period of time. Eligible care may be received at a healthcare facility or in your home. 

Customer Service

Customer service is available Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 11:30 p.m or Saturday between 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at (800) 458-0811. To get a quote, you have to complete a form online which will connect you with a local Erie agent who will provide a quote. You also need to connect via phone in order to file an insurance claim. To file a claim for a life insurance policy, you will call Erie Family Life at (800) 458-0811 and choose option 3. 

Our Methodology: How We Review Life Insurance Carriers

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.