Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Review

The Details

The Good

No-medical exam options are available. Liberty Mutual’s Simplified Issue Passport Term and Simplified Issue Whole Life policies do not require medical exams. You’ll only have to answer a few medical-related questions. 

High financial and third-party ratings. Financial rating organizations and third-party customer sentiment sites find Liberty Mutual to be pretty favorable. 

Guaranteed convertible policy. Both the regular and simplified issue term life products contain guaranteed built-in convertible policies, so you can switch to a permanent plan without losing coverage.

The Bad

Very high premiums. Passport Term life insurance is very expensive, with higher-than-average rates for people in “very good” health. Most people shopping for life insurance are likely not in very good or “excellent” health, so there’s a good possibility you’ll be paying more than you should. 

Overall lack of options. Compared to other large insurers, Liberty Mutual has only a couple of options available each for term life and whole life insurance. You’re limited to standard term or whole life, or simplified issue policies.   

Minimal information available on the website. Life insurance is not Liberty Mutual’s main bread-and-butter. That’s reflected in its website, which contains few details about its policies. This makes shopping and comparing products more difficult than it needs to be. 

Can’t apply online. If you want to apply for a policy, you’ll have to contact an independent agent. However, Liberty Mutual offers a phone line and a website for locating agents. 

The Breakdown

The life insurance portion of Liberty Mutual’s business was acquired by another company, Protective Life. You can still shop for life insurance using Liberty Mutual’s website and agents, but all of the policies are issued by Protective Life rather than Liberty Mutual itself.  

Through Protective, Liberty Mutual offers straightforward term life and whole life insurance packages that can be modified with a decent list of riders. 

All scores in this review reflect the Protective Series Passport Term policy.

Term life insurance

Protective Series Passport Term Life

Passport Term is a basic term life product. It’s fully underwritten, so applicants will have to undergo a medical exam. Payments are guaranteed to remain level —  that is, they won’t change —  for that length of time. 

There's a built-in option to convert to a permanent plan before the end of the term period. However, you’ll have to deal with increasing premiums at the end of your term if you want to continue your coverage.

Coverage continues until 90 years of age or death.

Simplified Issue Passport Term

Liberty Mutual also offers simplified issue term coverage, which takes about 10 minutes for approval, requires no medical exam, and includes the option to convert to a permanent policy up to five years before the term’s end. This is a final expense product, which means it’s for funeral expenses and paying off lingering debts. 

Since there’s no medical exam requirement, applicants instead answer questions about their health over the phone. You get almost immediate coverage, but will pay a higher premium for a lower coverage amount.

Anyone from age 18 to 65 can apply. But this policy maxes out at $250,000 of coverage, which is considerably less than you’d get with other policies.

Policy conversion

Term life policies with Liberty Mutual are convertible to a permanent plan up to the last five years of the policy term. Customers will not have to go through underwriting or a medical exam again.

Available riders

Liberty Mutual offers a handful of riders that policyholders can use to customize their coverage, including:

• Accelerated death benefit rider. Included at no extra charge, this lets policyholders diagnosed with a terminal illness receive a portion of the death benefit. 

• Accidental death and dismemberment rider. This pays an additional death benefit on top of the base policy’s payout if the insured dies from a qualifying accident. There’s also added coverage in case of a serious injury. The issue ages are 18 to 55.

• Child protection rider. This rider provides life insurance coverage for all eligible children, with a minimum of $10,000 and maximum of $25,000.

• Disability waiver of premium rider. If you become totally disabled you will not have to pay premiums for a fixed period of time. This benefit is payable if the insured is unable to work for two years following disability. 

All riders are subject to Liberty Mutual’s varying terms and conditions, and their availability may vary state to state. 

Permanent life insurance

Liberty Mutual offers a simplified whole life, single-premium whole life, and universal life insurance policy. 

Unless you have specific needs, we recommend most shoppers choose a term life policy over a permanent plan. Term life is easier to understand and more affordable in most cases.

Most people will pay above the national average for life insurance with Liberty Mutual. Across all age groups — except the 60s range, which isn’t available for quoting — prices are higher than most other competitors.

We based our sample quote on a non-smoking male from California in “Very Good” health applying for a $500,000, 20-year term policy:

Rates current as of November 2021, according to Policygenius data.

Applicants in excellent health will pay closer to the average.

You’ll notice there’s no sample quote for people over 60. Those in their 60s and above will have to call Liberty Mutual for a quote.

→ Read more about finding affordable life insurance?

To see if the century-plus-old Liberty Mutual will last long enough to meet the financial obligations of policyholders, we turn to the expertise of credit and financial ratings companies. 

All three organizations give Liberty Mutual top ratings, so there’s no need to worry when it’s time to file a benefits claim. 

Here’s what the financial guys have to say:

• A.M. Best: A

• Moody’s: A2

• Standard & Poor’s: A

A.M. Best, a credit rating company that focuses on the insurance market, gives Liberty Mutual an A rating. That means the company’s outlook is stable. 

Bond credit rating agency Moody’s rates Liberty Mutual at A2, which describes the company as financially secure and a worthwhile investment according to Moody’s rating scale.  

Financial analysis firm Standard & Poor’s rates the insurer with an A, meaning Liberty Mutual has strong financial stability.

Any complaints found about Liberty Mutual are centered around the company’s auto, home, and renters insurance, not so much life insurance. 

Here’s the breakdown from top customer ratings agencies:

• Consumers Advocate: 4 / 5 

• Consumer Affairs: 4.1 / 5

• NAIC complaint index: 0

Consumers Advocate focuses on the policy offerings, reputation, and stability of insurance companies. They have positive reviews for Liberty Mutual’s life insurance. 

Consumer Affairs lets verified users rate and write reviews about companies. Based on those reviews, Liberty Mutual scores 4.1 out of 5. Commenters mainly complain about Liberty Mutual’s auto and home products.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) counts complaints submitted to state insurance departments. They give Liberty Mutual a zero on their complaint index. A score of 1 represents the baseline average, while a zero means there weren’t enough customer complaints to count. According to the NAIC, Liberty Mutual’s life insurance products have barely received any complaints.

Life insurance isn’t the main focus for Liberty Mutual. That becomes obvious when you visit their website, where you’ll find few details about their product offerings. This can make the shopping experience more tedious than it needs to be. 

There is no way to apply online and no online chat help, either.

Application process

Prospective customers must contact an agent to apply. Liberty Mutual has a phone line and website where you can find local agents. Most applicants will have to undergo a medical exam and answer health-related questions before approval.

Turnaround time

Unless you’re applying for the simplified issue policies, most people will have to schedule, undergo, and then await the results of a medical exam. Liberty Mutual applicants will likely wait longer than average.

Policy delivery

The final policy is delivered electronically.