Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance Review 2020

Update: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mutual of Omaha is one of several insurance companies that is directly addressing customers’ questions about the virus and/or providing specialized service options to ensure the safety of customers and agents alike. For up-to-date information, visit their website.

In most areas, you can apply for a policy well into your 80s, making this insurer a good life insurance option for seniors. Meanwhile, a wide range of death benefits allows you to customize your coverage from just a few thousand to a million dollars or more. Of course, the policy you choose may limit the benefit amount you can choose.

Mutual of Omaha insurance company offers term life insurance with 10-, 15-, 20-, and 30-year term length options. It offers term policies for those ages 18 to 80, though the age range varies depending on state, term length, death benefit, and health class.

United of Omaha also offers the ability to convert your term policy into a permanent policy. This will give you the ability to transition your policy from being a limited term length to providing lifelong coverage.

Your permanent policy will also accumulate a cash value, which can be taken out of the policy as a loan or it can be used toward paying your premiums.

Once the level term period ends, you can renew your policy for one-year periods at a time—as long as you don’t exceed the age of 94 at the time of renewal. However, note that with this type of policy your premiums typically go up every year.

Whole life insurance with United of Omaha is designed to cover you for your entire life, and these policies accumulate a cash value. You can access that cash value to use for monetary needs; however, you typically take that money out in the form of a loan that includes an interest rate. You are also typically able to use the funds to pay your premiums as long as the payments don’t exceed the cash value that is within the policy.

Mutual of Omaha’s whole life policy is available to those who are 45 to 85 years old, except in New York where the age range is 50 to 75. In most states, you can get coverage from $2K to $25K, except in Washington, where the minimum amount is $5K. These benefit caps and age ranges make United of Omaha's whole life insurance a great fit for a final expense or burial insurance policy.

With a whole life policy, you don’t have to take a medical exam or answer any health questions. The premium payments stay level throughout your lifetime too.

Universal life insurance is designed to protect you for your entire life, and these policies also accumulate a cash value. The main difference between a universal life insurance plan and a whole life policy is that universal life offers more flexibility.

You are typically able to increase or decrease the amount of coverage as your needs change.

Mutual of Omaha has several types of universal life insurance, including an indexed universal life policy. In general, these policies are pretty similar. The biggest difference is how the cash value is invested.

Usually, with regular universal life policies, you grow cash value based on a set interest rate, and there can sometimes be a guaranteed percentage of growth. With an indexed universal life insurance policy, the cash value is reflective of the performance of a market index. Your cash value isn’t directly invested into the market, but it somewhat mimics the performance of the market. There are usually minimum and maximum returns you can make with this strategy. So an indexed policy is more focused on cash growth than a regular universal life policy or whole life policy.

Accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) is designed to provide financial support to your loved ones if you die in a specific type of accident. The accidents that are covered by this insurance can vary between companies.

Mutual of Omaha offers AD&D to those ages 18 to 70. They offer coverage (death benefit) amounts up to $1 million. Note, however, that accidental death insurance is best if it’s supplemental to a typical life insurance policy.

AD&D policies provides benefits only if you die in an accident that is specifically covered by the company. Other types of insurance policies (such as term, whole, and universal) are designed to pay your beneficiaries for your death—regardless of the cause. Of course, some exclusions can apply, depending on the specific criteria offered by the life insurance company.

While this review will focus on Mutual of Omaha’s individual life insurance policies, the company also offers additional products such as these:

• Group life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Long-term care insurance
• Critical illness insurance
• Disease-specific policies, such as cancer insurance

Based on the sample rates below, Mutual of Omaha premiums are at or slightly above our list of best life insurance rates, with competitive prices for seniors and people with preexisting conditions. Their rates for former tobacco users are less competitive, however, due to stricter underwriting for a history of tobacco use.

Although this insurance company’s rates aren’t at the lower end, Mutual of Omaha’s record of quality customer service and financial stability are often worth the difference.

20-year term life insurance for a healthy 25-year-old

20-year term life insurance for a healthy 50-year-old

Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance Company may not work for everyone, but it offers ample life insurance coverage options to suit most people. This company also has a variety of ways to get quotes or apply for a policy online, but how much you can accomplish without speaking to an agent varies by the type of policy you want.

Mutual of Omaha doesn’t offer everything under the sun when it comes to life insurance. You can’t buy a variable policy, for example, and its whole life insurance comes in a guaranteed issue (no exam) form only. However, the options Mutual of Omaha does offer will likely suit a variety of needs.

You can choose 10-, 15-, 20-, or 30-year terms—and have the option to convert to a permanent policy later. Meanwhile, each of four universal life insurance policies aims to meet a specific need. The Guaranteed Universal Life policy focuses on ensuring lifelong coverage, while the AcumUL provides a better return on your cash value.

The Mutual of Omaha website breaks down its policies with information such as what death benefit amounts you can buy and how old you can be when applying. In many cases, you can also receive a quote online, although this option isn’t available with any of its universal life options.

If you’re looking for whole life or an accidental death policy, you may be able to apply online. Otherwise, you’ll have to go through an agent to buy a policy.

Mutual of Omaha is widely recognized as a top insurance company. Because this insurer is a mutual company, you, the customer, are a shareholder in this large, financially stable company with plenty to offer.

A.M. Best gives Mutual of Omaha a stable rating of A+ (superior)—which is fantastic, as A.M. Best is the gold standard for financial ratings in the insurance industry. When it comes to Mutual of Omaha life insurance, good financial ratings are an indicator that the company will be able to pay your claims, no matter how far down the road that might happen.

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) and Moody's follow suit with high ratings and a stable outlook as well. Fitch hasn’t rated Mutual of Omaha or United of Omaha, but it’s common for even large companies to be missing a rating from one of these entities.

J.D. Power ranks Mutual of Omaha third out of 24 on its 2018 US Life Insurance Study for overall customer satisfaction.² That’s up from number five in 2018.³

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), consumers have filed few complaints against Mutual of Omaha, earning the company a complaint ratio of 0.99 in 2018.⁴ To put that in perspective, the national average is 1.00.

In total, Mutual of Omaha received 35 official complaints in 2018. For a company slated to bring in over $1.6 billion in life insurance premiums, that’s super low.⁵

For most people, Mutual of Omaha (United of Omaha) checks all the most important boxes.

Financial stability, caring customer service, and competitive pricing make this company stand out from the crowd. Mutual of Omaha doesn’t have every option you could want, but the term life, universal life, and no exam whole life it offers are top notch.

If Mutual of Omaha sounds like the right company for you, get a quote today.

Need help understanding how life insurance works? Check out these other pages: 

• Understand the different types of life insurance.
• Learn what life insurance exams test for.

Mutual of Omaha doesn’t sell no exam term life insurance for individuals, but it does sell no exam whole life insurance policies. If your employer offers Mutual of Omaha policies as part of your benefits package, you may find a no exam term life policy there. But be aware: you may lose this coverage if you leave your job.