Pros Explained

• Superior financial strength ratings: American Heritage received an A+ (Superior) financial strength rating from AM Best, which indicates a superior capacity to pay claims. 
• Portable policies and convertible term coverage: If you leave your job, you can take your coverage with you. You also have the option to convert your term coverage to a permanent policy without having to reapply for coverage. 
• Wide range of policy types: Many group plans only make term coverage available to employees, and some also offer whole life. But with Allstate Benefits, you can get term, universal, and whole life insurance through your employer.

Cons Explained

• Many more complaints with the NAIC than expected: American Heritage had more than the expected amount of complaints over the last three years. 
• Only available if your employer offers it: Since American Heritage offers group coverage, you must be an employee of an organization that offers it to get a policy.

Complaint Index

Consumer complaints about American Heritage to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) are rampant. Each year, the NAIC calculates a complaint index for every insurer that indicates whether the number of complaints received is greater or less than the amount expected relative to the company’s size.

A rating of 1.00 indicates an insurer received an expected number of complaints based on its market share. A rating of lower than 1.00 indicates fewer complaints than expected based on the company's size, and a rating of over 1.00 indicates more complaints than expected based on a company's size. Over the last three years, the average complaint index for American Heritage is 1.37.

Third-Party Ratings

American Heritage Life Insurance Company gets high marks for financial stability. AM Best, an independent credit ratings industry that assesses the financial strength of insurance companies, gave American Heritage an A+ (Superior) grade, which is the second-highest grade available. It’s important to pay attention to AM Best ratings because a good grade indicates a strong likelihood that an insurer will be able to meet its obligations to policyholders, while an inferior grade can indicate an unsteady financial outlook that may result in unpaid claims. We generally don’t recommend insurers that score below the “A” bracket. 

Policies Available

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a kind of permanent policy that features level premiums and a guaranteed death benefit paid to beneficiaries either upon death or policy maturity. With whole life insurance, some of your premium dollars go to building a cash value component that can be borrowed against. This is the most expensive type of life insurance but also comes with the most guarantees. 

Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance is another type of permanent policy that features an adjustable death benefit with flexible premiums. There’s also a cash value component that grows with interest. Minimum payments are required to keep the policy in force but may increase in later years if the cash value does not perform as expected or insufficient premiums were paid earlier on.

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is coverage designed to provide non-permanent protection. It can protect your family during your income-earning years so that if something happens to you, they can still meet financial obligations, such as paying the mortgage and paying for college. American Heritage offers a group policy where the death benefit is guaranteed for a period of time, though may decrease once you turn 70. Term coverage from American Heritage is also portable until age 70 if you leave your employer or can be converted to a permanent policy. 

Available Riders

American Heritage offers some add-ons you can use to customize your coverage, although availability can vary by state. Also keep in mind that not every rider may be offered on every policy. 

Child Rider

American Heritage allows you to add term coverage for all children under 26 and incapacitated children. 

Spouse Rider

Your term policy can also include term coverage for your spouse. 

Terminal Illness Rider

This accelerated death benefit allows you to access the death benefit early should you be diagnosed with a terminal illness that has a life expectancy of less than 12 months. 

Waiver of Premium

After six months of disability, this rider allows you to pause your premiums for as long as your disability lasts or until you turn 65.

Customer Service

American Heritage offers extended customer service hours between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET on weekdays. You can call 1-800-521-3535 for English or 1-800-211-5533 for Spanish. You may also be able to get more information or assistance from your employee benefits sponsor or HR department. Additionally, the Allstate Benefits MyBenefits portal allows you to file a claim online and view your policy documents. 

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.