Pros Explained

• Superior financial rating: Reliance Standard has an A++ (Superior) rating from AM Best. This is the top rating available, which indicates its a financially stable company able to satisfy its ongoing insurance obligations, such as claims. 
• Offers bereavement counseling with policies: Losing someone you love is tough. To help you through the process, Reliance Standard offers telephonic counseling services from qualified professionals to all covered employees and their family members.
• Guaranteed issue for employees and often spouses: If you meet your employer’s requirements, you’re automatically approved for group term life insurance coverage as long as you sign up before your employee benefits deadline. Reliance Standard also offers additional voluntary term life policies with guaranteed coverage. In many instances, you can purchase guaranteed coverage for your spouse as well.

Cons Explained

• Only offers term life insurance: Reliance Standard sells term policies. You can get group term life if your employer signs up for it and you can voluntarily sign up for additional term coverage, but there’s no permanent life insurance available unless you convert an existing term policy to permanent coverage. 
• Policies only available through participating employers: Reliance Standard sells policies to employers with at least 10 employees. Individuals cannot sign up for a policy. If your employer doesn’t use Reliance Standard as a part of your benefits package, you won’t be able to purchase this coverage.
• Limited information available on the company website: Reliance Standard’s website public features little product information. More information available is for employers when they engage with a broker or agent.

Complaint Index

Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company received somewhat more complaints than expected over the past three years for its group policies, based on its size. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) calculates a complaint index to help readers compare different companies. 

A complaint index of 1.00, indicates a company received an expected number of complaints based on its size. An index less than 1.00, shows the company received fewer complaints than expected; greater than 1.00 means it received more complaints than expected. 

Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company had complaint indexes of 0.22, 0.23, and 0.23 for 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. This shows that the company received fewer complaints than expected for its size.

Third-Party Rating

Reliance Standard earned a financial strength rating of A++ (Superior) from the independent credit rating agency AM Best. This is the highest grade available—in fact, only nine of the 91 life insurance companies we reviewed received an A++ (Superior) rating. This indicates that the company has a superior ability to honor its ongoing insurance obligations, such as paying claims. 

Policies Available 

Reliance Standard has a very limited selection of insurance plans. 

Group Term Life Insurance

You get group life insurance through your employer. If your employer offers this benefit, you can sign up and pay for the coverage through payroll deductions. Group life insurance is typically guaranteed issue. That means you can’t be denied coverage due to your health. If you have a hard time getting approved for other types of life insurance, a group term could be a good option. 

Voluntary Term Life Insurance

Reliance Standard also gives employees the option of applying for voluntary term life insurance for themselves and their spouses. These are individual policies that you pay for if you wish to increase your coverage. You, and often your spouse, can qualify for guaranteed issue coverage if you meet the qualifying health criteria.

Available Riders 

You can customize your life insurance policies with riders. Reliance Standard offers a few choices. 

Child Rider

A child rider allows you to add temporary insurance coverage to your policy for your dependent children. If your child passes away while you have this rider, you’ll receive a small death benefit. 

Waiver of Premium 

Group policies include a waiver of premium rider, which makes it possible to stop paying your insurance premiums while you recover from a total disability.

Accelerated Death Benefit: Terminal Illness Rider

If you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness that shortens your life expectancy, you may be able to use the terminal illness rider to access a portion of your life insurance death benefit early. This type of rider is known as an accelerated death benefit. You can use the money to pay for medical expenses or anything you wish. However, it will reduce the death benefit for your beneficiaries. 

Customer Service

Reliance Standard has limited options for customer support. You can reach out to its customer care center on weekdays from 8 a.m. through 7 p.m. ET by calling 800-351-7500. If you’re an existing customer, you may be able to get some basic questions answered through your secure online account.

Final Verdict

Reliance Standard Life Insurance may be a good option for employers looking to provide life insurance plans to employees. The company offers several riders and has a superior financial strength rating from AM Best.

However, the company only offers policies through an employer. Therefore, if you are looking for individual life insurance, you will have to look elsewhere for a provider that suits your needs.

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.