American Amicable Review

About American Amicable

American Amicable Life Insurance Company of Texas, part of the American-Amicable Group, is a Texas-based life insurer that has been around in one form or another since 1910.  As of 2010, American Amicable, headquartered in Waco, became a subsidiary of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services, Inc.

Along with annuities, American Amicable offers term, whole, and universal life insurance.

Although it’s not all they offer, they specialize in simplified-issue policies, which is life insurance without a medical examination as part of the application process.  Simplified-issue policies are available from American Amicable for applicants as old as 85.

In their marketing materials, American Amicable emphasizes the ease with which new applicants can obtain coverage by completing a brief online application.

American Amicable Financial Ratings

A.M. Best: A
Fitch: NR
Moody’s: NR
S&P Global: NR
Comdex Ranking: NR

American Amicable isn’t rated by Fitch, Moody’s, or S&P, but A.M. Best awarded the insurer an “A” rating—considered “excellent” and the third-highest grade available out of 15.

American Amicable also maintains an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, which is a notably high grade and better than most life insurers.  The high BBB rating means that American Amicable generally has strong customer service and is responsive to client concerns.

Products Offered by American Amicable:

• Term Life Insurance
• Group Term Life Insurance (only available to government, hospital, or railroad employees)
• Whole Life Insurance
• Universal Life Insurance
• Final Expense Insurance
• Modified Life Insurance

One of American Amicable’s most notable features is that they offer numerous policies, many of which are highly specialized.

Obviously, not every specialized policy is right for everyone, but if you’re looking for a specific life insurance product, there’s a good chance that one of American Amicable’s policies will have the characteristics you’re looking for.

Life Insurance Policies Offered by American Amicable

American Amicable offers both term life and whole life insurance.

Term

Term Made Simple: The “Term Made Simple” policy is simplified-issue, with a focus on an uncomplicated, straight-forward application process.

Along with a required medical questionnaire, American Amicable also reviews applicants driving records and prescription drug history.

The policies are “level term.”  Neither the death benefit amount nor the premiums will vary during a policy’s term.

Available coverage starts at $50,000 and goes as high as $400,000, and term lengths of 10, 15, 20, and 30 years are available.

Term Made Simple is also available with a conversion option, allowing policyholders to convert a term policy to whole life or universal life without undergoing additional underwriting.

Easy Term:  “Easy Term” is a fairly standard term policy available with a host of optional riders.  American Amicable offers 10, 20, and 30-year Easy Term policies.

The 20 and 30-year varieties are available with a “return of premium” feature that allows policyholders to recover their premium payments if a policy’s term concludes without a payout ever being triggered.

Home Protector:  “Home Protector” provides term coverage designed to provide a means of making continuing mortgage payments in the event of the insured’s death.  Terms are usually targeted to last through the life of a mortgage.

A similar policy, “Survivor Protector,” provides decreasing term coverage with a benefit amount decreasing over the life of the policy.  Survivor Protector policies is designed to ensure surviving spouses are able to continue making mortgage payments if the other spouse dies.

Whole Life:

American Amicable offers simplified-issue whole life policies for new applicants up to age 85.

Family Solution  “Family Solution” is simplified-issue whole life coverage available to new applicants up to age 49.  Coverage amounts are available from $5,000 to $35,000

Family Choice

Guaranteed Guardian  Guaranteed Guardian provides whole life coverage with guaranteed, fixed-rate cash value growth.

Financial Lifeline (I, II & III):  American Amicable’s “Financial Lifeline” policies are whole life with guaranteed cash value growth linked to an annuity product chosen by the policyholder.  Premiums are scheduled to continue through age 100, and cash value accumulation kicks in after year 1.

Golden Solution:  “Golden Solution” is a simplified-issue final expense insurance policy available with immediate benefit, graded benefit, or return-of-premium options.

The graded-benefit option has a two-year waiting period, paying out 30% of face value in year one and 70% in year two.

The return of benefit variety has a 3-year waiting period for applicants below 65 or 2-years for applicants above 65.

Both “return of premium” and “graded benefit” pay out 100% in the event of an accidental death during the waiting period.  “Senior Choice” provides similar final expense coverage intended for seniors.

Legacy Builder:  “Legacy Builder” is a single-premium final expense policy.

Universal Life:

American Amicable’s universal life offerings are available in coverage amounts from $25,000 to $300,000.

Like most universal life products, American Amicable’s line comes with the flexible-premium structure and cash-value growth advantages that make universal life attractive to many purchasers.

Easy UL:  “Easy UL” provides simplified-issue universal life coverage in amounts between $25,000 and $250,000.  Policies are guaranteed not to lapse for 15 years as long as all premium payments are made.

Ultimate Life Performer: “Ultimate Life Performer” requires full medical underwriting during the application process, including a doctor exam and blood test.

SecureLife Plus

Available Life Insurance Riders

American Amicable offers a wide range of available riders, some of which come standard on certain policies and some of which are optional and require additional premium.  Not every policy is available with every rider.

Optional Riders

Critical Illness:  death benefit payments are accelerated if the insured is diagnosed with one or more “critical illnesses” defined in the policy.  Accelerated payouts can be as high as $100,000 and are measured as a percentage of a policy’s face value—25%, 50%, or 100%, depending on the policy and rider selected.

Disability Income:  if the insured is medically determined to be total disabled for a period lasting at least 60 consecutive days, the policy provides a monthly income payout measured as 2% of the available death benefit, up to $2,000 per month.

Children’s Insurance: if purchased, the rider provides supplemental term life coverage for the policyholder’s minor children (or grandchildren for some policies), which can later be converted to a whole life or universal life policy for the child.

Waiver of Premium:  the obligation to pay premiums is waived if the insured is declared permanently disabled by a medical professional.

Waiver of Premium Unemployment:  premium obligations are temporarily waived in the event of the policyholder’s unemployment.

Nursing Care:  if the insured is confined to a long-term care facility, policy proceeds are accelerated via regular monthly payments measured as a percentage of the policy’s death benefit.

Accidental Death:  the death benefit is doubled if the insured’s death results from a qualifying accident.

Accident Only Disability

Standard Riders:

Terminal Illness:  as much as 100% of a policy’s death benefit can be accelerated if a medical professional determines that the insured has less than two years to live.

Chronic Illness:  if the insured is found by a healthcare professional to be unable to perform two or more “Activities of Daily Living,” accelerated policy proceeds are available at the policyholder’s election.