AS of January 14, 2020, AXA Equitable has officially changed its name to Equitable. For purposes of people finding this review on a search we have left AXA Equitable in the article until the name change has been in place long enough for people to realize AXA has changed its name to Equitable.
Equitable ranks as one of the top insurance companies in the world and is making inroads as one of the best life insurance companies in the U.S.
In the following AXA Equitable review, we will discuss the company’s products and ratings to help you decide if AXA is the right fit for you, based on your own need, goals and objectives. ย
Review of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company
Before we dive into the various products AXA offers, let’s take a moment to get more familiar with AXA Equitable.
About Equitable
Equitable traces its beginning back to 1817. The company was formed by the merger of various companies that insured agricultural risks in Normandy.ย The merger of different insurers covering fire, life, and accident created Ancienne Mutuelle group, the “historic ancestor” of AXA. The company officially became known as AXA in July 1985.
According to the company’s website, “AXA” is the brand name of AXA Equitable Financial Services, LLC and its family of companies, including AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company (NY,NY), MONY Life Insurance Company of America, AXA Advisors, LLC, and AXA Distributors, LLC.
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company Ratings
Ratings as of December 2017:
- A.M. Best rating: A
- Fitch rating: A+
- Moodyโs Investor Service rating: A1
- Standard and Poorโs rating: A+
- Comdex Ranking: 84
Additionally, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company has an A+ rating with the BBB, with 37 customer complaints in the last 3 years, all resolved.
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Products
AXA is focused on retirement, investments and life insurance.
Retirement
- Individual Retirement Accounts
- Variable Annuities
Investments
- Brokerage and Advisory Accounts
- Mutual Funds
Life Insurance
- Term Life Insurance
- Whole Life Insurance
- Universal Life Insurance
- Variable Life Insurance
- Survivorship Life Insurance
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AXA Life Insurance Policies
Although many so called financial “experts” try and lump life insurance into term life vs whole life, the reality is it is much more nuanced. AXA Life Insurance Company offers four types of coverage, term, whole, universal and variable.
Benefits of Term Life Insurance
- Lower Initial Cost
- Income Protection
- Mortgage Protection
- Conversion Option
Benefits of Permanent Life Insurance
- Buy Sell Agreements
- Key Man Insurance
- Estate Planning
- Executive Bonus (Section 162) Plans
- Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plans
- Split Dollar Life Insurance
- Infinite Banking
AXA Life Insurance Policies [Plans and Features]
Term Life Insurance
AXA’s BrightLife Termโ product provides temporary coverage, with available terms of 1, 10, 15 and 20 years. The policy is convertible term life insurance, which allows you to convert your term policy to permanent coverage. With level premiums you do not need to worry about increasing premiums during the policy term.
The advantages of term life insurance are a lower initial premiums while you are young, leverage dollars into death benefit, specific tailored term lengths to cover measurable assets, such as a mortgage.
Permanent Life Insurance
Whole Life
AXA’s Interest Sensitive Whole Lifeโ provides guaranteed cash accumulation, guaranteed fixed premiums and a guaranteed death benefit. The policy is ordinary life insurance offering level premium payments until age 100.
Universal Life
AXA offers 2 different universal life products, BrightLifeยฎ Protect and BrightLifeยฎ Grow. Universal life insurance provides flexibility, allowing you to adjust premium payments and the death benefit. These universal life products are in the indexed universal life category, which allow you to allocate a portion or all of your premium payment into indexed accounts or a fixed account.
AXA BrightLife Grow Indexed Universal Life allows you to choose from eight indexed options, in one year or three year options. You also can choose between two different death benefit options, including level death benefit or increasing death benefit, which you can swtich back and forth based on your own goals.
Variable Universal Life
AXA offers 2 VUL products,IncentiveLife Optimizerยฎ III and IncentiveLife Legacyยฎ III. Variable Universal Life provides the flexibility of universal coverage but with the ability to earn potentially higher returns due to the investment portion of the policy. With VUL, you can choose to allocate your premium to stock, bond, international and money market subaccount investment options.
Long Term Care Services Riderโ
AXA offers long-term care insurance protection through its Long-Term Care Services (LTCS) Rider (in FL, the rider is called โLong-Term Care Insurance Riderโ. In CA, the rider is called โComprehensive Long-Term Care Riderโ). It is available on AXA’s single life UL and VUL policies.ย The rider provides the ability for you to obtain a monthly benefit by accelerating the policy’s death benefit to pay for qualified long-term care expenses if your are diagnosed with a qualifying chronic illness.
AXA’s long-term care life insurance provides the benefits of life insurance, including cash value accumulation and a lump sum death benefit, combined with long-term care insurance to provide for the costs associated with LTC services.
Additional Benefits of Permanent Life Insurance
Tax free life insurance policy loans
Tax free life insurance loans are available, using your cash value as collateral. You can borrow directly from the insurance company. Another option is to borrow from a local bank that might provide more favorable terms on your loan, increasing your potential for positive arbitrage.
Tax deferred cash value growth
IRC 7702 governs cash value life insurance, and under the code, cash value accumulation grows tax deferred. And if you utilize the policy correctly you will never need to pay taxes on the cash value growth.
Tax free death benefit
The life insurance death benefit is not taxable in most situations. However, one way a death benefit is taxed is if your estate exceeds the federal estate tax exemption limit, which is $11.2 million in 2018. If you have a large estate, careful asset protection planning is necessary.ย
AXA Life Insurance Review Conclusion
AXA is one of the top insurance providers in the world. The company does a lot of things really well. If you have questions or would you like to see an illustration of AXA or any of the other top cash value life insurance companies we represent, please give us a call today for a free life insurance consultation with an advanced markets professional.
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16 comments
Pam
trying to reach a US Customer Service Representative and having a really hard time I keep ending up at a call center in India. Do you have a US customer services person that could help me. Or number i can try.
Steven Gibbs
Hi Pam, it sounds like you’re trying to reach AXA directly. People sometimes get us confused with their company because we write articles about companies. You’ll want to make sure you’re on AXA’s website directly.
Best, Steve Gibbs, for I&E
William Burnfield
I have a MONY life insurance policy that I need information about. I can’t even find a telephone number for AXA Financial, whom acquired MONY.
Please help me.
SJG
Hello William,
I can only give you what is available to my knowledge on Google since we simply wrote an article here and aren’t otherwise connected to AXA.
Below is my search result.
If it isn’t correct perhaps they can point you in the right direction:
Axa/Customer service
1 (888) 292-4636
Best, Steve Gibbs
Steven Gibbs is a licensed insurance agent, and the following agent
license numbers of Steven Gibbs are provided as required by state law:
Resident License; AZ agent #17508301,
Non-resident Licenses: TX agent #2273189, CA agent #0K10610,
LA agent #769583, MA agent #2049963, MN agent #40563357,
UT agent #655544.
Daniel Schafer
I am a client and am amazed that I cannot send a secure message when logged in.
Am I missing something? I have jumped through a few hoops just trying to change ownership of my policy. Support person that answered my call today was very helpful, and courteously listened to my war story of how 40 years ago when I sold insurance, we could change ownership with a one-page formโI received 9 pages from you with little instruction whether or not I had to fill out all the pages.
Your written correspondence was not helpful. Another sore point: You have on file a W-9 from the new owner from when I started this process and was told we have to submit a new formโwhy? It has his name, address, signature, SSAN and nothing has changed. Of course, he doesnโt live with us, so now I must go to him, or he come to me for what? This type of thing is how you get a bad service rep.
SJG
Hi Daniel, it looks like you’re trying to reach AXA. We aren’t them, and sometimes people get confused because we write articles about various companies. You’ll need to go back and make sure you’re on their website and connect directly with their customer service team.
Best, I&E Pro Team
Edward Kunco
I have Equitable shares. Where can I send them to sell.
SJG
Hello Edward, you would need to contact Equitable directly about this. We are a private company and write articles about various companies and are not affiliated with them, although we may have agents appointed to write policies for certain companies. So, I suggest you search and contact the company’s customer service team directly.
Best, Steve Gibbs for I&E
John Dickson
I have policy by Equitable Number…need to speak with an agent/advisor regarding this policy, please.
Thank You.
John
Insurance&Estates
Hello John, sometimes people get us confused with their life insurance companies due to the fact that we write articles about them. If you’re looking for information about your policy, you’ll need to make sure you’re connecting with the company directly.
Best, Steve Gibbs, for I&E
Dana Gillett
I would like to pay my life insurance but misplaced my statement.
Insurance&Estates
Hi Dana, sometimes people get us confused with their insurance company because we write articles about many. It looks like you may be looking for AXA and we recommend you go directly to their website or if you worked with an agent then to them directly. Best, I&E
Ruben P Lopez
I have a retirement plan with you account number account # 60400015674077 NYN. I need form for 2019 indicating how much AXA MONY paid me . You may call me at 516 752 3998 or email me thanks R Lopez
Insurance&Estates
Hello Ruben, you’ll need to check and make sure you’re accessing AXA or whoever the administrator on your account is by making sure you are on their website. We can a lot of people who think we’re them because we write articles about various companies.
Best, I&E
John Brown
I’m just a regular guy, simi retired, my money isn’t going anywhere but I don’t have anyway to keep an eye on loss gain. Is there anyway I can see a graft/ spreadsheet of how my investment is doing on a regular basis? Thank you JGB
Insurance&Estates
Hello John, sometimes folks get us confused with their company because we write a lot of articles. It looks like you’re trying to contact AXA directly, so just make sure you’re on their website with their direct contact information.
Best, I&E