American Heritage Life Insurance Company

A United States Based Life Insurer that is owned by the Allstate Corporation.  This Florida Insurer has an AM Best A+ Financial Strength Rating.  Although not a household name, millions of Americans trust in the American Heritage Life Insurance Company for their insurance needs.

The American Heritage life insurance company is a life insurance company that is owned by the Allstate Company. The company does business as Allstate Benefits.  They offer Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Dental Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Vision Insurance.  The products are typically sold by Captive and Direct Allstate Insurance Agents.

The company is marketed under the name Allstate Benefits and is available in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and a few its territories.

The Insurer was founded in 1956 in Florida.  In 1999, the Allstate Corporation purchased the American Heritage Life Insurance Company for about $900 Million, says  CNN. "For Allstate, the buyout of American Heritage Life - whose activity is focused in the Southeast -- accelerates the planned diversification of its product lines and taps into what the Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer sees as a solid growth opportunity."

The Insurer now uses the marketing name of Allstate Benefits.  Not much other public information concerning this insurer is available readily.

As with many direct captive insurance companies getting your life or health insurance through American Heritage is often a good deal if there are significant discounts stacked on top of your auto and home insurance policies.

In other words if you can get a big discount, it might make sense to purchase it from this company. However with all home auto life discounts, the devil is in the details.  In other words, how (exactly) does the math work out?

Best candidates for policies through this insurer are more than likely those that already have a home and auto insurance policy and are able to save with ample discounts.  However consumers should ask lots of questions about any insurer that they are doing this with. Exactly how do the discounts apply, what is the  rate?  Do the insurance discounts apply to just the life policy?  Just the home policy ect?  I have seen examples whereby small $50,000 term policies can make good sense.

However for larger policies, those that are over that amount or $100,000 it is best to shop around.

There are two main reasons to consider shopping around, one obvious, one not.

The More Obvious Reason to Shop:

Its always possible that a different life insurer will offer a term policy for a lower base rate.  Once you have the term quote (base rate) from Allstate Benefits, you can use our quoter to the left to ascertain this information.

 The Less Obvious Reason to Shop:

Buying life insurance is all about Class.  The Life Insurance Health Class that is.  The life insurance health class is a general category classification level that life insurers use to position you with regards to pricing.  This concept is a bit difficult to explain but its is significantly important.  One insurer may accept you at Preferred Plus pricing and another insurer may only accept you at Preferred pricing.  

In other words the base rate is not really as important as the Health Class Offered (usually.)

Here is an Example:

Preferred Plus Base Rate of Insurer A: $500 per year

Preferred Plus Base Rate of Insurer B: $550 per year

Preferred Base Rate Insurer A: $600 per year

Preferred Base Rate Insurer B: $650 per year.

$500 vs $550

You may initially look at this example and assume that Insurer B has higher rates.  Well they do but they may not.  If insurer B is willing to offer you a policy at the preferred plus pricing while insurer A will only take you at Preferred pricing, now which is a better deal?

$600 vs $550

In the end, base rates do not matter nearly as much as people think they do. Base rates are only so useful, its the health class offered that is often the most important considerations between insurers.

Just a sampling of some of the options that consumers have from Allstate Benefits (through American Heritage Life Insurance Company).

Critical Illness Insurance: "pays a lump-sum cash benefit when the insured or an eligible family member is diagnosed with a covered critical illness." Source.

Cancer Insurance: " pays cash benefits for cancer and other specified diseases to help with the costs associated with treatments and expenses as they happen. " Source.

Disability: " pays a cash benefit to help protect an eligible individual's finances from a covered sickness or off-the-job injury." Source.

Individual Accident Insurance: "pays a cash benefit to the insured for a covered accident or injury and can help pay expenses such as copays, deductibles and treatment. Accident coverage can help pick up where other insurance leaves off. " Source.

Supplemental Health: "Can help provide a financial safety net, with cash benefits that help fill gaps left by major medical coverage associated with a hopital stay because of injury or illness" Source.

Group Accident Insurance: "Group Voluntary Accident coverage from Allstate Benefits provides cash benefits for out-of-pocket expenses associated with an accidental injury and can help you protect hard-earned savings should an off-the-job accidental injury occur." Source.

Life Insurance: "Life insurance from Allstate Benefits provides a lump-sum cash benefit upon death. Plus, life-event riders can be added to enhance the life coverage." Source. The company offers Term Life Insurance and it appears that they also offer various whole life insurance policies as well.

*Of note, their group benefits are not fully listed here as this is a consumer site.  Other Group insurances are available.

This is inevitable name in this situation.  I cannot speak for Allstate, but I believe that there are mutliple reasons.  First off, they purchased a fifty year old company which already had its own history and own products. Next, rather than having to remarket their services under a second name they chose instead to market the products under the familiar Allstate name. These are my opinions and not necessarily facts.

Other companies can do this for other reasons, many of which I do not understand. In Allstate's situation, I find it completely understandable that they have chosen to do this.  But that does not stop it from being confusing.

Direct from AM Best.com you can pull up the American Heritage Life Insurance Company.

American Heritage Life Insurance Financial Strength Rating: A+

Policyholder Surplus XV ($2B or Greater)

A Special Note: WholeVsTerm does not offer life insurance policies through American Heritage.  We offer this information to assist consumers in finding the best life insurance options.

Should you have questions about this insurer or life insurance kindly send them to us.  You can add them to the comment box below or email us directly.  scott at marindependent.com

Thank you for Reading our article.  sales @ marindependent.com

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