What you need to know about Colonial Penn:
Colonial Penn is a life insurance company based in Pennsylvania that offers term life insurance and permanent life insurance to people 18 – 85.
Colonial Penn Life Insurance typically markets to the senior market using Alex Trebek as their national spokesman in print and TV advertising.
As a sister company to Bankers Life and Casualty Company, CNO Financial owns Colonial Penn wholly as a subsidiary. Also, in the state of New York, Bankers Conseco Life Insurance underwrites all of Colonial Penn’s life insurance offerings.
Before you make a decision about going with one of their policies, you should learn a bit more about what Colonial Penn is actually offering.
The three types of policies Colonial Penn offers:
- Guaranteed Acceptance Life insurance
- Renewable Term Life Insurance
- Permanent Whole Life Insurance
Below is a more comprehensive breakdown of each policy type:
Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance
Policy Details:
- Available for ages 50-85
- No medical exam, but still requires answers to health questions
- They can’t cancel your coverage
- Graded benefits for the first two years
- Locked in premiums
- Maximum benefit of $20,000
Considerations:
As with any guaranteed issue policy, insured’s run the issue of outliving their policy. To clarify, here’s a helpful formula to consider:
Death Benefit / (Monthly premium x 12) = How Many Years Until You Outlive Your Policy
Alongside that consideration, the benefit of this policy is also very low compared to others. Moreover, the graded death benefits mean that only a portion of the benefit will pay out if the insured dies in the first two years of their policy. In addition to the possibility of outliving your policy, these considerations should give you plenty to think about in terms of their guaranteed acceptance policy.
Renewable Term Life Insurance
Policy Details
- Available for ages 18-75
- No medical exam
- Builds a cash value component
- Rates increase as insureds get older, based on specific age brackets
- Guaranteed renewable until age 90
- Up to $50,000 of coverage available
- Coverage is not available in Maine, Montana, New York, or Vermont
Considerations:
What’s notable here is that even though this policy offers the added convenience of no medical exam, it has some issues. Specifically, the $50,000 coverage limit is very low compared to many other options that are available. In addition to the spotty availability based on your state, you may be better served looking at other term offerings.
Permanent Whole Life Insurance
Policy Details:
- Available for ages 40-75
- No medical exam
- Builds a cash value component
- Premiums based on health and age when the policy starts
- Maximum benefit of $50,000
- Coverage is not available in Maine or Vermont
Considerations:
Similar to both the term and permanent policies, the maximum benefit here is a lot lower than comparably priced policies. Moreover, the policy also has variable premiums depending on your health when you apply.
Colonial Penn Life Insurance Pricing
Colonial Penn products for seniors are priced HIGHER than the similar products offered by competitors, as demonstrated below:
Alternatives to Colonial Penn Life Insurance:
The following example is for $5,000 in Guaranteed Issue coverage for non-smoking 65-year-old male in California.
|  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level Premium (fixed premium) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum Benefit Without Health Questions | $7,040 | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| Health Questions? | No | No | No |
| Medical Exam? | No | No | No |
| Premium | $56.53 per month | $44.78 per month | $44.81 per month |
| Percent Savings | 21% savings | 21% savings |
Colonial Penn Insurance Review
Customer Satisfaction
Colonial Penn Life Insurance does have a few blemishes regarding overall customer satisfaction. To clarify, Colonial Penn has had 42 complaints filed against the company in 2017 per NAIC, which is higher than average for a life insurance company. It’s worth noting, most of these complaints were surrounding premium refunds regarding their Guaranteed Issue policies. Click on the logos below to read more reviews on the company.
Who Is Colonial Penn Life Insurance Best For?
Based on customer reviews, pricing, and underwriting practices Colonial Penn is best for customers who cannot get guaranteed acceptance life insurance from any other life insurance company.
Many other companies like Gerber, AIG, and Mutual of Omaha offer equal or better quality guaranteed issue and final expense products at prices that are up to 33% less than Colonial Penn. In addition, the maximum benefits on their term and whole life offerings are significantly lower than many competitors as well.
As always, we highly encourage all customers to get quotes from other companies prior to purchasing any form of insurance. That is to say, prospective insureds will likely find more coverage at a better premium if they shop around.
If you would like to shop around more, True Blue Life Insurance has helpful agents who are ready to help find you the best life insurance coverage. You can review the offerings we have listed on our final expense insurance page here. Instead, if you’d like to reach us directly, give us a call at (866) 816-2100.
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J. R. January 22 2019 I do not see how Colonial Penn Ins. is still in business. They are trying to scam me now. I do have an attorney, that is more then willing to help me. He is my brother-in-law and it will not cost me a anything, and he is real good. Alex Trebek should be ashamed of himself helping Colonial Penn scam people especially seniors. I guess dose not matter how rich he is he still wants more even at the cost of seniors. I am highly disciplined in him. You will be hearing more from me. Disciplined
About 3 yrs ago a young male knocked on my door. I don’t open my door to unexpected strangers, dangerous. But there’s a message on my door about how to call me if there’s an emergency, and he used it and called me fifteen minutes later, tried to sell me Colonial Penn! I said, you’re not an emergency, I’ve never contacted your company, and I want your company’s 800 number to complain. He wouldn’t give it to me! I got it elsewhere and called the company three times, and they hung up on me three times.,. They claimed I had called them THREE YEARS EARLIER! and that they were just now following up, because they don’t like to “leave loose strings.” What honest insurance company waits three years to follow up on a lead? And I don’t need, and never will need, insurance. They LIED. I contacted their State agency that handles insurance, and registered a formal complaint. They said lots of others complained about this company’s weasely tactics, too. And I can’t stand that TV ad they saturate the airwaves with, using Trebek as if old people trust him… he’s just a paid spokesman. I don’t watch shows like his, and the ad is irritating, condescending and patronizing. Saturates the airwaves all day! Be careful, if you do need insurance find another, more honest company. They tried to GASLIGHT me into thinking I had called them three years previously! I’ve never called them or any other insurance company, I don’t need it!
Do not do business with this company. They are quick to take your money out monthly for dues but when you actually have a claim for a death, they give you the run around in what types of documents you need to send them, once you send the paperwork they asked for, they need additional paperwork. You wait for the so called claims dept to process your claims and it takes 14 business days the customer service dept says. I have waited for 2 months now! You have to keep calling and you get shuffled all over the place with people who you can hardly understand!!! Finally spoke to supervisor, A***** F***** (redacted by admin for privacy) who didn’t sound like he was very thrilled to be bothered. He actually hung up on me and said that he is rejecting my call because i raised my voice!!!
Spend your money elsewhere. It is devastating to lose a loved one, then having to spend time and effort on the phone to get the insurance claims dept to release your money that you are entitled to is a pain in the behind.
Hello, can you cancel your policy for a full refund?
Hi Cassie!
I don’t know of any case where a policy like what Colonial Penn offers would offer a full refund. Similar to how auto insurance works, even though you didn’t file a claim during that month, they still provided coverage for you during that time. The only policy that gives you a full refund is a Return Of Premium term life insurance policy.
Hope this helps!
-Luke
Colonial Penn are a bunch of [admin edit] and liars, they’re great when you don’t have any contact with them for years while they’re taking money out of your bank account years, but it’s a whole different ball came when you try to cancel your policy and get the money they owe you and stop them from taking money out of your bank account, they say they sent the paper to close the acct to your address you had when you opened the acct even though you haven’t live there for years even when you give them your current address, I could go on and on, put there’s not a big enough page here, lets put it this way these people that work the phones for Colonial Penn are totally incompetent and rude. these people are crooks if you do business them you’ll be sorry. BAD BUSINESS!!!!
I wouldn’t buy your insurance if I needed it! It’s probably good insurance–but seeing Alex promoting same on “ME TV” 8 times a day,
day after day saying PRICE PRICE PRICE I tune him out.You should have an alternate ad every once in a while. But GREED in all companies win out. Wonder how many other people feel the same? You are not the only company doing this–they all do it.
Hi Charles!
There may be some confusion, so I just want to clearly state that we are not Colonial Penn and that you echo the sentiment of many seniors out there.
Colonial Penn uses TV advertising as part of their mass media marketing to attract the attention of seniors and there are many seniors in your position who are tired of seeing these commercials nonstop. This is why we offer products that are not only more affordable options, but we also don’t advertise this way either.
I encourage you to check out what companies we represent, pick a policy that works best for you, and reach out if there are any questions you may have.
-Luke
Charles, I agree with you. Also, who pays for that commercials? However, Alex is quite good on Jeopardy. That should be enough income alone. Just my observation.
I am honestly upset over this false advertisement, I will turn them in to bbb.. they state you cannot ever be turned down,,well let me tell you they turned me down,,,,i will spread this word about this insurance company. its false advertisement.
It’s not good insurance. Read the reviews on this website.
No, but they ARE the worst! In terms of their ads, and in terms of their business practices!