Is American Fidelity Life Insurance Legit?

American Fidelity Assurance serves a variety of specific markets with insurance products. Specifically, this privately-owned company focuses on four markets – education, public sector, automotive, and healthcare. Within those markets, employee benefits like life insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, and other coverages are available. Also, the company offers reimbursement accounts, retirement savings, and other services.

With a long history in this industry, American Fidelity was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. With this article, we’ll take a look specifically at the life insurance products available from American Fidelity so you can gain a better understanding of what they offer and how they might serve your needs.

Table of Contents:

• Types of Life Insurance Offered by American Fidelity
• Riders Available from American Fidelity
• Notable Features of American Fidelity Assurance
• American Fidelity’s Financial Ratings
• American Fidelity Company Reviews

Types of Life Insurance Offered by American Fidelity

The life insurance offerings from American Fidelity are focused on two common types of coverage – term life and whole life. These are standard forms of life insurance that are offered by virtually every life insurance company, so the terms are likely familiar to you if you have any experience shopping for policies. For a refresher, let’s quickly define these two kinds of life insurance –

• Term life insurance offers coverage for a pre-determined period of time. If the covered individual is still living at the time that the policy expires, no payout is made, and coverage ceases.
• Whole life insurance, as the name would indicate, does not have an expiration date and is guaranteed to pay out when the covered individual dies. Since there is a guaranteed return along with this type of policy, it will be costlier than a term life option.

So, with those definitions out of the way, we can look at some of the details associated with term life and whole life coverage from American Fidelity. First, we can talk about the term life coverage that is offered. Terms are available at 10 years, 20 years, and 30 years. The rate of this coverage is guaranteed to remain the same for the duration of the initial term, and that rate will be based on the age of the individual requesting coverage.

When looking at whole life insurance, the rate is available based on age and again will not change for the duration of the policy. That duration runs to age 121, so the rate is going to remain the same as long as you are paying it. One notable difference between whole life and term life with American Fidelity is that the whole life coverage also offers a cash value that you can use for a variety of purposes. So, when considering the differences in rates, it’s worth remembering that the cash value of the whole life policy comes into play.

You don’t necessarily have to select between term life and whole life when making your life insurance plan. It’s possible to hold policies in both categories, so you have plenty of flexibility when trying to sort out your financial planning in this area.

Riders Available From American Fidelity

A rider, in insurance-speak, is an additional enhancement to the standard coverage offered by a policy. In some cases, you can add riders at no cost, but often they will add to the price of your policy. With American Fidelity, several riders are available for an additional charge to add benefits to your life insurance policy. Picking out the right riders for your needs is a personal matter that will depend on your own circumstances, goals, etc.

The riders available on your American Fidelity life insurance policy will vary, but some of the most commonly seen riders in this industry include the following:

• Accidental death. In the case of accidental death, a policy with this rider will not only pay out the amount due based on the policy, but also an additional amount as described in the rider.
• Family income benefit. The one-time payout from a life insurance policy can be a big help to a family dealing with the unexpected loss of a loved one, but that payout might not be enough to last over the years. Adding a family income benefit rider to a policy will attach an additional, ongoing payment to the plan that can be used to cover living expenses.
• Long-term care. Living in a nursing home can be expensive and covering those costs may be a challenge without some form of an insurance payout. Adding this type of rider is one way to protect against the unexpected cost of this type of ongoing care.

Careful planning should go into the decision of what riders to add to your policy and which to leave behind. Given the fact that an additional cost will be tacked onto your premiums when you add riders, only select those that are relevant to your life and would be beneficial for your family if they come into play.

Notable Features of American Fidelity Assurance

With so many different options available for life insurance, what is it about American Fidelity that warrants your attention? In this section, we’ll touch on some of the features that may encourage you to look in their direction.

Perhaps the most notable feature of American Fidelity is simply the amount of time they have been serving the market. Any business that has been around for more than 60 years and proven that they are doing a lot of things right to continue to earn the trust and business of their customers.

Another noteworthy feature is something we mentioned earlier in this article – the focus on this business on serving four specific markets. American Fidelity places an emphasis on serving the employees in education, the public sector, automotive, and healthcare. It’s important to note for employees in those sectors that they will own the policy they take out, so that policy can go with them even after leaving their current employment. So, getting a life insurance policy through American Fidelity is still worthwhile even if you plan to leave your current job at some point – the policy can go with you without any trouble.

American Fidelity’s Financial Ratings

It’s important to look into the financial ratings of any company you may use for life insurance. After all, you want to feel confident that the company will be able to pay out should a claim need to be made. Even with a company like American Fidelity, which has been in business for decades, it’s still good to check on this key point.

On this point, American Fidelity checks out nicely. A.M Best Company is a leading insurance rating service, and they have provided American Fidelity with an A+ rating since 1982. That is nearly four decades of a top rating, so there is no reason to worry about the financial position of this insurer.

American Fidelity Company Reviews

One of the many advantages of living in our modern, high-tech world is having access to endless streams of reviews from other consumers. You don’t have to take a company’s word for what they will provide – you can turn to reviews to get a good understanding of how they really perform in the real world.

Looking around the web for reviews on American Fidelity provides some useful insight. For starters, the company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and has been accredited with the BBB since 1975. Reading through some of the various consumer reviews will reveal complaints about the difficulty of getting a claim approved, but this is an issue that is common across the insurance industry. It’s best to take an overall view of a company’s profile before making a decision, rather than relying on the opinion of just a few disgruntled customers.

Is American Fidelity Assurance Legit?

Yes, American Fidelity is a legitimate option for life insurance, as well as a variety of other products. With a history that dates back more than 60 years, you can trust that this is a suitable place to secure the policies you need to protect your family. Whether or not American Fidelity is the right choice for you will depend specifically on what you need in a life insurance policy, and what other kinds of coverages and services you may require.