Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Company Review & Complaints: Life & Medicare Supplement Insurance

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Georgia-based Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Company is an insurance company focused on serving the senior market. To that end, they offer life insurance and a variety of supplemental medical insurance options, including Medicare Supplement.

Our Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Company review will give you everything you need to know about Bankers Fidelity Medicare supplement plans, nursing facility care coinsurance, monthly premiums, Bankers Fidelity’s financial strength, and customer reviews.

Before we get started, use the box above to find affordable comprehensive coverage plan options to help with your medical costs from insurance companies near you.

What is Bankers Fidelity?

Bankers Fidelity was founded in 1955 in Atlanta, Georgia, and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of another local company, Atlantic American Corporation, in 1975. Today the insurer serves 46 states through the original insurer as well as a subsidiary, Bankers Fidelity Assurance Company, which was originally known as Direct Life and was acquired in 2014.

The insurer writes an array of supplemental products designed to provide financial protection to senior citizens. They write standard term life insurance and whole life insurance plans as well as final expense policies for seniors. Their medical supplement coverage includes short-term care, cancer care, and Medicare Supplement plans, which we have reviewed separately here.

Bankers Fidelity products are sold through independent agents across the nation, and the headquarters remains in Atlanta.

What Products Are Offered?

As previously noted, we have already reviewed this provider’s Medicare Supplement program, so we will focus mainly on life insurance plans in this review, with a look at other medical supplement policies as well. Product availability varies from state to state; we looked at plan availability for the company’s home state of Georgia for the purpose of this review.

Life Insurance

The insurer offers a level term life insurance policy with term lengths of either 10 or 20 years. This product can be issued between the ages of 18 and 65, with a face value between $25,000 and $250,000. The policy can be renewed on an annual basis after the initial term up to age 95 or can be converted to a whole life policy up to age 70. Riders for this policy include an accidental death benefit, children’s rider, and waiver of premium.

Final expense insurance is offered with three different plans. The first two plans are the preferred and standard whole life plans, which are similar but have different rates based on health information. These plans both have immediate, full death benefits that are payable tax-free to beneficiaries. Both plans include an accelerated death benefit rider as well as a waiver of premium rider automatically.

The Graded Death Benefit plan takes three years to build up to 100% death benefit, paying 25% the first year and 60% the second. 100% is paid immediately in the event of accidental death.

Final expense plans have face amounts ranging from $3,000 up to $25,000. As whole life insurance products, all of the three plans will build cash value over time.

Medical Supplement Plans

The insurer writes both Cancer Care and Short Term Care policies to provide financial protection in the event of an illness.

Short Term Care plans are available with the choice of 180 or 360-day coverage, and daily benefits ranging from $20 to $300. These plans are renewable for life, and full benefits are restored six-months after any covered confinement. The lifetime benefit on these plans is two times the selected benefit period.

Cancer Care Solution is a product offered to help with the costs of a cancer diagnosis or for any other expense you may choose through a first diagnosis lump sum payment. The plan includes $50-90 per day for hospital stays and $100-600 for chemo treatments. There is also a Specified Dread Disease rider with an increased daily hospital benefit of $250.

Are the Rates Competitive?

The insurer does not offer an online quoting option. There is, however, a form that can be filled out in order to request a quote. This requires entering contact information that may be used for solicitation, something many insurance shoppers prefer to avoid.

Companies like Bankers that focus on a specific market, particularly the senior market, tend to rely on traditional methods of bringing in new business. It is not surprising that the insurer does not offer online quoting, but it’s certainly something more and more insurance customers are expecting to see even from smaller companies.

How Are Claims Handled?

The website does not offer a dedicated space for information regarding the claims process; we were only able to locate the contact information on the main contact page. This provides simply the phone number, mailing address, and email address for the claims department.

There does not appear to be claim forms available online, nor can claims be filed electronically. It is possible these options are available to customers when logged into an account, but we are unable to verify that. This sort of approach to claims seems to miss the fact that beneficiaries, who likely don’t have personal login information for the insured, file most life insurance claims. There is a toll-free number, however, which should provide beneficiaries access to the information they need.

Ratings and Consumer Reviews

Bankers Fidelity – not to be confused with Bankers Life, which is a different company – does not appear to have a Better Business Bureau (BBB) record. This is unusual for a company in business since 1955. Atlantic American Corporation, the parent company to Bankers Fidelity, is currently not rated by the BBB, although a file exists.

We found very little in the way of information or customer satisfaction reviews on this company’s reputation – no reviews on any of the usual consumer sites or any other common review locations.

The Bottom Line

Bankers Fidelity is the type of traditional insurance company that likely brings in most business through existing client-agent relationships and word of mouth, as well as direct solicitation. Since we do not have rate information and there is little to go on in terms of reputation, we are unable to offer a clear opinion on this insurer. That said, it is unlikely that this provider will compete effectively with larger, direct buy insurers on rates, but it may appeal to those who like a more personal approach.