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American Fidelity offers a variety of health and extended benefit coverages as well as financial products. Although some products are marketed to individuals, American Fidelity typically sells its policies through employers; policies and coverage can be purchased through an AFA plan administrator once an employer has partnered with the company.
Insurance Products
Life Insurance
AFA offers several different life insurance plans for both adults and children. Term policies are sold in increments of 10, 20 and 30 years, with rates being based on the length of the term and the policyholder’s age and health. Permanent life insurance, which includes an investment component, provides a guaranteed death benefit up to age 100.
Anyone considering purchasing life insurance should read our post about why term life is better than whole life.
Health Insurance
American Fidelity does not sell any major medical insurance. It does, however, provide a variety of supplemental benefits coverages that can augment a major medical policy. For example, the company sells cancer, accident and critical illness insurance, which help to cover the costs associated with these serious conditions. Disability income insurance is also available for customers who lose the ability to work due to a serious accident or injury.
In addition to these benefits, AFA also offers flex spending accounts, health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts. These act as supplements to major medical insurance. In the case of flex spending and health savings accounts, customers can set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for medical expenses.
A health reimbursement account, meanwhile, allows employers to reimburse employees for their medical expenses, including major medical premiums, while enjoying tax benefits. A reimbursement account can be used in addition to or in lieu of employee-sponsored health insurance.
Additional Products
Aside from insurance products, AFA also offers financial products for retirement. These include Roth IRAs and several types of annuities. A Roth IRA allows individuals to put money aside after tax to grow for retirement, when it can be disbursed tax-free. An annuity, meanwhile, provides guaranteed income throughout a customer’s retirement in exchange for regular tax-deferred investments.
Although AFA sells its policies through employers, individuals are able to keep the policy after leaving a job. All AFA policies are similarly portable.
American Fidelity Assurance Price (Rates)
Our premium rate tests are currently done using auto insurance, which American Fidelity does not sell. Therefore, premium price will not be used in determining the overall score for this review.
Claims
American Fidelity has a variety of forms on its website for customer use depending on the type of claim being filed. After choosing the product, state and industry, you will be directed to the appropriate claims form. The form can then be downloaded, filled out and mailed or faxed to the company.
Alternatively, customers can file claims and contact their representatives by phone. Each industry serviced by AFA has a separate customer service line, so it’s important to check the website to confirm which number to call. Customers can also direct inquiries through their employer to be placed in contact with the plan administrator.
Consumer Research and Complaints
American Fidelity Assurance has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 1975. It has an “A+” rating on the site. The BBB site lists 14 complaints against the company in the last three years, with three having been closed in the past 12 months. Of these, most have been issues with the product or service; one recent complaint is from a customer who had waited several weeks for a response to a disability claim and did not receive the amount he had expected. Details are not available for the other complaints.
Financial Strength
| Rating Company | Grade | Financial Outlook |
|---|---|---|
| AM Best | A+ | Stable |
| Fitch | N/A | N/A |
| S&P | N/A | N/A |
Bottom Line
American Fidelity Assurance offers a number of different life and health insurance related products, though they do not sell major medical insurance directly. Their products can be great companions to most medical coverage plans, and many of them are portable if established through an employer. Their Better Business Bureau rating is above average, and according to AM Best their financial strength is strong.
For a list of companies that we recommend, visit our Best Insurance Companies page.
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Review Information
I am a former insurance agent and banker turned consumer advocate. My priority is to help educate individuals and families about the different types of insurance they need, and assist them in finding the best place to get it.
Brian Hayes says
This company sucks. You pay money up front for a health savings account, then they freeze your card everytime you use it. Try another insurance company
Jarrett says
Totally agree. This has been so frustrating. It feels like a total scam. They lock up YOUR money and make it difficult to use the card so you won’t use it all. I will never again use this company!!!!!!!!!
Mary Smiths says
I have their disability insurance in California for school employees. We are only paid for days of required attendance, so it does not include holidays or weekends. When I received back pay from my retirement, which pays 365 days a year, they figured the offset using the gross amount and calculated it by using the number of days they paid me for. This left me owing them more then I actually received in retirement back pay. I appealed it and since they handle the appeals in house, of course they denied it. If you do not send them the back pay they just stop paying you until it is worked off, so there is nothing you can do about it. How can I owe them more then I received when my retirement back pay covered 188 days they did not pay me for!?!
Dennis says
I’ve been waiting 9 weeks on my disability claim they said it would take 5-7 days this is very unacceptable today is 4-3-2015 last time they posted anything on my account was 3-11-2015
Anita says
I’ve been also waiting for my disability check I have not received anything and I started my disability claim March 3 and we are in May they are giving me the runaround
Tina says
I feel like I am never going to get paid for a truly legitimate disability claim, they have sent me over 9 letters implying that I had a preexisting condition and was secretly seeing an outside doctor and I need to give them the information they need in order to speed up the process. Nothing like adding insult to injury.