Bestow Review: Term Life Insurance With No Medical Exam

Getting traditional life insurance can be a hassle. When my husband applied for his a couple years ago it took him months of back and forth phone calls, letters, and multiple medical exams. The whole experience was so bad it put me off from applying for life insurance because I didn’t want to go through that process too.  

Recently I discovered many life insurance companies now use technology and big data instead of traditional underwriting methods like physical exams.They’ve made the process so easy that I finally applied for my own term life insurance outside of work. I applied through Bestow and today I’m reviewing my experience along with sharing why you should apply for life insurance and some factors to consider.  

If you are looking for life insurance without having to do a medical exam, and are between the ages of 21 and 54, then you might want to get a free quote from Bestow. Bestow offers quotes quickly for term life insurance and the whole process is done online. Keep reading to learn about my experience and more on how they manage to do this.    

Why I applied for life insurance 

If I learned one thing from the recent pandemic and job uncertainty, it was the need to get life insurance outside of work. 

For months I’ve had viewers leave comments on my YouTube channel suggesting I get life insurance outside of what I carry at my job. I brushed them off because I’m still young and my job has been very stable and very secure… until March 2020. Within a week I wondered if I would be laid off and lose not only my job, but my life insurance too. 

I knew I needed to apply for life insurance outside of work but I’d been putting it off for a long time because I didn’t want to do a medical exam or a lot of paperwork with personal questions. My husband applied for life insurance with a traditional life insurance company a few years ago and it literally took him months to get qualified and get the policy started. Watching that experience made me drag my feet even though I knew I needed life insurance especially as a mom. 

Because I’m a typical millennial I started looking for online life insurance companies that would offer traditional low-cost term life insurance without all of the hassle that could sometimes come  with traditional life insurance companies.  

Why should you apply for life Insurance? 

Life insurance is an amazing tool that can provide protection for your family in case of the worst situation where you would pass away.  

Life insurance is one of those things most of us ignore for far too long for various reasons, from not having the extra money in the budget to not wanting to deal with the frustrating process of applying. It’s all too easy to push off applying for life insurance when you know you have to answer a ton of questions and have a medical exam.  

Luckily more and more companies have realized that people are avoiding life insurance because the traditional process can be so complicated and frustrating.  

Enter Bestow, a newer online company that leverages technology to give a quote in minutes for 10 and 20 year term life insurance policies.

What is Bestow? 

Bestow ​says it’s on a mission to make term life insurance “simpler and more human”. 

They are working to make the process of purchasing life insurance faster and less painful for consumers by eliminating many of the traditional obstacles. Bestow focuses on big data to underwrite their insurance policies  rather than requiring medical exams and bloodwork. They use the information from your application and data about you with their algorithm to decide if you qualify and at which price.  

The goal at Bestow is to provide life insurance to people in minutes not weeks (or months in the case of my husband’s experience with another company).  

The policies from Bestow are provided by North American Company for Life and Health Insurance® which is rated ​A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best​, which is the second highest rating available out of the 15 categories A.M. Best rates. 

What kinds of life insurance does Bestow offer? 

Bestow has a  range of life insurance policy options with coverage from $50,000 to $1,000,000. They have 10 year terms and 20 year terms that are designed to fit your needs. 

Bestow only offers term life insurance which is a plus since it’s the only kind of life insurance I would personally consider or recommend.  

You can apply for a 20-year policy if you’re 21 to 45 and for 10-year policies, the age range is 21 to 55. 

What if I’m not super healthy? 

I’ll be honest, my weight and not being very healthy is something that held me back from applying to get traditional life insurance. I went with life insurance through my employer because I knew it would be automatically issued regardless of my health status. I’ve tried for years to lose weight unsuccessfully and this made me delay purchasing life insurance. 

I encourage you to apply for life insurance through Bestow even without perfect health. The company does apply screening for major diseases like heart disease, cancer, HIV, etc, but you can apply to see if they have a policy that is right for you. If not, then traditional insurance might be the better route to take.

How much life insurance do I need? 

Life insurance needs vary from person to person and you need to take into account personal information about your specific situation. 

For example if you are healthy, young, single and have no dependents then you might not need life insurance.  However, if you have a kid or four then you definitely need to get life insurance to make sure your children are taken care of if the worst happens. 

In my personal opinion at the bare minimum life insurance should cover having your home mortgage paid off and multiple times your annual salary.  Many experts recommend 10-12 times your annual salary for life insurance.  

How much does coverage offered by Bestow cost? 

I personally decided to get roughly 7 times my annual salary with this policy because I do also have another life insurance policy through work and we have a mortgage balance on the lower end.  

For me and my specific details this means my $300,000 policy will cost us roughly $33 per month. I’m very happy with this price point. It might not be the lowest rate possible but it was reasonable, something we could afford, convenient to get, and removes the worry of not having any life insurance outside of work. 

Life insurance starts at $8/month. Worth getting a quote to see if you qualify for those kinds of rates.  

My Application Experience With Bestow 

The application process with Bestow took under 15 minutes from start to finish. I know because I recorded it for a video.  

Side note: I also know that it took less time than my husband too to take a trip to the gas station. When he returned I told him I got life insurance and it was done which blew his mind after having a month long process to get his policy with another company. It was almost comical to explain I got my life insurance so easily.  

What I liked about applying for life insurance through Bestow: – Fast quotes. It only took a few minutes to get my quotes for life insurance. – All online applications. I rarely like to do anything that requires phone calls or mailing in something so an all online life insurance application fit my preferences. This made it super convenient to apply during a statewide stay at home order too! – Affordable. The rates were less than I expected based on what I thought I’d pay with no medical exam and were very affordable. This might sound like a weird reason, but I use a lot of all online companies to get the best rates but I like to know that it’s not a fly-by-the-night company that will disappear. Policies offered by Bestow are provided by a big name in the life insurance industry – North American Company for Life and Health Insurance ®. 

Final Thoughts On Bestow

If you don’t have life insurance it may be worth it to get a free quote with Bestow. (Or even if you do have life insurance already – I’m making my husband get a quote to see if he can get better rates or not).  

Applying for life insurance through Bestow might be right for you if you don’t want the hassle of a doctor’s visit, blood test, or medical exam in order to get life insurance.  If you are anything like me these things may have put you off getting life insurance for far too long.  

Because Bestow doesn’t require a medical exam in order to get life insurance they might not be able to offer you the lowest rates possible. While Bestow is affordable, other companies might offer lower rates if they fully underwrite each quote with actual medical information from an exam. Bestow still offers competitive rates so you’ll have to check to see if you qualify for a term life insurance policy at a great rate. It is worth it to check out multiple sources if monthly premiums are your biggest concern with life insurance. 

If you are extremely healthy you may want to shop around to find out if you can get a better rate elsewhere after providing your information and undergoing a medical exam.

Bestow was a good fit for me and my situation but you have to weigh the options against what fits your situation personally.