Haven Life Review – Affordable Term Life Insurance

Haven Life offers an easy way to buy high-quality, affordable term life insurance online. Check rates and buy term life insurance in all 50 states, online and in under 30 minutes with no medical exam.

Pros & Cons

For years, buying insurance was considered a necessary hassle. Few people want to think about what might go wrong in the future, let alone spend the time to find the right insurance at the right price. 

Traditionally, insurance was purchased through a licensed insurance agent.

You and your family would sit down with the agent, discuss your coverage needs, shop different policies, go through a medical exam, and after a few weeks, receive a policy in the mail.

While many still shop for insurance this way, the nature of buying insurance is transforming. 

Consider these stats from the 2021 Insurance Barometer Study.

• “Most adults own life insurance; 52 percent own some type of life insurance (e.g., individual or group coverage).”
• “almost half of consumers (48%) say they are more likely to purchase coverage because of the prospect of simplified underwriting, including 42% of uninsured Americans. More than half (55%) say they like the idea of avoiding seeing a doctor and undergoing a paramedical exam..”
• “Nearly half (42 percent) of all households would feel adverse financial impacts within six month if a primary wage earner died”

Tech-savvy companies are turning the insurance industry on its head. Technology is transforming insurance with many startups entering the field looking to make big plays.

Everything from drone-based property inspections — and much more.  The big players like State Farm and Liberty Mutual are taking note.

Today’s consumers are demanding quotes in just a few minutes and the ability to purchase a policy from the living room — all without a medical exam. Enter Haven Life.

Haven Life is one of a handful of life insurance companies that are disrupting the insurance industry.

Haven Life is a direct-to-consumer insurance broker using the powerful tech of the digital age to drive down costs for term life insurance.

They offer immediate, transparent quotes, and prices not bloated with middleman fees. 

About Haven Life?

Haven Life is a new breed of insurance companies that offers term life insurance exclusively online. 

With the emergence of financial technology (fintech) companies and growing consumer demand for online purchasing, more companies are turning to technology to cut costs and increase efficiencies.

One such industry ripe for disruption is insurance. Firms like Haven Life are have turned to artificial intelligence algorithms to replace costly actuaries.

Haven Life has placed a stake in the ground at term life and uses advanced analytics to offer low rates for individuals 18 to 64 years of age.

Haven Life offers direct-to-consumer life insurance policies underwritten by insurance heavyweight MassMutual.

You, the consumer, get easy access to a quote and a policy in under 30 minutes, all without the fees, markups, and upselling of a traditional insurance agent.

More importantly, Haven Life allows many customers to skip the medical exam typical of term life coverage.

This process, called accelerated underwriting, uses technology to assess whether a medical exam is required. For the young and healthy, this means no exam. For others, an exam may still be required. 

Haven Life has maintained a good reputation with customers since its inception.

At the time of writing, the firm carries an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and an A+ rating with over 1,000 reviews with TrustPilot.

Read on to learn more about Haven Life’s claim: “Simple, online experience for buying really great term life insurance.”

Company Background

What began as an in-house startup of insurance giant MassMutual quickly grew into an insurance trailblazer.

Headquartered in New York City, the company was founded in 2014 by investment and insurance maven Yaron Ben-Zvi. Ben-Zvi, struck by how far behind insurance was in the fintech revolution, committed to bringing fast online term life to the masses.  

The company, technically a direct-distribution startup, is wholly owned by MassMutual, a top-ten insurance firm that has been around a long time — over 160 years and counting.

According to Crunchbase, the company has continued to grow, with a 2018 purchase of Quilt, a competing fintech company that offered term life and renters insurance. 

Marketplace Competition

Given the entrance of Haven Life and other fintech firms into the insurance space, a new term has arisen to describe companies using technology to disrupt insurance: insuretech.

“Sure technology can make insurance cheaper. But it can also make it easier to understand, buy and manage.” reports a 2018 Forbes article on the entrance of insuretech and its benefits. 

With established need and growing consumer engagement with insuretech, companies and startups are all trying to get a piece of the pie.

Scrappy startups focused on term life insurance are direct competitors.

Larger, more established firms are the indirect competitors, those that have been around a long time but might not have embraced the digital revolution or younger consumers. 

Reviews and Ratings

When considering a term life insurance policy, it’s important to make sure the company backing the policy is financially healthy.

As a sub-organization of MassMutual, Haven Life is underwritten by this top-ten insurance company.  But who is MassMutual and, more importantly, how well do they stack up to other insurance firms? 

MassMutual, along with other insurance giants, is ranked yearly by several leading ratings organizations. 

Ratings:

• A.M. Best Company: A++ (Superior; top category of 15)
• Fitch Ratings: AA+ (Very Strong; second category of 21)
• Moody's Investors Service: Aa3 (High Quality; fourth category of 21)
• Standard & Poor's: AA+ (Very Strong, second category of 21)
• JD Powers 2018 life insurance study: about average
• Better Business Bureau: B

Credit agency ratings are an important indicator as to the financial health of an insurance company and should be considered when purchasing a term life policy that may continue for 10, 20, 30 years or more.

Haven Life Features

How Does Haven Life Work?

Haven Life is a modern direct-to-consumer term life insurance provider. 

Through the clever application of technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze reams of industry data, Haven Life can offer ultra-low rates with no fees in under one hour — start to finish. 

The Haven Life secret sauce comes in the form of an algorithm that acts like an actuary, taking in industry data and comparing it with each applicant.

The system then determines what monthly term life insurance rate applies to the applicant based on a series of questions.

Unlike applying for term life insurance in the pre-digital age, Haven Life has removed the need for a medical exam for some of its (relatively healthy) customers. 

Lighting Fast Quote

Getting started with Haven Life policies is fairly straightforward. With just a few simple questions, such as general health and policy coverage amount, you can get a quote.

Haven Life then offers a listing of real policy prices for customers that are similar to you, and the amounts that each was charged.

For example, a 40-year-old male in excellent health was offered the following policy prices:

• 10-year, $1,000,000 policy - $31.83 per month
• 20-year, $500,000 policy - $33.03 per month
• 30-year, $300,000 policy - $37.07 per month

The best part is you can do all of this without signing up. 

Take the Plunge — Purchasing a Policy

If you’ve decided to purchase a life insurance policy, you’ll need to gather a list of required documents.

The process should take the average customer less than an hour, with some able to complete the questionnaire in as little as 20 minutes. You will need:

• Address
• Income
• Net Worth
• Employment Status
• Military Status
• Criminal History
• Driving History
• Travel Plans
• Tobacco Use
• Alcohol Use
• Health History
• Social Security Number
• Driver’s License Number and expiration
• Current height and weight
• Personal and family medical history

Follow along as we walk through Haven Life’s application process in five easy steps.

The Policy and Rider Benefits

Haven Life has created a simplified policy with very little hassle. What you get is fairly straightforward. The policy includes the following features:

• Fixed rates for the length of the policy
• Accelerated death benefits, which allow the policyholder to withdraw a portion of the benefits in the case of a terminal illness
• Commission-free
• Fully digital process, requiring no paperwork
• Clause to renewable the policy after expiration (at a higher rate)

Curious what a policy looks like? Haven Life offers a sample policy for review.

Riders are additional insurance options often attached to an insurance policy, usually for a fee.

Haven Life offers six riders at no additional cost.

• Trust & Will (One year free). Online service for creating legal and valid individual or joint wills fast.
• Living Benefits. An accelerated death benefit that releases a portion of your death benefit while you are still living if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness.
• Aaptiv (One year free). Audio-based fitness app that offers different workouts synced with music.
• Timeshifter (One year free). Create a personalized travel plan to alleviate jet lag.
• LifeSite (Free subscription for six free). Secure online file cabinet for storing sensitive family documents.
• MinuteClinic (15% discount on any single service). Family health service clinics available in CVS Pharmacy and Target stores.

How Much Life Insurance Should I Buy?

An important question many consumers face is how much insurance to purchase.

If you are just beginning to shop for insurance, or if you have questions about why you may need insurance and how much to buy, start with this free life insurance calculator.

The calculator will estimate your required insurance based on anticipated final expenses, outstanding mortgage, outstanding debts, and requirements for your children. It will also help you decide whether Haven term life insurance or permanent life insurance is right for you.

Why do people purchase life insurance? Below are some of the reasons life insurance is purchased.

1. Income replacement for you or a spouse
2. College tuition for your children
3. Mortgage payments for your family
4. Funeral expenses for you or a loved one
5. Children’s expenses, in general

Term life insurance policies aren't right for everyone. Consider purchasing insurance if:

• You have kids or will soon
• Are married or in a committed relationship with shared financial responsibilities
• Have debt, such as a mortgage or student loans
• Need money to cover funeral or final expenses
• Want a financial legacy for loved ones.

Haven Life vs. Competitors

Should You Get Life Insurance From Haven Life?

Shopping for term life insurance in 2024 just got a whole lot easier with insuretech companies like Haven Life.

Browse for and buy life insurance on your terms, without the hassle of a middleman or the high-pressure selling tactics characteristic of much of the insurance agency.

The Haven Life Insurance Agency has set the bar for a better way to buy term life insurance, all backed by a stable, reliable, top-ten insurance company. 

Those interested in learning more about term life, including how much a monthly premium might be, should consider Haven Life.

With about an hour of work, you can have a policy that covers you and your family, while also having access to a wealth of extras, like a free online will and trust service.

The conclusion of our Haven Life insurance review? Haven Life has made purchasing life insurance easy — so take a look and buy you and your family some peace of mind.