Ladder Life Insurance Review: History, Products Offered, and Pros & Cons

Last Updated: December 9th 2021

If you are considering Ladder for term life insurance, you have come to the right place.

In our review below, we will cover essential aspects of Ladder Life Insurance including coverage options, how to purchase a policy, and what makes the company unique.

We will also provide a list of other top life insurance companies to compare rates and help you find the right carrier.

• About Ladder Life Insurance
• Ladder Life Ratings
• Life Insurance Products Offered by Ladder Life
• What Makes Ladder Life Insurance Unique?
• How to Apply for Life Insurance with Ladder Life
• Pros & Cons of Choosing Ladder Life
• Compare Ladder Life to Other Top Rated Companies

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About Ladder Life Insurance

Ladder is one of the startup life insurtech companies in the market.

Currently, Ladder markets life insurance products to consumers between the ages of 20 and 60. Ladder initially launched in California in January of 2017. Since 2017, Ladder has expanded nationwide.

History of Ladder Life

Being only a few years old, certainly makes Ladder one of the newest companies in an extremely competitive market with other well-known giants such as MetLife, Protective Life, among others.

Ladder was founded by Jamie Hale, Laura Hale, Jeff Merkel, and Jack Dubie and originally was founded to help fill a void where consumers can purchase life insurance quickly online and without much hassle.

How Ladder Life Insurance Works

Ladder chose a creative and catchy name to describe how they offer and market products to consumers. The idea is simple. Picture your life insurance as a ladder. As your needs decrease, Ladder will allow you to step down your coverage and adjust your premiums on the fly, meeting your needs while keeping your cost consistently lower.

This is, of course, assuming your needs don’t increase, in which case you would be “climbing back up” the ladder in coverage and increasing your monthly premiums.

Ladder doesn’t depend on physical locations to market products and allows consumers to go online or call the company directly to purchase and learn about life insurance options.

Typically, companies like Ladder will run this model and dump a heavy portion of the budget into marketing dollars.

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Ladder Ratings

Financial strength ratings help consumers to get a good idea as to how financially stable a life insurance company is and how likely they are to pay claims to loyal policyholders.

Here are the ratings for Ladder Life Insurance:

• A.M. Best: N/A (see below)
• Affordability Index: 7.6
• Ease of Applying: 9.8
• Customer Service: 9.1
• COMDEX Ranking: N/A

A.M. Best is the industry benchmark for financial strength in the life insurance industry. The other three metrics are based on a number of factors including our industry knowledge of Ladder compared with other companies. The COMDEX ranking is a composite score that considers A.M. Best and other top ratings agencies.

Learn more about our process for reviewing life insurance companies here.

It should also be noted that all of Ladder’s term life policies are issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York which currently hold an “A+” financial strength rating – affirmed October 2021.

Overall, financial strength is not something you should be concerned with when considering Ladder Life.

BBB Ratings and Consumer Complaints

Ladder does not currently have a BBB rating.

According to Trust Pilot, Ladder Life is recognized with a 4.8/5 for overall customer satisfaction. This is based on consumer reports that the process is easy and a great experience.

Overall, it may be a bit too early to tell what complaints may surface in the future, but for now, it appears Ladder is offering excellent service and an easy to use platform for consumers.

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Life Insurance Products Offered by Ladder

Now it’s time to take a dive into the products offered by Ladder Life Insurance Co. The only policies currently available to purchase with Ladder Life are term life insurance policies.

• To qualify for the term policies, you must be between the ages of 20 and 60.
• The minimum life insurance coverage amount is $100,00.
• The maximum life insurance coverage amount is $8,000,000.
• You can choose 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30-year terms.

No Exam Coverage Offered by Ladder

Direct to consumer models, such as Ladder Life, are based around the no-medical exam life insurance products. This simply means that if you can be approved for coverage, you won’t need to undergo a medical exam.

Other life insurance companies use this same model, except they still require a licensed life insurance agent to sell you the product physically.

Examples include other powerhouse life insurance companies such as:

• Foresters Life Insurance
• Sagicor Life Insurance

The problem you run into with companies like Ladder  is that they often state that you are going to go through a quick and easy process. However, pre-existing health conditions are going to come back to negatively affect the outcome.

Ladder guarantees no medical exams for up to $3M in coverage – as part of the online application, you will need to answer a few health questions.  If you’re applying for more than $3M in coverage, Ladder may request a medical exam based on your health background. If that’s the case, Ladder may have to have a registered medical professional pay you an office visit or home visit to complete an exam that includes test such as the following:

• Blood Pressure Readings
• Height
• Weight
• Pulse
• Medical Questionnaire
• Medication History

Rates for Ladder Life Insurance Coverage

Ladder is known for its unique term policies and offers competitive rates for those products. It is one of the only companies that allows you to renew a life insurance policy for either one year or five years, depending on your preference.

For the duration of the term you choose to renew for, your policy premiums will be locked in at one price, so you never have to worry about your rates changing.

However, failure to renew will either result in increased premiums after 1 or 5 years or the life insurance policy being canceled/lapsed.

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What Makes Ladder Life Insurance Unique?

Three things make Ladder Life unique and give them an edge over the competition.

Ladder’s Online-Platform Makes it Easy & Convenient to Purchase Life Insurance

First, they have a top-tier online platform for purchasing life insurance. The downfall to this platform is that life insurance isn’t necessarily easy to understand for all consumers. Many people still prefer to work with a knowledgeable expert when deciding about their protection and purchasing life insurance.

You Can Increase or Decrease Your Coverage

Secondly, we love that you can drop down coverage or apply to increase coverage as your needs increase or decrease. This is rare and not something you see other life insurance companies currently offering to consumers.

You Can Renew Your Policy for 1 or 5 Years

Lastly, we like and believe the ability to renew your policy for 2 different durations is unique. The ability to renew for one year isn’t necessarily unique and is often referred to as Annual Renewable Term life insurance with other reputable companies. But the ability to choose 1 or 5 years is something you don’t see very often in the marketplace.

Optional Life Insurance Riders Availability with Ladder

This is a downfall of Ladder. Currently, they don’t offer any unique riders you can add to your policy for an additional premium per month.

While riders aren’t always necessary to add to your coverage, they can certainly be beneficial.

Who Should Consider Ladder Life?

Ladder is a good company to get a quote from if you are healthy and looking for term life insurance.

If you prefer to work purely online, and value convenience, they’re a great option. Also, always remember that they only accept individuals ages 20-60. If you fall out of this age group, you will have to consider working with another life insurance company instead.

Ladder is not a great company for individuals with a long list of medical conditions. The expedited and fully online purchasing platform for life insurance often comes with stringent underwriting guidelines. This makes it very difficult for anyone to get life insurance that may be taking medications, have prior hospitalization, or that have other major health issues.

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How to Apply for Life Insurance with Ladder Life

Applying for coverage with Ladder is about as easy as it gets. To begin, you can use the handy calculator on Ladder’s website.

This will help you determine how much coverage you will need since you are skipping the step of working with an independent agent. After you determine your desired coverage amount, you can simply begin applying, which is going to ask you a series of personal demographic questions, followed by a series of lifestyle and health questions.

Based on the answers you provide during this phase will determine if you are approved, require additional underwriting, or if you are entirely declined for coverage altogether.

What If I’m Declined Life Insurance Coverage with Ladder?

This is perhaps the biggest problem of working with a company such as Ladder.

If you are declined for coverage, you don’t have many alternative options. Well, no options that Ladder will necessarily assist you with. This is one of the reasons we always recommend working with an independent life insurance agent instead.

The likelihood of being declined for life insurance for some individuals is high. When this happens, having a life insurance agent who can continue to shop your case with high-risk life insurance companies is a great benefit.

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Pros & Cons of Choosing Ladder

Anytime we review a company, we like to compile a list of the most significant pros and cons of choosing them.

Pros

Here are what we believe to be the most significant benefits of choosing Ladder Life.

• Fast and Easy Application Process
• Competitive Rates for Healthy Individuals
• Unique Term Life Insurance Products Available

Cons

On the flip side, all life insurance companies have flaws. Here’s what we believe to be the biggest downfalls of choosing Ladder.

• Bad for High Risk or Unhealthy Individuals
• Only Offers Coverage for Ages 20-60
• No Help from an Independent Licensed Life Insurance Agent

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Compare Ladder to Other Top Rated Companies

Regardless of what company you choose for your life insurance, you should always do your homework.

Compare rates and options with several life insurance companies before ultimately making your decision. It’s your best chance at getting approved for coverage and your best chance at being approved at affordable and competitive rates.

Be sure to compare Ladder to our 10 best life insurance companies or find reviews on over 50 companies and agencies here, before making your decision.

Here are some other companies to review that offer no medical exam life insurance policies.

• Sagicor Life Insurance
• Foresters Life Insurance
• SBLI Life Insurance
• Bestow Life Insurance
• Fidelity Life Insurance

Ladder Insurance Services, LLC (CA license # 0K22568; AR license # 3000140372) offers term life insurance policies: (i) in New York, on behalf of Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York, New York, NY (policy form # MN-26); and (ii) in all other states and the District of Columbia on behalf of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Minneapolis, MN (policy form # ICC20P-AZ100 and # P-AZ100). Only Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York is authorized to issue life insurance in the state of New York.  Insurance policy prices, coverages, features, terms, benefits, exclusions, limitations and available discounts vary between these insurers and are subject to qualifications.  Each insurer is solely responsible for any claims and has financial responsibility for its own products.