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Guardian Life Insurance Review
By Cassidy Horton MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Guardian Life is an established life insurance provider for individuals, families, and businesses. It has an AM Best ranking of A++, which is the highest you can earn in the industry. It also ranked above average in JD Power’s 2022 customer satisfaction survey. However, some of Guardian Life’s products may be more expensive than those from the best life insurance companies. And its website is frustratingly vague about policy terms and limits.
Table of contents
- Guardian Life Insurance’s services
- Guardian Life Insurance’s credentials
- Guardian Life Insurance’s accessibility
- Guardian Life Insurance’s customer satisfaction
- Guardian Life Insurance vs. the competition
Guardian Life Insurance overview
Guardian is a mutual life insurance company founded in 1860 in New York City. It has over $90.2 billion in assets under management as of 2021, and its offerings include life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, annuities and retirement plans.
NOTE: A mutual life insurance company is one that is owned by policyholders. This means that if you purchase a life insurance policy through Guardian Life, you might receive some of its profits via annual dividends. In 2021, Guardian Life paid out $1.1 billion in dividends to its policyholders. And although they’re never guaranteed, Guardian Life has consistently paid out dividends since 1868.
Guardian Life Insurance’s services
Guardian has three primary types of life insurance products: term life, whole life, and universal life.
What it offers
- Guardian term life insurance is for families that need temporary coverage (for instance, to help protect you financially until you pay off your mortgage or get the kids through college). It comes in 10-, 15-, 20-, and 30-year terms, and death benefits range from $250,000 to $5 million.
- Guardian whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance designed to protect and provide for your loved ones after you’ve gone. It has a cash value component that grows over the life of the policy, so it can be used as an asset for retirement or other financial needs. Guardian’s whole life insurance also earns dividends, which can be used to reduce policy costs or provide additional coverage.
- Guardian universal life insurance offers flexible protection that can adapt to the changing needs of your family. This type of life insurance also builds cash value that you can use for future needs, like retirement or college tuition.
Guardian Life Insurance coverage
If you’re wondering about the term vs whole life insurance question, the good news is that Guardian Life offers both. What’s the difference, exactly? This table breaks down both types of Guardian Life policies:
| Policy types | Term length | Coverage | Optional riders |
| Term life policies | 10-, 15-, 20-, 30-years | $250k — $5 million |
|
| Whole life insurance policies | Permanent | Varies |
|
What it doesn’t offer
Guardian Life presents customers with a wide array of policy options, but the company still has a few drawbacks. Mainly, there’s limited policy information available online about its whole and universal life policies. And although you can get a term life quote online, you must still speak with agent if you want to purchase it.
Guardian Life Insurance cost
Guardian Life is known for being more expensive than other life insurance companies. Here’s how its monthly premiums stack up against Haven Life, which is consistently rated the best life insurance company for term life policies.
| Description | Guardian Life | Haven Life |
| 30-year-old female | $27 | $22.94 |
| 40-year-old female | $40 | $35.14 |
| 30-year-old male | $35 | $25.03 |
| 40-year-old male | $51 | $44.51 |
*We calculated these rates based on a $500,000, 20-year policy. Rates are accurate as of December 2022.
As you can see, Guardian Life can cost as much as $10 more per month depending on your age, gender, and health history. Over the life of a 20-year term policy, that can add up to thousands of extra dollars in premiums.
Guardian Life Insurance cash value
Whole life policies from Guardian Life come with the added benefit of cash value, which can be thought of as a savings account that grows in your policy over a period of time. As long as you continue to make your policy payments, the cash value accumulates, and you can use it for future financial obligations — like retirement income, college tuition, or a down payment on a home. But you should be aware that if you withdraw too much cash in one year, you could be subject to surrender charges.
Guardian Life Insurance’s credentials
Guardian Life sells life insurance nationwide. It has been given an A++ rating for its financial stability, according to AM Best. This is the highest rating an insurance company can receive, and it’s a testament to Guardian Life’s financial strength.
Licenses and registrations
Guardian Life—formally known as The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America—is licensed to sell insurance in all 50 states. If you’d like to look it up for yourself, its North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 64246.
Awards and certifications
In 2019, Guardian Life won the “Best Overall Governance for a Private Company” award at the Corporate Secretary’s Corporate Governance Awards in 2019. The company puts a huge focus on its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact. So if supporting a company that’s dedicated to giving back is important to you, Guardian Life may be a good fit.
The company was also named the “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” in 2021. It scored a perfect rating on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index.
Regulatory or legal actions
At the time of publishing, we were not able to find any regulatory or legal actions taken against Guardian Life.
Guardian Life Insurance’s accessibility
Guardian Life insurance is available nationwide. While customers can get a term quote online, you must speak with a financial representative in order to actually purchase a policy. You must also speak with a representative if you’re interested in a permanent life insurance quote.
Availability
Although Guardian Life’s policies are typically managed online and over the phone, the company has sales offices in the following cities:
- Appleton, WI
- Bethlehem, PA
- Holmdel, NJ
- New York, NY
- Pittsfield, MA
- Spokane, WA
Contact information
You can speak with a Guardian Life customer support representative by calling 1-888-482-7342 (1-888-Guardian).
User experience
At this time, Guardian Life doesn’t have a mobile app, so you have to log into your account via a web browser to view your information. You also must call an agent to complete your application or cancel your life insurance policy. That said, the company has plenty of resources on its website to help you learn more about your coverage.
Limitations
Guardian Life doesn’t appear to offer 24/7 customer service, so you may have to wait until the next business day to speak with an agent. Additionally, its website lacks detailed information about its coverage options, which can make it harder to compare its policy features with other companies.
Guardian Life Insurance’s customer satisfaction
Guardian Life has won third-party awards for its customer service, but there are very few customer reviews online to back it up.
Customer complaints
We were not able to find many customer reviews online for Guardian Life. However, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received 173 complaints about Guardian Life in the past three years, yet the company has an A+ rating from the BBB.
The majority of complaints filed with the BBB were related to customer service issues, such as slow response times and lack of helpful customer service representatives, which is ironic considering that Guardian Life is ranked highly among third-party platforms like JD Power (as you’ll see next).
Third-Party ratings
Guardian Life ranked #7 out of 22 on JD Power’s 2022 Consumer Satisfaction Survey. When you break all the data down, the company even scored better than the industry average.
However, if you want to go with a life insurance company that has an even higher customer satisfaction rating than Guardian Life, you might want to check out State Farm. It scored the #1 spot, followed by Globe Life, Mutual of Omaha, and Northwestern Mutual.
Guardian Life Insurance vs. the competition
How Guardian Life stacks up against the competition depends on what type of policy you’re going after.
If you’re living with HIV and need term or whole life coverage, Guardian Life is definitely worth exploring. It has pioneered coverage for HIV-positive applicants and has a special underwriting process to help you qualify for up to $2 million in coverage.
If you don’t need a death benefit that big, Ethos has guaranteed issue whole life coverage for up to $25,000. (Ethos’s whole life policy is also available to older individuals between the ages of 65 and 85.)
If you’re an otherwise young and healthy individual, you might find more flexible and affordable coverage by shopping around with other insurers, such as Haven Life, Ladder, or even PolicyGenius, which is an online marketplace that lets you compare quotes from several providers at once.
| Guardian Life | Haven Life | Ladder | Ethos | |
| Term length | 10-, 15-, 20-, or 30-years | 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-, or 30-years | 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-, 30-years | 10-, 15-, 20-, or 30-years |
| Policies offered | Term, whole, universal | Term | Term | Term, whole |
| Coverage amount | $250,000 to $5 million | $100,000 to $3 million | $100,000 to $8 million | $20,000 to $2 million |
Guardian life insurance FAQs
How we evaluated Guardian Life Insurance
When we researched Guardian Life, we looked at its financial strength ratings, customer service ratings, and policy features. We also considered customer reviews and complaints that were available online. We found that Guardian Life is an established insurer with strong financial ratings, but its customer service record was less than stellar, despite its rating with JD Power and Associates.
Summary of Miami Herald’s Guardian Life Insurance review
The bottom line is that Guardian Life offers a wide range of individual life insurance policies with plenty of coverage options. Some of its term life policies don’t require a medical exam, and its whole life policies come with the added benefits of dividends and cash value that can be used for future needs. However, Guardian Life’s less-than-stellar customer service and lack of detailed information online may be a turnoff for some. For these reasons, it may be best to see how Guardian Life’s insurance options compare to the best life insurance companies before making a decision.
Cassidy Horton is a finance writer based in Seattle, Washington. With an MBA and a bachelor's in public relations, her work has been published over a thousand times by The Balance, Finder.com, Money Under 30, Clever Girl Finance, and many more. Cassidy is a self-confessed money nerd who’s passionate about helping people find financial freedom. Oh, and she really loves cats.