Compare Banner Life Insurance vs. AIG Life Insurance

Compare Banner Life insurance vs. AIG life insurance and discover which company has the right policies at the right prices to best protect your family.

If you're in the market for life insurance, Banner Life and AIG offer competitive products from reputable companies that service hundreds of thousands of policyholders and enjoy financial stability. A.M. Best rates Banner Life at A+ (Superior) and AIG at A (Excellent). Depending on your age, gender and medical history, one of these companies might be a better fit than the other. You should research carefully and build quotes from both companies before taking out a policy.

This guide compares Banner Life insurance vs. AIG life insurance in the areas of premium prices, policy types on offer and the availability of riders and add-ons.

Compare Banner Life Insurance vs. AIG Life Insurance: Monthly Premium Costs

For a healthy, nonsmoking applicant, premium costs between Banner Life and AIG are very similar across most age bands. AIG tends to offer slightly lower prices for men, but Banner Life is slightly cheaper for women.

The one exception to this rule pertains to men 50 years and older. For this demographic, average premiums are much lower with AIG than with Banner Life.

The table below lists average monthly premium costs for a 20-year term life insurance policy valued at $500,000. Keep in mind that these averages are based on a composite policyholder and might not reflect the rates you get quoted. You should always shop around and compare quotes before making a decision.

Source: Policygenius

What Life Insurance Products Can I Buy From Banner Life and AIG?

The two main types of life insurance are term insurance and permanent insurance. Banner Life and AIG offer both at competitive rates. But within these broad insurance types are many structures and formulations, and the options differ pretty substantially between the two companies. AIG offers more variations of permanent life insurance, as well as more policy riders. 

Life Insurance Products Offered by Both Companies

• Term life insurance: Term life insurance is just what it sounds like: It provides coverage for a term rather than for the rest of your life. The benefit of term life insurance over permanent life insurance is that it costs a lot less for the same coverage. The downside is that the coverage ends when the term expires, but many policyholders no longer need it at that point, usually because their kids are grown. Banner Life offers term life policies in 5-year increments from 10 to 40 years, and AIG offers 18 different formulations:
  
  
  
  • 10-year term
  • 15- to 30-year terms in 1-year increments
  • 35-year term
• Universal life insurance: Universal life insurance is a type of permanent coverage where the premiums and death benefits are flexible. The policyholder can adjust them up and down throughout the life of the policy as their coverage needs change. Another benefit of universal life is that it accrues cash value as the policyholder pays premiums each month. The policyholder can access this cash value when needed, but if they do it in the policy's early years, they might face a penalty.

Life Insurance Products Offered by AIG Only

• Whole life insurance: Whole life is the most traditional kind of permanent life insurance. Like universal life, it is meant to cover the policyholder for the rest of their life, not just for a set term. It also accrues cash value the same way as universal life insurance. It differs, however, in that both the premiums and the death benefit are fixed throughout the life of the policy and cannot be adjusted by either the policyholder or the insurance company.
• Variable universal life insurance: Variable universal life insurance is a variation of universal life in which the cash value grows through investment in stocks, money markets and other equities. This approach offers a higher growth potential but increases the risk of loss.

What Riders and Add-Ons Do Banner Life and AIG Offer?

Policy riders are a form of supplemental coverage you can add to your life insurance that provide additional benefits in certain situations. Each rider typically adds a bit of cost to your monthly premium, and many life insurance policies contain no riders at all. But it can be nice to know they're available if you need them.

Banner Life and AIG offer many of the same riders, but AIG offers one — an accidental death benefit rider — that isn't available from Banner Life. The following table details the policy riders you can get from each company.

Policy Riders Offered by Both Companies

• Child protection rider: This rider provides an additional death benefit for the policyholder's minor child. If the worst happens and the child dies while still under the age of 18, the rider pays a death benefit on the child. The benefit amount is usually enough to cover funeral expenses, taking that stress away from the grieving parents.
• Accelerated death benefit rider: This rider lets a policyholder access their death benefit ahead of time if they get diagnosed with a terminal or critical illness.
• Disability waiver of premium rider: This rider allows a policyholder who has become totally disabled on a long-term basis to stop paying premiums toward their policy without losing their benefits.

Policy Riders Offered by AIG Only

• Accidental death benefit rider: This rider pays an additional benefit upon the policyholder's death if the cause of death was a qualifying accident.

Shop Around for the Best Policy at the Best Price

When buying life insurance, you can't go wrong with either Banner Life or AIG in terms of dependability and financial stability. But as this guide outlined, the two companies have some differences in the products they offer and the customers they cater to. A financial advisor can help guide you toward the best policy at the best price for your family's needs.