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Haven Life Insurance Review
By Jacob Clifton MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
When seeking out the best life insurance rates and companies for you, it helps to be familiar with the basics of life insurance. Then you need to determine which life insurance providers are the best choices for you. Some factors you may consider include how easily you can get a policy with minimal hassle and cost.
In this article, you’ll learn everything there is to know about Haven Life, which promises simplicity in life insurance, including well-priced policies, especially to applicants who are in their 30s and 40s.
Haven Life Insurance overview
Haven Life is a digital insurance agency startup that operates as a subsidiary of a more conventional and older insurer. If you’re worried about if it’s safe to buy life insurance from a startup, Haven Life’s insurance is issued by MassMutual — one of the country’s oldest insurers. This helps ensure Haven Life’s stability.
- Discounts and perks, depending on the plan
- Good rates for those in their 30s and 40s
- Accelerated death benefit available
- Not available to anyone 65 and older
- Rates for customers in their 50s and beyond may be higher than some other companies
- Can't convert simple plans to permanent life insurance
Haven Life Insurance coverage
Haven Life Insurance coverage is easy to navigate, since the company does not offer a plethora of products. Also, in some cases, no medical exam is necessary with a Haven Simple policy. That means you will instantly have coverage upon your application’s approval.
However, if you are looking for a policy with many options for add-ons and riders, you might want to consider other companies. Haven Life’s array of offerings is lean.
What a Haven Life insurance plan offers
Haven Life offers term life insurance. There are two main products available and a few add-on riders that provide payments in the event of death.
The first plan is Haven Simple, a simple-issue policy that may not require a medical exam. The second is Haven Term, a more conventional term life insurance policy.
Haven Life has two riders available, but neither is available to Haven Simple policyholders. The first rider is an accelerated death benefit rider meant specifically for those diagnosed with a terminal illness during their period of coverage. The second rider, called Haven Life Plus, is a collection of discounts, services and other offerings (more on this below).
Because Haven Life is a startup, the company says you can reap the benefits of the company’s agility and low overhead with lower premiums and the most efficient customer service. You can apply for and manage policies online, which can ease the process of getting and understanding life insurance.
What a Haven Life Insurance plan doesn’t offer
Haven Life does not offer whole or permanent life insurance. Additionally, unlike some other term-insurance providers, Haven Life offers no way to convert their term policies into permanent ones that last for your entire lifetime.
Haven doesn’t offer medical, car, renters or pet insurance, either — only the two life insurance products listed above.
Types of coverage plan options available
You may be wondering what term life insurance is and how it differs from whole life insurance. The answer to the first question is pretty simple: Term life insurance is guaranteed for a given term, or period of time — usually around 10 to 20 years. On the other hand, whole life insurance usually lasts for a lifetime and is often more expensive than term life insurance.
A person covered by a term life insurance policy pays into their plan for the duration of the term. In exchange, they’re guaranteed to receive a predetermined death benefit should they die within the policy’s term.
When the term ends, they will either decide to renew the plan, end the coverage or, as long as the insurance company offers it, convert their term insurance to whole life insurance.
However, as Haven Life does not offer whole life insurance, through a conversion, you can only buy and renew term coverage. If a policyholder has Haven Life coverage upon their death, their coverage will stop at the end of their insurance policy’s term — no money will be returned to their beneficiaries.
Below, we discuss Haven Life’s two main plans, Haven Simple and Haven Term, in more detail.
Simple Term Life Insurance
Haven Simple is a simplified-issue life insurance product. That means the application process for the policy is much less involved than with most other life insurance products. It takes place online, and typically no physical exam is required. (However, the latter will ultimately depend on your state of health at the time of your application.)
What is no-exam life insurance? In short, it’s an insurance policy that doesn’t require you to go through the sometimes tedious process of getting a medical examination before you can get coverage. While it’s easier and quicker than regular insurance, no-exam life insurance tends to have lower and more limited coverage options than policies that require an exam.
Even if Haven Simple likely won’t require a medical exam, you’ll probably have to provide information on your overall health and medical history. Note that it’s important to be honest when you’re asked health questions when applying for any term life insurance policy or even when checking term life insurance rates. Underwriters designing your policy need to know exactly what they’re dealing with, and any discrepancies in your answers that come to light later may affect the death benefit payout to your survivors.
Haven Simple is available in 5, 10, 15 and 20-year terms, meaning that the benefit is in place — and will become available upon death — for the term length that you choose. Haven Simple offers up to $500,000 in coverage, and you must be between 20 and 55 years old to qualify.
Standard Term Life Insurance
Haven Life’s prime offering, Haven Term, is available in 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30-year terms. Like the simple term plan, Haven’s term life insurance is renewable.
Haven Term offers up to $3 million in coverage. Haven Term also provides what’s called an accelerated death benefit, in which the policyholder can, if diagnosed with a terminal illness, access a portion of their death benefit (up to 75% in some cases) while they’re still alive.
Haven Life Insurance accessibility
For Haven Term, you must be 64 or younger to qualify. For Haven Simple, the age to qualify is 55 and under. We explore some additional considerations below.
Extra add-ons
Haven Life is a lean digital agency that offers very few products. Beyond the riders (which are listed below) no additional services or features are available. That said, there may be complementary policies within the larger MassMutual family of insurers. However, the company does not emphasize these in its materials or website.
Availability
Haven Simple is not available in California, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota or New York. However, Haven Term is available across the country. To apply for either type of policy, one must be living in the United States of America and can be neither active nor enlisting in the military.
Riders
Riders allow you to customize an insurance policy with special features. At Haven Life, two riders are available for Haven Term policies. There are no riders available to Haven Simple policyholders.
- Accelerated death benefit rider: Typically, 75% of your benefit amount (or $250,000, whichever is smaller) becomes available if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Exercising the rider may lower your premiums and can cost up to $250 to access.
- Haven Life Plus rider: This add-on includes a fitness app, a 15% discount at CVS MinuteClinics and other minor perks. One major benefit is access to a digital will, where you can make your wishes clear, designate beneficiaries and assign assets in the event of your death.
Note that the Haven Life Plus rider is not available in Florida, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota or Washington.
Dividends
Yearly dividends are a yearly return on whole life premiums paid at the end of the year and are not guaranteed. Because Haven Life does not offer whole life insurance, there are no dividends to be paid.
Quotes
Haven Life insurance quotes are available on almost every page of the agency’s website. Enter your birthday, sex, general state of health and a few other markers. Then, you can see a real-time quote on which you can follow up.
Quotes that you initially receive in your first contact with the company website may be exceeded by the eventual real premiums. This is because life insurance rates tend to increase as you age — typically, around 10% per year. (Once you actually take out a policy, however, the premiums will remain stable for the lifetime of the policy.)
Haven Life Insurance customer satisfaction
The premiums for Haven’s term life policies measure up to some of the best in the business, probably due in part to their lack of overhead in being a digital-first agency. Customers, as seen below, are generally very positive about the company’s offerings and application process, but less so with service after applying for a policy, which in some instances is described as difficult.
Company contact information
You may contact the company at:
Haven Life
60 Madison Ave, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10010
1 (855) 744-2836
There’s also a live chat option and a contact form on the website, although some customers have complained that they can be non-responsive.
Third-party ratings
Haven Life has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2016, and the Haven Life BBB rating is A+. The Ethisphere Institute named MassMutual one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2021. That same year, the Human Rights Campaign gave MassMutual, the company that issues Haven Life, a 100% Corporate Equality Index rating for the eighth year in a row.
As of June 2022, Haven Life has also received additional outstanding third-party financial strength ratings:
| Third Party | Company Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A.M. Best | A++ | Superior |
| Fitch | AA+ | Very high quality |
| Moody's | Aa3 | Excellent |
| Standard & Poor's | AA+ | Excellent |
Customer complaints and reviews
The question anyone might ask before applying for these policies is whether Haven Life is good for its policyholders. It may seem like a simple question, but the answer to this actually depends on several factors.
However, overall, Haven Life is well-reviewed by its customers. Haven Life Insurance reviews on Trustpilot average 4.4 stars, with 85% of reviewers giving the life insurer a 5-star rating and only 4% under a 4-star rating.
Negative reviews all state that getting in touch with customer service can be difficult or impossible. Some reviewers with health concerns or other mitigating circumstances seemed frustrated with long waits for acceptance after they’d sent in their applications. Many reported waiting longer than the general two-week period the company claims for most applications.
How we evaluated Haven Life Insurance services
We gathered and assessed information on the company from Haven Life’s and MassMutual’s websites, the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot consumer reviews.
Summary of Haven Life Insurance review
Haven Life is a BBB-accredited digital agency that operates as a subsidiary of MassMutual, a traditional life insurance carrier. Haven Life offers two term life products, Haven Simple and Haven Term.
The former is a simple issue policy that may not require a medical exam. It only offers up to $500,000 in coverage, and the latter is a conventional term life insurance plan that can insure you for up to $3 million.
The company’s customer service is generally well-regarded compared with the marketplace as a whole. If you want a simple-issue or term life insurance policy with minimal hassle, Haven Life may be a good choice for you.
