SelectQuote Life Insurance Review

Updated by: Bennett Bier | Expert Life Insurance Agent | March 12, 2024

SelectQuote is all over TV and online ads, but how are they at their core business of providing life insurance policies? We’ll discuss that in this review.

The key takeaway from this article is to get your life insurance policy somewhere else.

SelectQuote pushes a limited amount of companies and their agents must adhere to a strict phone scripting process. You might as well speak with a robot to buy life insurance. So, if you’re looking for term life insurance you may have heard of Select Quote.

You’re better off comparing life insurance quotes on our website and you’ll find better rates from companies they don’t offer. You will also find that you will not receive an instant life insurance quote on their website. You will be required to have a call with a SelectQuote agent first to compare rates.

But how successful is SelectQuote, really? And what should consumers know if they’re considering their services? Fear not, we’re here to help you sort everything out with our comprehensive SelectQuote Life Insurance review.

Let me preface this by saying we know a lot of ex-SelectQuote agents and have an inside scoop on the company. You will also notice recently their stock price has plummeted. Ticker Symbol: SLQT

About Select Quote Life Insurance

Founded in 1985, SelectQuote is a ginormous agency that has prided itself on helping a large number of people across the country find the right life insurance. I would go so far as to say they pioneered the direct marketing of term life insurance.

With locations in San Francisco (Headquarters), Kansas City, San Diego and various smaller regional offices. We estimate SelectQuote has over 3,000 employees between all it’s insurance divisions with their core being life insurance. Also note that, SelectQuote does not sell life insurance in South Dakota

With that said, they’re not looking for veteran agents – they’re looking for agents that are new to the industry to train. Do you want someone new to the industry helping you find the best life insurance policy?

When you purchase life insurance through Select Quote or any other company, you typically have a 10-day free look period. During the free look period, you can review your policy documents and decide to cancel your policy or not.

And if you if you decide to use SelectQuote Life Insurance, you should take the time to determine how much coverage you need.

SelectQuote only works with companies that have high ratings or that have been given A- to A+ by A.M. Best. This ensures its stability as an organization.

SelectQuote Term Life Insurance Companies

SelectQuote offers you to choose from 11 different life insurance plans. As of March 2024, they only offer:

• Corebridge Financial (AIG) Life Insurance
• Banner Life Insurance
• Companion Life Insurance
• Globe Life Insurance
• Pacific Life
• Protective Life Insurance
• Prudential Life Insurance
• SBLI
• Lincoln National Life Insurance
• United of Omaha Life Insurance
• William Penn Life Insurance

What this means to you is your agent will have to sell you a life insurance policy from one of those companies above. It just so happens that the majority of those companies have some of the highest commissions in the industry.

There are so many reputable life insurance companies missing from their line-up of carriers that could help you in various health situations.

Everyone has different health backgrounds and each life insurance company will look at your health risk differently. It’s in your best interest to go with a company that looks most favorably at YOUR specific risk and we can tell you that often times it’s not with any of the companies listed above.

It’s worth mentioning that all the companies above are reliable in the sense that they pay out claims and have the financial strength to be around a long time. It’s just the diversity of life insurance companies that SelectQuote is missing.

Is SelectQuote Life Insurance a Scam?

No. They’re a reputable organization.

We’ve been asked this question a lot, so we feel it’s important to address that SelectQuote is NOT a scam.

If you see bad reviews from consumers online (like the SelectQuote Better Business Bureau), remember consumers always come online to complain, but rarely to compliment. Take the ratio of bad complaints to good complaints with a grain of salt.

While they’re not the best at providing the best life insurance option to consumers across the country, they are better than most captive agencies that sell only one product.

If you purchased life insurance from SelectQuote that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the policy you have. If you can get qualified for better life insurance rates elsewhere, we suggest doing so. You can cancel a life insurance policy at any time with no questions asked.

Using SelectQuote With Health Complications

SelectQuote is particularly useful for customers without any health complications like diabetes, heart complications, or any other illness.

If you’re in great health, SelectQuote Life Insurance can be a great option. What we mean by great health is that you’ve had a recent wellness exam within the last year and your cholesterol, blood pressure and you’re height/weight all are within normal limits and there are no health issue to address.

We found that for healthy Americans across the nation, SelectQuote can compete with their selection of carriers for some of the best rates available.

HOWEVER, if there has been any issues with your health. Even mental health issues and family history of cancer or heart disease, there are some carriers they’re missing that can provide much better rates in many cases.

In other words, we DO NOT recommend SelectQuote Life Insurance if you have any health issues.

As we discussed previously, SelectQuote hires agents new to the industry who don’t have the experience to find you the best life insurance company. Combine that with their smaller selection of life insurance companies and you can do much better.

After talking to some ex-SelectQuote agents, we will say that SelectQuote does have a very thorough and detailed medical questionnaire that will assist you in being as open as possible throughout this process. However, the action that they take after the questionnaire can yield better results if you have a more experienced agent with access to more companies.

Using SelectQuote As A Business Owner

Business owners and executives often require specialized life insurance services tailored to their unique needs. This can involve significant coverage to protect their assets and business interests. They may need Key-person policies or Buy-Sell coverage structured appropriately by knowledgeable advisors. They may also need coverage required for a SBA loan.

Wealthy individuals may also seek services for Survivorship Life Insurance to safeguard their estates. Overall, these individuals require expert guidance and solutions that address the complexities of their financial and business circumstances.

This takes a custom approach from an insurance agent that has worked with many other business owners in the same situation. Often times in a large call center the ball can get dropped and your coverage needs are not met.

SelectQuote Life Insurance Customer Reviews

SelectQuote uses a service called TrustPilot to source reviews from their customers. Out of a sample of 8,575 reviews, you’ll see the following:

The stats above are pretty good. 83% had a great or excellent experience. HOWEVER…

The thing about TrustPilot is SelectQuote manages who gets sent the email to leave them a review. So of course they’ll send to consumers who purchased a policy because they have the highest chance of leaving a good review. We find this data highly skewed and it’s the one SelectQuote markets.

If you go to other review sites where anyone can leave a review you’ll find much lower ratings.

We recommend clicking through the links above to TrustPilot, Yelp and the Better Business Bureau to see why consumers aren’t happy with their experience with SelectQuote.

Problems With Select Quote’s Agents

It’s important to note that when you speak with a SelectQuote Life Insurance agent, you’re essentially entering into a scripted process. They’ll tell you the line is recorded for quality assurance because they cannot deviate from the script. You can say what you want and they’ll acknowledge, but you’ll be pulled right back into their script.

SelectQuote agents are paid a base salary plus a small commission for every life insurance sale they make. Which means they’re incentivized to write a lot of life insurance business every day, saying the same scripted process over and over in order to keep their jobs.

And quite frankly as a licensed life insurance agent myself, SelectQuote agents have an easy job where they only speak with consumers interested in buying life insurance. The alternative for a life insurance agent out there is to solicit your friends, family and referrals for business and selling them on the concept of buying life insurance. SelectQuote agents get fed people interested in life insurance all day, every day.

In other words, you’re simply a number to the bottom line for SelectQuote and their agents. They have the same conversation every day and write several life insurance policies a day. Some agents claim to write over 10 policies in a day.

Compare that to an independent agent who maybe writes 1 or 2 policies a day and will fight to make sure you get a fair approval on your life insurance application.

Life Insurance Pricing With SelectQuote

Here’s the deal.

If you’re healthy, going through SelectQuote Life Insurance is fine. You’d get much better service through an independent agent, but the pricing will be similar (fill out the form on this page to get connected with an independent agent).

If you have any health complications, you’ll get the best pricing by going to an independent agency. Like we mentioned briefly above is that every carrier looks at your risk differently. The key is to find the life insurance company that will provide the best rates.

If you want the best priced term life insurance with no medical exam required, you’ll want to look elsewhere as SelectQuote doesn’t offer any of the competitive options on the market.

If you want the best priced burial insurance coverage, you’ll want to look elsewhere as they don’t have any of the competitive options on the market. Burial insurance are small whole life insurance policies that are guaranteed level premiums for the rest of your life. It’s meant for seniors on a fixed income looking to cover burial costs and final expenses.

If you want the best priced mortgage protection life insurance, again you should look elsewhere. This is a niche life insurance product that SelectQuote doesn’t seem to care about.

With all that said, here are the Pros and Cons of working with Select Quote:

Pros of Going With SelectQuote Life Insurance

1. If you’re healthy. Meaning you’ve had a wellness check within the last year and everything was normal, SelectQuote will be competitive.
2. You can buy coverage 100% over the phone combined with email. They have a streamlined process.
3. They are better than the captive agencies out there that offer only one product like Colonial Penn or Primerica.
4. Besides term life,  they also sell whole life insurance, universal life insurance, and guaranteed life insurance.

Cons of Going With SelectQuote Life Insurance

1. You won’t get the attention you need from your agent. Your agent needs to sell your risk to the life insurance company in order to get the best rate – you won’t get that at SelectQuote.
2. They don’t have many of the competitive life insurance companies on the market today.
3. You will get sold other products. SelectQuote offers home, auto and medicare insurance products that you’ll begin to get solicited for.

Final thoughts

2 decades ago, SelectQuote was ahead of their time marketing life insurance direct to consumer (as opposed to kitchen table type selling) and then transacting life insurance over the phone.

However, over time they’ve grown too big to adapt with the changing landscape of customer service based companies and even offering new life insurance products that they really should have.

You can so much better all around with price, attention and servicing your policy by working with an independent life insurance agent. Request a quote on this page, view instant quotes and one will be in touch shortly.

If you need any help deciding how much life insurance you should buy, feel free to give us a call.