LAST UPDATED: October 8th, 2019

Guaranteed Trust Life Insurance started out in 1936, and is a legal mutual reserve company based out of Glenview, Illinois. The company has $433 million in assets, and is currently led by Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, Richard S. Holson. This 79-year-old company boasts being built upon family values, and is dedicated to providing a variety of quality products. GTL, as the company abbreviates its title, is helped by independent agents and brokers.

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The Good

Critical provider
Health insurance options
No medical exam required
Sleek website

People from 49 states, and The District of Columbia can access GTL's services (GTL is not licensed with New York). Customers can choose between the following services and products: life and health, special markets, special risk, and subsidiaries. Other benefits include:

Coverage Options: Critical Provider

Critical Provider is a Term Life insurance that offers an accelerated benefit rider. If one is diagnosed with a critical illness, the rider pays a lump to help benefit the person insured. The cash benefit can be used to cover health expenses or insurance deductibles, a recuperative vacation, general decreased income, or anything else that would be helpful in healing. A nice thing about this plan, is that the benefits are paid regardless of the insurance option one has. If no other benefit has been paid, a 100% death benefit is payable. People can choose benefit coverage up to $100,000. According to Guaranteed Trust Life's website, Critical Provider will accelerate a direct percentage of one's term life insurance policy's death benefit for the following 18 diagnosed illnesses:

100% Cancer
100% Heart Attack
100% Stroke
100% Coronary Bypass Surgery
100% Kidney Failure
100% Major Organ Transplant
100% Coma
100% Paralysis
100% Blindness
75% Terminal Illness
75% Nursing Home Confinement
25% Benign Brain Tumor
25% Alzheimer's Disease
25% HIV Infection from Blood Transfusion
25% Parkinson's Disease
25% Aorta Graft Surgery
25% Heart Valve Replacement or Repair
10% Coronary Angioplasty

Coverage Options: The Great Start Plan

This plan is for children, and guarantees them 100% lifetime protection. This Whole Life protection plan provides cash value accumulation, as well as insurance for people up to age 24 with a completely level premium. When the person turns 25, this policy automatically transitions into a Whole Life policy (When this change happens, premiums will increase and stay unchanged for the remainder of one's life). To get this plan, children have to answer a health questionnaire, but most children do qualify if they are healthy. Every child regardless of race, gender, etc., has the same rate. If one chooses, they can increase the original plan coverage by 4 times. Adults come by this opportunity at age 31, 34, and 37.

Health Insurance Options

GTL offers a few different health insurance options that act as a preventative way of security.

SBSA 24 Hour Accident Coverage - This plan pays people benefits for the following events: accidental medical coverage, emergency air ambulance and, accidental death and dismemberment.
CHS Protection Plus - The Cancer, Heart Attack and Stroke plan was created to help those with the costs that come with cancer, heart attack and stroke. Cancer treatments can be extremely expensive. With this option, patients have a lump sum benefit paid to them upon diagnosis. Benefit amounts can range from $10,000 to $75,000, and are made in increments of $5,000.
Advantage Plus - The Advantage Plus plan is meant to help people financially supplement co-payments, deductibles and coverage limits. This plan is meant for people 40-years old and up, and can also help cover a range of services like ambulance rides, cancer treatment, and outpatient surgery costs.
Recover Cash - This policy is helpful for those suffering from the costs of short-term care. People who choose this plan can choose to receive care in a nursing home, assisted living facility or in one's home. The Recover Cash plan give people the ability to choose nursing home and assisted living facility coverage for up to 360 days.
Critical Care - The Critical Care plan offers customers 3 plans to choose from, including: Critical Care, Cancer Care Plus, and Cardiac Care Plus. Each option can be issued to people ages 18-84. This plan is built to help with the financial hardships one experiences after a serious illness.

No Medical Exam Required

GTL's does not require people to take a medical exam when applying for a policy. Not having to take a medical exam, cuts the underwriting process down, and eliminates that cost. It should be noted that for The Grow Up Plan, kids do have to fill out a simple health questionnaire.

Sleek Website

GTL's website is modern looking, and beautiful on an aesthetic level. It has big and beautiful images, and scrolling through the interface feels smooth.

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The Bad

Limited service to states
Website lacks key information
Lack of life insurance options
No online quotes

One of GTL's main criticisms is that it lacks a variety of policy options. In fact, it only offers Term Life and Whole Life insurance. Other limitations that prospective clients should be aware of include:

Limited Service To States

Not every state gets the same life insurance options. For example, while Colorado offers: The SBSA Accident Plan, The Critical Provider Plan, Advantage Plus and Cancer Plan, and The Heart Attack & Stroke Coverage plan, California only offers The SBSA Accident Plan. A few states like California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Florida and New Hampshire are really limited in their services.

Website Lacks Key Information

The website is one of GTL's most inconvenient points. While it looks nice and the interface is modern and stylish, it lacks a lot of key factors. They do not provide a lot of information on life insurance. In fact, the life insurance section of the website is grouped in with the health insurance portion, and there is nothing to distinguish them both as separate entities. Both life insurance and health insurance sections are completely lumped together. Lastly, there is no search option listed, so people cannot type keywords into a search bar to find specific topics. All together, the website is not the biggest help.

Lack Of Life Insurance Options

GTL does not offer Variable Life or Universal Life insurance options. Universal Life insurance is very convenient for people, because it is a flexible plan where people can customize premiums and benefits to meet their circumstances. These two policies are missed. Not only that, but the term plan that they do offer is very limited in its term amounts. Only 10 and 20 year terms are offered - thus lacking 15, 25, and 30 year terms that a lot of other life insurance companies provide. This company also does not offer the ability to purchase annuities, or disability income insurance.

No Online Quotes

This is a really inconvenient factor about GTL. They do not offer quotes anywhere on the website. There is no quote calculator, no sample quotes, no pricing information on any page. Customers must call into customer service to obtain a quote. Many other life insurance companies offer at least a sample quote so one can compare options.

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The Bottom Line

While this company offers select services in 49 states (plus the District of Columbia), and offers some great options for life insurance, the negatives outweigh the positives. The company lacks immensely in policy variety, and does not provide Universal Life or Variable Life plans. Not only that, but GTL also doesn't offer annuities for purchase. GTL's website looks clean and smooth to use, but in reality, it is lacking a lot of key features. Because of this, trying to find information on their site can be frustrating. It is inconvenient for customers to have to call the company even for a quote. GTL's website does not have any information on prices anywhere, and even though each policy available says that it has exclusions and limitations, GTL does not provide information on what those are. Even though GTL offers a Term Life policy, it is only offered in 10, and 20 year terms. When looking for life coverage, there are other companies out there who have not only been in the business for longer, but also have affordable prices and many more policy options. This company does not rank high in ratings across the board, and GTL is not especially a stand-out company.

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Guarantee Trust Life Insurance