Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company Review

A.M. Best - With A.M. Best assessing the overall financial position of a company, you can probably guess how Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company performed. Yes, they currently have an A+ rating which is one of the very best ratings available and means they’re the envy of the industry. While there are other insurers who reach this level, the majority have to settle somewhere lower down the ‘A’ bracket. Of course, we always suggest that anything within the ‘A’ range is brilliant news so this financial strength is superb.

In case you didn't know, A.M. Best produce a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating too and this allows you to see how well companies can pay their liabilities and owed amounts in the future. With a rating of ‘aa-’, the company is in a strong position once again and you should feel confident in their ability to pay all debts and claims.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) - With this Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company review, we’re very luck in that there’s multiple agency ratings available. Sometimes, we’re forced to based our judgement on one or two but Southern Farm has been in business for a long time and this means many agency ratings.

From S&P, Southern Farm has been given an ‘Api’ rating and this is judged on their credit and ability to pay all obligations in the future. With the ‘A’ part of the rating, this means they have the third-highest rating within the system. Although secure, it means they're more susceptible to external changes than companies in the higher rankings. For the ‘pi’ part, this means the rating was formed based on analysis of public financial information. Therefore, it is certainly trustworthy but it’s based upon less comprehensive information when compared to ratings without the ‘pi’ added.

Better Business Bureau (BBB) - Despite Southern Farm’s long history within the industry, the BBB only opened a file in 2005 but this still gives us enough to go on for their customer service and business practices. With an ‘A+’ rating, they sit atop the tree and join some of the most decorated insurance companies within the industry. Based on thirteen different factors, the BBB gives all companies a score out of 100 and Southern Farm scored above 97 points which puts them into the highest category.

Customer Service - In this Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company review, we also wanted to speak a little about customer service before giving the full breakdown on life insurance policies and annuities you can choose with the company. In today’s world, it’s all about what happens online and Southern Farm is off to a good start with a contact form. As we’ve stated before, we like contact forms because you can enter your location and a preferred method of contact. After sending your message, you know the right person receives the message and will, in turn, reply within good time.

Elsewhere, there are mailing addresses and four phone numbers depending on whether you need the switchboard, death claims, policy service, or a direct line. Once again, this allows you to get in touch with the right people instantly and this is perhaps one of the reasons why they have such a respectable score with the BBB.

In the second half of this Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company review, we wish to assess the products on offer because this will decide whether or not the insurer is actually for you. As we’ve said many times before, buying life insurance is a personal process and one that cannot be influenced by others. As long as you consider your own needs, as well as the needs of your family, only then can you introduce the right policy moving forward.

Before we consider the individual annuities and life insurance policies, we first want to discuss business insurance because this might be something that catches your eye. In the US and around the world, there are currently millions of businesses that have no contingency plan; this is to say there’s no plan in place if the owner were to pass away. Would employees lose their jobs? Could the business continue?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, Southern Farm can help to protect the best interests of your company moving forward. Whether it’s through a buy-sell agreement, key employee insurance, or even executive bonus plans, you need to have full control of your business and you need to know what happens in the event of the death of a key figure and this is something Southern Farm does very well.

In the first offering of individual products, Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company offer a fixed annuity which is ideal for those who want to receive a guaranteed income stream in retirement.

The fixed annuity from Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company offers a number of payout options depending on how much money you have and how long you want it to last. For example, you can choose a ‘guaranteed for life’ option which means the money you receive will never run out. With the ‘guaranteed for a certain number of years’ option, it’s quite self-explanatory in that you can choose the duration in which your payments will be made to you from the company.

If we were to summarize the Southern Farm life insurance policies in one word, it would be ‘simple’. While other companies seem to be confusing the whole process for themselves as much as anybody else, Southern Farm offers two simple policies; term life and whole life. While there are variations of each, the process is simplified somewhat as you’ll see.

With term life insurance, the coverage is affordable, it will cover any short-term needs you have, and the premiums will either stay at the same rate throughout the term of the policy. There are five different options of convertible term life insurance;

10-Year Term - With this first policy, the death benefit remains level for the full ten years and you’ll have fixed death benefit coverage. Each year after the ten years, the policy renews annually to age 95 so it isn't recommended for the long-term. However, you can choose to convert to a fixed-premium permanent policy at any time during the first 7 years of the term.

20-Year Term - Covering a period of twenty years, the coverage is above $100,000 once again and the policy is renewable right up until 95 years of age. The conversion option is available for the first 15 years of the policy.

30-Year Term - Finally, we have the thirty-year version of what we’ve seen already with the same benefits and restrictions applied. In line with the other two policies, you can convert at any time during the first 15 years.

Next we have two rather unique dividend paying term life insurance policies.

10-Year Participating Term - With the final two options, we have term life insurance that offers the same features we’ve seen above but it’s ‘participating’ which means you can receive dividends if the company performs well.

20-Year Participating Term - Once again, the same features will apply but the opportunity to earn dividends is fantastic. Also, the time you have to convert to a permanent policy extends to fifteen years (seven in the ten-year policy).

If you need permanent life insurance, the whole life options from Southern Farm Bureau are worth a look.

Whole life insurance offers guaranteed cash value growth, guaranteed fixed premiums, guaranteed death benefit and the opportunity to earn dividends. You can also attach a single premium paid up additions rider to the policy to increase the death benefit and cash value.

20 & 30 Pay Life - With limited pay life insurance all premiums will remain level for 20 and 30 years. Once you pay up the coverage, no further payments will be necessary. However, your policy will continue to grow thanks to interest and dividends.

Whole Life Insurance - As the standard option, this policy offers a cash value component, potential for dividends, and guaranteed premiums up to the age of 100 years.

Single Premium Whole Life - If you’ve come into some money, the single premium whole life insurance policy means you pay just one premium and the policy remains in place until death.

Modified Premium Whole Life - Finally, premiums are guaranteed for 10 years with this policy before then being guaranteed at a higher level until the age of 100.

To finish this Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company review, we can look at the life insurance riders on offer because the insurer excels in this area. For example, the term life policies allow for convertibility and level benefits/premiums and this is built into the policy itself. However, you can add Waiver of Premium, Guaranteed Insurability, Accelerated Benefit, and Premium Insurance riders. With these attached to your policy, you have extra security and extra peace of mind.

For example, the Waiver of Premium rider will waive all premiums should you become totally disabled while the Accelerated Benefit rider allows for a portion of the death benefit to be received early if you experience a terminal illness.

Also, if you are considering life insurance for children, an additional child term rider is available. The policy protects all children living or future children from 15 days onward. The policy can be converted to five times the face amount with no proof of insurability.