Policygenius Review: Life Insurance has Never Been Easier to Buy

Buying insurance — whether for yourself, your pet, or your apartment — is an uncomfortable affair. You’re essentially asked to imagine and plan for worst-case scenarios.

Will you forget to blow out a candle in your rented condo and burn the entire complex down? Will your beloved spaniel swallow a sock and require a $5,000 surgery?

If those fears are keeping you up at night, Policygenius aims to make insuring against those unpleasant — if unlikely — events a little easier. With Policygenius, you can evaluate your own insurance needs and shop around for the best fit for your financial life.

What is Policygenius?

Policygenius is an independent insurance broker and marketplace. This means it isn’t locked into offering insurance from only one insurance company and its aggregation tool lists several different policies from a range of providers. 

Note that Policygenius itself does not underwrite insurance policies directly.

Types of Insurance Offered by Policygenius

• Term and whole life insurance.
• Pet insurance.
• Homeowners insurance.
• Renters insurance.
• Long-term disability insurance.
• Short-term disability insurance (in some states).
• Health insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Auto insurance.
• Identity theft insurance.
• Jewelry insurance.
• Long-term care insurance.
• Travel insurance.

Read more: How Much Insurance Should You Have?

How Policygenius Works

On the Policygenius website, you’ll enter in some basic information (which can be more or less extensive depending on the policy you’re looking for). Then, Policygenius runs it through its algorithms, and returns your best options.

Next, you’re redirected to the website of the insurer of your choice to finish the transaction.

How Much does Policygenius Cost?

Policygenius itself is free to use, as it makes its money through commissions from the insurance companies for each sale they make. Those commissions are already included in the price of the insurance policy, so you’re not paying any extra for using Policygenius.

However, the actual cost of the insurance you’re shopping for will vary based on several factors including:

• Type of insurance.
• Amount of coverage desired.
• Risk factors.
• Several other variables.

It’s important to note that Policygenius doesn’t show you every insurance option available. It is possible you could get a better rate using a company that doesn’t work with Policygenius. That’s why it’s always a good idea to still do some shopping around.

Policygenius Application Process

Getting a quote with Policygenius only took me a couple of minutes.

First, I filled out the information in the widget above to get started.

From there, Policygenius asks a few questions about your shopping stage: if you’re still unsure about life insurance, just comparing quotes, or ready to buy. It then asks you your reason(s) for seeking out life insurance, such as:

• Finding the right insurance for your medical health.
• Covering final expenses, such as funeral costs.
• Creating a safety net for your loved ones.
• Preventing others from inheriting your debts.

Once you’ve specified your unique situation, Policygenius asks you for some basic information. You’ll need to include your gender, birth date, zip code, whether you’re a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and whether you have a spouse or significant other. 

You’ll need to provide some additional information on this page: 

• Your height.
• Your weight.
• Tobacco use in the last five years.
• If you’ve ever taken medication for or been treated for a list of health conditions.
• If you have had your license suspended or revoked or had more than one ticket or accident in the past five years.

Policygenius then shares the starting rates for life insurance policies depending on the amount of coverage and the term you pick.

At this point, you’ll be prompted to create an account with Policygenius to progress further. You’ll need to provide your name, address, email, phone number, annual income, and how you heard about Policygenius.

Your application is then in process. A licensed expert will review your application and confirm details over the phone.

If you’re selected for FASTTRACK, you can call the listed phone number to move forward with your application immediately.

Once everything with your application is completed, the life insurance company you choose will finish the process of approving you for your life insurance policy. This may include a medical exam.

Policygenius Features

Policygenius’s goal is to make buying insurance easier. To help you along the process, they offer several features.

Live Help

Policygenius offers live chat features throughout the site. If you look in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, there is usually a black box you can click to chat with a Policygenius expert. 

I’ve clicked this box and chatted with representatives. They seem like real people, and not robots using artificial intelligence to answer basic questions.

Representatives Work on Salary — Not Commission

If you do decide to talk to a representative, they aren’t going to be pushy salespeople. While their job is to answer your questions to get you to buy insurance, they don’t work on commission. By being salaried, they aren’t incentivized to push you into products that aren’t a good fit for you.

Get Multiple Quotes

With Policygenius, you only have to input information once to get quotes from multiple companies. If you did this on your own, you’d have to re-enter the information on each individual insurer’s website. This saves you time and money at the same time by allowing you to price shop at multiple carriers.

Term Life with No Medical Exam Now Available

Recently, Policygenius partnered with Brighthouse SimplySelect℠ to offer life insurance that doesn’t require a medical exam.

You can get insured for up to $2 million, premiums will remain low, and all it takes is a quick call with a Policygenius agent where you’ll answer a questionnaire. After that, you can get your policy in as little as three to four days.

My Experience Using Policygenius

I was surprised by how simple it was to get a quote with Policygenius. I expected to get asked many complicated questions I may not have the answers to. 

Thankfully, Policygenius explained a lot of my questions when I hovered over the little “?” symbols next to topics that may cause confusion. I also felt better knowing I could talk to a Policygenius at any time should I have a question about my application. 

While I don’t mind talking on the phone when I have to, the online chat feature was my favorite option. When I used it, I got real answers quickly from a human, not a chatbot trying to save the company money.

It was helpful to see the pricing differences between different types of policies once I had input my information. 

Using the dropdown menus also made it easy to see if buying a bit more insurance would be affordable for my family. I could quickly see if extending the term would be cost-prohibitive or not, too.

Why You Should Use Policygenius

It’s Easy to Use

Buying insurance involves a lot more variables than buying an airline ticket. This is where Policygenius really shines by making their interface easy to use and the arcane terminology of the insurance business easy to understand.

Almost every bit of information they provide comes with a little “?” link in the corner of each box that, if you hover your mouse over it, will explain exactly what that rating, question or term refers to.

There are also extensive FAQs and guides for each type of insurance. Start poking around, and soon you’ll be an expert on riders and convertibility options.

Their Mission is Education

This is all part of Policygenius’s larger mission, which is to educate younger consumers about why they’d even want life insurance, renters insurance, or long-term disability. That’s one reason Policygenius created Insurance Checkup, a tool to help you determine whether you’re underinsured. Spoiler alert: You probably are, at least by Policygenius’s standards.

Read more: Buying Life Insurance Young Saves Money

The module asks you questions about your net worth, your income, your living situation, your existing insurance policies, and your tolerance for risk.

Then it tries, very gently, to explain why you should have more insurance and also probably more money socked away. I already have homeowners insurance, but Policygenius suggested I also get term life insurance and long-term disability. And it wanted me to “think” about dental insurance, pet insurance, long-term care insurance, and critical illness insurance. Make no mistake: Policygenius is pro-insurance.

Read more: Term Vs. Whole Life Insurance: What’s the Difference?

They Offer Real-Life Examples

Aside from its extensive FAQs and Insurance 101 guides, Policygenius also has several case studies to show the different types of policies that are appropriate for different types of people.

They’re Transparent

Policygenius is remarkably forthcoming about the pros and cons of each insurer, rating them on the application process, customer service, and other factors.

Why You Might Not Want to Use Policygenius

Other Insurers Policygenius Doesn’t Offer May Give You a Better Deal

While Policygenius offers a wide range of top-notch insurers, they don’t offer life insurance through every possible insurance company. It is possible you could get a better quote from a company that Policygenius doesn’t partner with. 

If you do find a better deal elsewhere with a quality insurance company for similar coverage, it often makes sense to go with the company offering the best deal.

You’d Rather Deal with Someone Face-to- face

Some people are more comfortable making decisions when they can talk to someone face-to-face. While Policygenius allows you to talk to someone on the phone or through online chat, you can’t meet with their representatives in person.

If you prefer in-person contact, Policygenius won’t be a good fit for you.

You Have Unique Circumstances

Life insurance is easy to get if you’re healthy. Those with more unique health circumstances may find it is more difficult to get insurance, though. In these cases, it can help to have someone work with you in person to help determine all of your options.

Policygenius can work with you over the phone or using online chat, but complex discussions often are more confusing when you aren’t speaking with someone in person.

Policygenius Vs. the Competition

If you want to shop around more or aren’t comfortable using Policygenius, here are a few alternatives.

Term Life Insurance: Bestow

Bestow focuses on offering term life insurance policies from $50,000 to $1,500,000 in 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30-year terms. They want your life insurance purchasing process to be 100% convenient and 100% online.

Rather than do medical lab work, Bestow uses data to speed up the life insurance process. You get your final price in minutes rather than having to wait until after an in-person medical exam, if approved.

If you don’t want to submit to a medical exam to get life insurance, Bestow may be a good option. Even so, it’s a good idea to compare them to quotes that do involve medical exams and blood tests, to see if you could save more money that way.

Car Insurance: Liberty Mutual

If you’re looking for a Policygenius alternative for car insurance, consider getting a quote through Liberty Mutual. By getting a quote online, you can save up to 12% versus getting quotes from Liberty Mutual in other ways. That’s a way to save immediately without any additional work.

Liberty Mutual offers many insurance options for cars including better car replacement, 24/7 roadside assistance and even multi-policy discounts if you have other Liberty Mutual policies. They also provide a car insurance coverage calculator to help you decide what factors to consider when you’re deciding which coverages and policy limits to choose.

Homeowners or Renters Insurance: Lemonade

If you want a homeowners or renters insurance company that works differently than your traditional insurer, Lemonade may be for you. Lemonade offers a few unique features that you may like. To make things even better, they say it only takes 90 seconds to get insured.

Because of the way they’re set up, they process claims faster and don’t fight to try to nickel and dime you to increase their profits by denying claims. At the end of the year, any leftover money is donated to causes you care about through a process they call give back. 

The Bottom Line

If you’ve never thought much about insurance, or have been scared off by the frustrating experience of buying it, then Policygenius can help you sort through what policy — if any — you need.

Read more

• How To Buy Life Insurance Online
• Life insurance: Is it worth it and When Do You Need it?