Sproutt Life Insurance review: Connecting healthy young people with affordable life insurance
Ranking
9.5/10
Sproutt connects healthy 30 to 45-year-olds with affordable life insurance options using unique tools and an exceptionally easy-to-use website.
Best for:
- Parents aged 30-45 years old
- Young, healthy people
- Easy-to-use platform
Life insurance? But I’m young and healthy!
Such was my thinking before I purchased life insurance. And while I’m grateful never to have submitted a claim, I’m glad I have it.
There are three reasons why life insurance is a strong investment for young people, especially married couples and parents. First, when you’re young and healthy, it’s cheap. Second, it helps your family cover for lost income and funeral expenses. And finally, it helps protect your family from inheriting debts such as your student loans which, to put it bluntly, don’t expire with you.
Today, I want to discuss Sproutt insurance – the one-stop-shop for finding the perfect life insurance plan for your budget.
Let’s investigate Sproutt.
What is Sproutt Life Insurance?
Sproutt is an easy-to-use marketplace that helps match you, your budget, and your goals with a top-rated insurance vendor. It’s a bit like Kayak.com but for life insurance, and offers some pretty neat features specifically geared towards young healthy people.
How does purchasing a policy with Sproutt work?
To my surprise, you can get a basic life insurance quote on Sproutt quicker than you can get a quote for car insurance.
Following the impossible-to-miss GET STARTED button, you’ll be taken through a short series of demographic, income, and health questions presented using an effortlessly clean interface.
As you’ve probably noticed from the screenshots, Sproutt plants the seed early on (heh) that their service is oriented towards healthy young people, especially married couples and new parents (more on that later).
Once you’ve entered the very basics, Sproutt gives you a rough idea of how little you can pay for life insurance.
Upon your selection of a coverage option, Sproutt will continue by asking about your lifestyle habits, driving record, criminal record, medical history, travel plans, and more.
Finally, Sproutt will give you one plan option they think is an ideal match for your preferences, budget, and lifestyle. There’s also a button (not pictured) for viewing additional options. I was presented with 50+.
To my surprise, clicking APPLY didn’t send me to a partner site ala Kayak or Healthcare.gov. It revealed who the partner was, but kept me within Sproutt’s gloriously slick interface for the third and final stage of data entry; detailed personal info (SSN, etc), beneficiaries, coverage, and payment.
Now, there’s something you should know that’s not evident from the screenshots.
Sproutt may outright reject you
Sproutt is not for everyone. If the algorithm deems you too old, unhealthy, or prone to high-risk behaviors, it won’t waste your time and politely send you on your way.
That’s because Sproutt’s relationship with its partners is that of a broker. Their slogan, “insurance that rewards your lifestyle choices”, reveals their intent to pass along healthy young clients to individual providers.
How much does a life insurance policy with Sproutt cost?
Monthly premiums can widely vary from $10 to $90 depending upon three factors: your preconditions/lifestyle, your term, and your coverage amount.
First, your preconditions and lifestyle can heavily impact your premium. Naturally, if you’re a chain-smoking adrenaline junkie with a heart condition, you’ll be placed in a higher risk profile than a sedate nerd like myself. Your criminal history, driving record, and medical conditions will all play a role in your premiums. Past a certain risk profile, Sproutt will politely encourage you to seek insurance elsewhere.
Second is your term. You’ve probably heard the phrase “term life insurance,” meaning you’ll pay a set premium rate for guaranteed benefits and coverage over a certain period of time. This is in contrast to whole life insurance, which never expires. Sproutt offers terms of 10 to 30 years in increments of five, with monthly premiums generally increasing with the term length.
Finally, there’s your coverage amount, which is the amount your beneficiaries can collect upon your death. Generally, coverages range from $50,000 to $3 million.
I, a healthy 29-year-old with no medical conditions or exciting hobbies, was quoted $18.55 per month for a 30-year term and $250,000 in coverage. At no point did Sproutt charge me a fee of any kind, so they’re assumingly charging their partners instead.
What are Sproutt’s best features?
Sproutt is a cool platform, but they’re not the only players. What makes them stand out from the competition?
The QL Index
Sproutt’s proprietary “QL Index” tool showcases their dedication to improving lives and rewarding healthy choices with affordable life insurance.
Separate from the quote process, the QL Index is a 10-minute, virtual Q&A you’ll have with their AI (manifested as a bespectacled leaf petal). It’ll ask questions about your sleep habits, veggie consumption, relationships, positive outlook, and even how long you think you’ll live.
At the end of the questionnaire, the QL Index will assign you a score out of five, and provide a full report to your email with suggestions on lifestyle improvements.
I received major points for meditating daily, never drinking, and exercising like a wannabe Olympian, but got “dinged” for my frequent trips to Burger King. The report details why you scored well in certain areas and lower in others, and in each category (Emotions, Health, Nutrition, and Fitness) it offers tailored suggestions for improvement. For example, the report hinted that if I’m struggling to fall asleep, I should lower my room temperature to between 60 and 72 degrees.
Scoring well on the QL Index won’t directly lower your life insurance quotes in and of itself, but it will point out hidden factors that might cost you in the long run. Plus, scoring high in the QL Index is a strong indicator that you’ll qualify for Sproutt’s next perk.
You may not have to take a medical exam
Traditionally, one of the biggest pains of getting a life insurance policy is having to go into a doctor’s office for a medical exam. Rather ironically, the process of scheduling a visit, finding your insurance card, and finally seeing a PCP is headache-inducing.
And while you should subject yourself to regular checkups for your own sake, Sproutt alleviates the need for an extra visit when you try to purchase a policy. If you’re healthy and active enough, you’ll qualify for the option to filter your results for policies that don’t require a medical exam.
Exceptionally modern and user-friendly
I’m willing to elevate this from “perk” to “feature” because Sproutt is the most user-friendly insurance website, and perhaps overall website, that I’ve ever used. It’s exceptionally crisp and modern, everything is logically laid out, and the quote process and QL Index couldn’t be simplified further by the world’s leading UI experts.
Every feature and page I tested on Sproutt.com was educational, efficient, and superbly designed. It’s a comforting place to buy life insurance.
Live agents
Surprisingly for a web-based broker, Sproutt has a team of agents on standby to take your call, walk you through the process, and answer questions.
Collectively, their live help, curated list of partners and plans, and superb website lend to Sproutt’s impressive 4.8 stars on TrustPilot.
My personal thoughts on Sproutt
I applaud Sproutt first for its exceptional design and UI. I’ve never been able to collect multiple quotes with dummy profiles so quickly and effortlessly, and their tools are simply a joy to use, tinker with, and learn from.
There are murmurs on the Twittersphere that you can get life insurance less expensively by purchasing directly from Sproutt’s partners, but I could not substantiate this claim. The quotes Sproutt offered me matched those of individual providers.
Lastly, I admire Sproutt’s focus on attracting and rewarding healthy young people. My first impressions of “life insurance” came from those stodgy and morbid commercials that would play midway through The Price is Right, and Sproutt is clearly working to reverse those preconceptions and guide Millennials towards a good investment.
It’s hard to knock Sproutt for its chief drawback (rejecting unhealthy people) since the company makes abundantly clear who they’re targeting and why.
Who is Sproutt best for?
Healthy people aged 30-45
Sproutt’s mission is to connect healthy young people with affordable life insurance. If you’re unsure if you’re “healthy” enough to qualify for their partners’ best rates, see if you score at least a three on the QL Index.
Young married couples and new parents
Life insurance in general is a good investment for young couples and new parents since it protects your new family from the burdens of your lost income, funeral expenses, and outstanding debt. Sproutt makes it especially convenient and easy to understand for first-time policy buyers.
Who is Sproutt not ideal for?
People over 45
Sproutt’s algorithms are designed to favor young, first-time policy buyers. If you’re over the age of 45, you might save time and money purchasing directly from a provider.
Unhealthy people
Scoring a one or a two on Sproutt’s QL Index is an early warning sign that you probably won’t get prime rates on life insurance until you make some lifestyle changes to eliminate a few risk factors.
Pros & cons
Pros
- Exceptionally easy to use — Sproutt’s website is exceptionally slick, effortless, and enjoyable to use.
- Connects prime candidates with low rates — Sproutt’s platform and relationship with providers is specifically designed to save young healthy people money.
- QL Index can save you money — Sproutt’s innovative QL Index questionnaire will help you improve your quality of life whether you purchase insurance or not.
- Live agents available via phone — Sproutt has a team of agents standing by and stellar customer service rating.
- Medical exam not required (sometimes) — If you’re healthy enough, the platform will help you qualify for plans that don’t require a tedious, inconvenient medical exam.
Cons
- Not for unhealthy people — Sproutt issues less-than-subtle warning signs everywhere that unhealthy people will not get the best rates through the platform.
- Limited partners — Sproutt partners with about a dozen well-known life insurance companies from Symetra to SBLI, but not all of them, so the diligent may want to use multiple aggregators to find the truly best deal.
- No terms under 5 years — Sproutt doesn’t offer the 2-year plans of some competitors, which are useful for cheaply patching calendar gaps between employer-sponsored plans.
Sproutt vs. the competition
Policygenius Bestow
Advantage over Sproutt Options Bestow offers a larger qualifying age range
Disadvantage to Sproutt High terms and limits Limited educational tools
Policygenius
Unlike Sproutt, Policygenius is an online broker/aggregator of all types of insurance, making it massively convenient if you’re shopping for bundles or multiple policies at once. However, if you’re shopping for life insurance only and you’re healthy, you’re probably better off heading to Sproutt.
Because Policygenius isn’t connecting providers with a specific and ideal demographic (healthy young people), you’re less likely to see special plans and lower rates. Plus, Policygenius life insurance coverages range from $500,000 to $10M with high premiums to match, which might be overkill for a healthy young person.
Bestow
Sproutt and Bestow share much in common; both are insurance aggregators seeking to entice healthy young policyholders with special low rates. However, each offers a unique benefit for that demographic that the other lacks.
Sproutt’s chief advantage of Bestow is its QL Index, which can help improve your quality of life whether you purchase a policy or not. If you are shopping for life insurance, the QL Index can highlight risk factors that might affect your rates, which can save you beaucoup bucks. On the flip side, Bestow’s qualifying age requirements cover a larger range than Sproutt, making it more accessible.
Bestow offers coverage ranging from $50,000 to $1.5 million with term lengths of 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30-years.
Summary
A 30-year term life insurance policy is a good investment even for a healthy young person, and Sproutt is an ideal marketplace to research and purchase one. The platform’s superb design, robust educational tools, low rates, and growing list of partners all indicate that its an ideal destination for healthy new couples or parents to shop for life insurance.
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