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Pacific Life Insurance Review
By kristin MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Founded in 1868, Pacific Life Insurance Company provides customers with insurance products for every budget. Even though the company doesn’t sell whole life insurance and only offers limited term life products, it may be a good choice if you are interested in a wide selection of indexed universal and variable universal products with cash value accumulation. Read on to learn more about Pacific Life’s insurance policies and services.
Table of contents
- Pacific Life overview
- Pacific Life’s services
- Pacific Life’s credentials
- Pacific Life’s accessibility
- Pacific Life’s customer satisfaction
- Pacific Life vs. the competition
- Pacific Life FAQs
- How we evaluated Pacific Life
Pacific Life Insurance Overview
Pacific Life is a mutual company, which means that policyholders own and govern the company. In addition to insurance, they sell annuities, mutual funds and commercial real estate. Pacific Life is a leader in the indexed universal life insurance market and is also heavily involved in community support through their Pacific Life Foundation, which gave over $7 million to education, community, environmental causes, art and culture in 2021.
Pacific Life’s Services
Pacific Life offers term, universal, indexed universal and variable universal life insurance policies, all of which are sold through an extensive network of licensed financial agents.
What it offers
Pacific Life offers affordable term life policies and a wide selection of permanent life insurance policies with cash value accumulation. Here’s a breakdown of their policies, coverage and exclusions:
Term life insurance:
- The PL Promise Term policy offers the choice of 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-year terms with fixed premiums. You may also qualify for accelerated or modified underwriting which allows you to forgo the required medical exam.
- The Pacific Elite Term policy offers a choice of 10-, 20-, and 30-year terms. This policy requires a base amount of $750,000 in coverage and can be converted to a permanent policy.
Universal life insurance:
- Versa-Flex Venture UL is a policy that offers flexible premiums and cash value accumulation. Coverage is based on current interest rates and starts at $50,000.
- The PL Promise GUL policy focuses on guaranteed death benefits from age 90 to up to age 121. This policy doesn’t offer cash value accumulation and the minimum face amount is $25,000.
Indexed universal life insurance:
- The Pacific Horizon IUL 2022 policy offers flexible premiums, cash value accumulation protection and fixed and indexed crediting options.
- The Pacific Horizon ECV IUL policy is designed for individuals with high income. It offers potential for high cash surrender value and death benefit protection.
- The Pacific Horizon Survivorship IUL policy offers indexed universal life insurance with death benefit and cash value protection.
Variable universal policies include:
- The Pacific Select VUL 2 policy allows you to choose the amount of time that your death benefit is guaranteed. It also offers guaranteed options for investment.
- The Pacific Select Harbor VUL policy offers an adjustable death benefit, guaranteed minimum interest crediting rates and a choice of three indexed or two fixed investment options.
- The Pacific Admiral VUL policy focuses on variable investment options, which include a choice among three indexed accounts, two fixed accounts and 16 variable investment options.
Pacific Life offers some insurance riders depending on the policy you choose. Riders include: accelerated death benefit, up to lifetime no-lapse guarantee, waiver of premium, terminal illness, disability benefit, and children’s term. They also offer riders for long-term care benefits.
Pacific Life Insurance Coverage
Life insurance type:
Coverage:
PL Promise
Starts at 50,000
Pacific Elite Term starts at $750, 000
Term duration:
10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30
Issue ages:
PL Promise: 18 to 80
Pacific Elite Term: 18 to 75
Life insurance type:
Coverage:
No available whole life plans
Term duration:
N/A
Issue ages:
N/A
Life insurance type:
Coverage:
Starts at $25,000
Term duration:
N/A
Issue ages:
18 to 90, depending on policy requirements
Life insurance type:
Indexed Universal Life Insurance
Coverage:
Not disclosed
Term duration:
N/A
Issue ages:
18 to 90, depending on policy requirements
Life insurance type:
Variable Universal Life Insurance
Coverage:
Not disclosed
Term duration:
N/A
Issue ages:
18 to 90, depending on policy requirements
What it doesn’t offer
Pacific Life doesn’t offer whole life insurance plans. While they do offer riders, their list of rider options is not as extensive as some of the competition.
Pacific Life’s Insurance Cost
Life insurance rates are determined by a wide variety of factors, including:
- Policy type
- Coverage amount
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Overall health
- Medical exam results
- Lifestyle
- Use of tobacco
The average monthly costs listed below are based on a PL Promise Term 20 policy for a male non-smoker in excellent health with $250,000 coverage:
- 25-year-old: $12.77
- 35-year-old: $13.45
- 45-year-old: $27.10
Pacific Life’s Credentials
Pacific Life is a large, financially stable insurance provider. Here’s a closer look at its credentials.
Licenses and registrations
Pacific Life Insurance Company is headquartered in Newport Beach CA and is domiciled in Omaha, Nebraska. The company is licensed in all states except New York. Its Certificate of Authority number is 0818 and its NAIC number is 67466. Pacific Life’s affiliate company, Pacific Life & Annuity Company is licensed in all states. Their Certificate of Authority number is 001192 and their NAIC number is 97268.
Awards and certifications
Pacific Life won the 2022 Gold Stevie Award for Sales and Customer Service and the Ethisphere Institute’s 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies award. It was also named one of America’s 50 Most Community-Minded Companies by Points of Light.
Regulatory or legal actions
Many large insurance companies have recently come under fire with allegations of fraudulent business practices, particularly with regard to indexed universal life policies. Unfortunately, Pacific Life has not escaped litigation. In 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed in California against Pacific Life claiming they used deceptive marketing practices to sell insurance policies, specifically their PDX life insurance, an indexed universal life product. Pacific Life is one of the leading sellers of IUL products.
Pacific Life’s Accessibility
Pacific Life offers a variety of term and permanent life insurance policies nationwide. Read on for more details about their accessibility.
Availability
Pacific Life is licensed to sell insurance in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. They don’t have any brick and mortar branches, but operate through a network of licensed insurance agents that sell policies.
Contact information
You can reach customer service by phone at 800-347-7787. Hours are Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. You can also email them by filling out an online form. The turnaround time for emails is 48 hours.
User experience
While we found Pacific Life’s website to be organized well and easy-to-navigate, it was not very transparent with regard to policy pricing and important details such as coverage amounts. The website doesn’t offer online life insurance quotes. We talked to multiple agents and customer service representatives in order to find product information, but found it difficult to get basic information regarding life insurance rates and coverage base amounts and caps for certain products due to the decentralized nature of product sales. However, their website provides useful educational articles and an assortment of calculators.
Limitations
Phone wait times are extensive and there is no chat function available on their website. Customer service representatives and agents are friendly, but only work with certain types of products such as term life or permanent life insurance policies, so it may take some time to get connected to the department that works specifically with the policy or issue you have.
Pacific Life’s Customer Satisfaction
Here’s a detailed look at Pacific Life’s customer satisfaction ratings:
Customer complaints
Pacific Life isn’t accredited with the BBB and has only two reviews on Trustpilot, where it holds a rating of 2.9/5 stars. Policyholder complaints include failure to pay policies, bounced checks and poor customer service.
Third-Party ratings
Pacific Life receives high ratings from third party rating agencies who evaluate the standards and practices of companies. They have a financial strength rating of A+ (Superior) with AM Best, and they come in above average at #5 on JD Power’s 2022 Individual Life Insurance Study. Pacific Life received far fewer complaints than their competitors on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) National Complaint Index.
Pacific vs. the Competition
| Pacific | Principal | Nationwide | |
| AM best rating | A+ (Superior) | A+ (Superior) | A+ (Superior) |
| Average cost | $12.77 | Not disclosed | $18.59 |
| Types of insurance | Term, universal, indexed universal, variable universal | Offers insurance mainly for businesses including: disability income, disability income retirement security and estate planning and irrevocable life insurance trusts | Term, universal, whole, variable and LTC |
| Coverage | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
If you’d like more information about Principal and their insurance products, read our Principal life insurance review.
Pacific Life Insurance FAQs
How We Evaluated Pacific Life Insurance
In order to evaluate Pacific Life Insurance Company, we analyzed the following factors:
- Policy variety, coverage and terms
- Availability of riders
- Policy restrictions and exclusions
- Accessibility of information and pricing
- Website ease-of-use
- Customer service
- Customer reviews
- Third-party ratings
Summary of Miami Herald’s Pacific Life Review
Pacific Life is a large insurance provider that offers affordable term and universal life insurance products. The insurance company may be a better choice for people interested in variable and indexed universal life insurance policies. We found their website easy to navigate, but missing important features like an online quote function or transparent policy coverage information. Customer service and licensed agents were friendly, but also unable to provide coverage information. Lastly, Pacific Life is in good standing with a number of important third-party agencies that evaluate business standards and practices.
Kristin Cobos has worked as a writer, researcher, and educator for 18 years. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from Webster University in Leiden, Netherlands and M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Southern Illinois University — Edwardsville. She covers finance and technology.