Thrivent is a non-profit organization that offers various insurance products, including life, disability, and long-term care.
The organization has a good reputation among rating agencies like AM Best, BBB, Fitch, and Standard and Poor.
Just how good of a company is it? Is it the best choice for a life insurance policy for you?
In this Thrivent life insurance review, we will examine the options they offer, their good reviews, as well as the complaints their clients made.
By the end of this review, you will know whether Thrivent is the right insurance carrier for you.
What is Thrivent?
Thrivent is just the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. It was created in 1902 to serve as an aid company for members of the Lutheran Church.
Since then, Thrivent has grown and became a substantial financial planning option open to all Christian denominations.
From 1902 to the 1960s, the fraternal organization was only available to certain Lutheran denominations – the Lutherans in fellowship and the Missouri Synod.
In the 1960s, it was opened to all Lutherans. However, it was not until 2014 that it was opened to any Christian denomination.
It functions very differently from other financial institutions due to its non-profit nature. However, it is the largest fraternal benefit organization in the entire United States. It is now a Fortune 500 organization.
Thrivent now has over 1400 chapters (legally known as lodges). Each chapter decides how to spend their funds to provide aid to their communities.
Aside from offering numerous long-term financial planning options and insurance policies to their members, Thrivent also supports charitable foundations such as Habitat for Humanity.
The company also sponsors scholarships.
Thrivent offers term, permanent, universal, and variable universal life insurance to their Christian members.
Thrivent Life Insurance Options
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance is Thrivent’s most affordable insurance with steady rates. It’s designed to provide simple protection temporarily. The available term years you can apply for are 10, 15, 20, and 30 years.
Thrivent suggests you calculate the length of your term based on the length of your most important financial obligations.
These obligations can be anything from getting children through college, paying a mortgage, or paying car loans.
As long as the steady and affordable premiums are paid regularly, your beneficiaries are eligible to receive the death benefit upon your death during the term.
If the term ends before the policyholder dies, the policy ends, and the financial protection is lost.
The good thing about Thrivent’s term life insurance policies is that you have the option to convert the policy to a permanent life insurance policy.
Additionally, Thrivent term life insurance policyholders usually have the option to renew their policy when the term ends.
Permanent Life Insurance
As the name implies, permanent life insurance is in force as long as the policyholder is alive, premiums are paid consistently according to the agreement with the insurer.
Permanent life insurance is a strong alternative for people who want steady rates for as long as they’re alive.
The type of whole life insurance Thrivent offers have these features:
- Premium payment options. The policyholder can choose how long they will have to pay their premiums until their policy is all paid for.
- Assured cash value growth. Cash value is sure to grow as long as you’re paying your premiums. You can borrow from the policy’s cash value for your needs. However, borrowing from the cash value may decrease the death benefit or even terminate the policy. Borrowing incurs interests that may grow beyond the amount of the death benefit.
- Guaranteed purchase options are available to youths. GPOs help preserve the insurability of the young. They are only available on juvenile policies (17 and below).
- Annual dividends may be available. Annual dividends can be accumulated or withdrawn in cash. They are not guaranteed, though.
What if you bought a term life insurance policy from Thrivent and are thinking of converting?
How will you know if you’re making the right choice? Thrivent has an answer for that.
According to Thrivent, here are the primary considerations to make when thinking of converting term life insurance to permanent life insurance:
Permanent insurance builds cash value. A significant advantage on the part of permanent life insurance is it makes cash value over time. You can tap into this cash value as needed.
However, tapping into your policy’s cash value has its own set of rules, terms, and conditions. Familiarize yourself with your state’s tax laws regarding insurance cash value to make an informed decision.
You may outlive your term life insurance policy. Life expectancy rose steadily over the past few decades, according to several studies.
There is a high chance that you will outlive even the longest-term insurers’ offer. If you have financial responsibilities past the term, it may be time to think about converting to permanent life insurance.
Converting to permanent life may not require a medical exam. If you develop a degenerative disease during the term, it may present extreme challenges when renewing the policy.
However, if you choose to convert to permanent life, you may not be required to pass a medical exam.
Be aware, though; some contracts specify a deadline to qualify for such a conversion.
Universal Life Insurance
Universal life insurance is the perfect choice for people who prefer flexible premiums. However, this also means flexible death benefits and savings.
A universal life insurance policy allows you to control your funds. You can control how much you pay in premiums or withdraw funds if the need arises.
There is also a potential for growth in cash value. This is dependent on the performance of your contract, though. So even though the policyholder has access to cash value, that privilege comes with a big responsibility.
Just like in permanent life, borrowing against the cash value can decrease the size of the death benefit or even terminate the policy.
And, like Thrivent’s permanent life insurance policy offers, juvenile policies aged 17 and below have guaranteed increased options.
Guaranteed increase options help preserve their future insurability.
Variable Universal Life Insurance
This type of life insurance is suitable for people who know how to invest their money. In addition, a variable universal life insurance policy gives the policyholder control over how much they pay in premium and how often.
The “variable” aspect of the policy is the separate account that functions as a family of mutual funds. This account lets you invest the cash component of the policy into the market.
A variable life insurance policy gives you higher-risk, higher-rewards investment options.
Variable universal life insurance allows you to withdraw tax-free funds when you want (this benefit made it a popular choice for tax-evading maneuvers).
However, you have to make intelligent investment decisions to see growth in your cash value.
Like Thrivent’s universal lie insurance, variable life insurance also features guaranteed increase options on juvenile policies.
Are Thrivent Life Insurance Rates Economical?
Since Thrivent is a non-profit financial institution driven by its members, it doesn’t function the same way as other major financial institutions or insurance carriers. Their premiums are affordable.
A 20-year term life insurance policy with a $250,000 death benefit costs a 30-year-old, healthy, non-smoking man in California around $25 per month.
That is quite affordable since the average cost of a term life insurance policy for 30-year-old, non-smoking males is around $30 per month.
What Do Thrivent’s Members and Clients Think of the Organization?
In the past three years, Thrivent has only had eight complaints reported. Of those customer complaints, two have to do with billing and collection issues.
One was about a delivery issue. The other five were related to product or service problems.
For a Fortune 500 of this size, Thrivent is doing wonderfully in the customer service department.
While there have been internet complaints about a Thrivent Financial scam, there is no substance in these claims. There is no information or evidence presented.
To be better sure of how Thrivent fares as a financial institution, let’s examine its financial standing.
What is the State of Thrivent’s Financial Strength?
Thrivent has been Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited since 1999. It has an A+ rating.
Aside from BBB, the organization also has excellent reviews from several of the top financial ranking organizations like AM Best and Fitch.
AM Best gave Thrivent an A++ or “Superior” rating. This is the highest rating possible (out of 16) AM Best offers.
Fitch gave the organization an AA+ or “Very Strong” rating. This is the second-highest out of the 19 ratings the company gives.
These positive ratings testify to Thrivent’s strong asset management. Their financial products perform very well.
At the end of 2016, Thrivent had more than $116 billion worth of assets under management. Their annual surplus was at $9 billion.
What do all these ratings and numbers mean for you? You can be sure that when you buy insurance from Thrivent, you will be adequately insured.
There is little chance that the payments you make will be for nothing; the company is not likely to go bankrupt.
Thrivent will meet its responsibilities to its clients.
How Do I Buy a Thrivent Life Insurance Policy?
Since Thrivent is a member-driven organization, clients have to be members to avail of their products, whether that be life insurance products or annuities.
However, membership is only open to Christians. This includes spouses of Christians as well as children raised under a Christian roof.
If this demographic fits you, congratulations, you can qualify for membership. There are two Thrivent membership types.
Benefit Member
Clients automatically become benefit members when they fill out an application and buy a life insurance policy or an annuity product from Thrivent.
Associate Member
You will become an Associate Member when you apply and buy a product from any Thrivent affiliate or join the Thrivent Credit Union.
The Associate Membership has a $19.95 annual fee – which is economical when compared to the benefits.
What are the Benefits to Being a Thrivent Member?
Thrivent offers a lot of benefits for its communities. These include:
- Health discounts for members who don’t have health insurance or Medicare coverage.
- Online resources help address the issues that come with the aging of loved ones.
- Identity monitoring and protection keep your personal information from others.
- Life insurance for children below age 16 – even if said children are considered “uninsurable”
- Advice on how to achieve financial clarity even when disasters (e.g., death of a loved one) strike.
- Financial support for orphaned children.
- Care package to help parents cope with the loss of their newborn.
- The freedom to donate to causes and nonprofits of your choice – Thrivent takes care of the processing fees.
At its core, Thrivent was meant to help people of the Christian faith achieve financial clarity and stability. And that’s what it’s still doing.
Is Thrivent the Right Insurance Company for You?
The first thing to consider about this question is: are you a Christian? Because if you’re not, Thrivent will not do business with you.
The second thing consideration is whether you live in a state where Thrivent operates. Unfortunately, there is no list on their website that shows which states they are available.
However, you can reach out to them through their website. Alternatively, you can request a free quote and input your ZIP code.
You will know if their products are available in your state. If Thrivent is not available in your state, you can try other top-rated insurers like Open Care, AARP.
The last considerations are whether their policies work for you. Thrivent offers a lot of policies or their members. Reach out to them to discuss the options that best suit your needs.
