MassMutual Life Insurance Review 2024

Editor’s note: Haven Life is no longer selling life insurance . Existing policies from Haven Life will continue to be serviced by MassMutual.

MassMutual offers four types of life insurance and is included in Forbes Advisor’s list of best life insurance companies. MassMutual offers:

• Term life insurance
• Whole life insurance
• Universal life insurance
• Variable universal life insurance

MassMutual Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance is typically the most affordable type of life insurance. It provides level rates for a set period of time—for example, 10, 20 or 30 years—and pays out a death benefit if you die during that time. Once the policy reaches the end of its level term period, there is usually the option to renew at a higher rate (up to a certain age), though it can be cost-prohibitive.

MassMutual offers two term life insurance options:

MassMutual Term life insurance comes in 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-year terms. You must work with a MassMutual agent to buy a policy, and you may be required to take a medical exam. However, once your policy is in place, you can convert it to permanent life insurance later on without needing another exam.

MassMutual online term life insurance is offered through its subsidiary, Haven Life. Coverage ranges from $250,000 to $3 million and is available for ages between 18 and 64. You’ll receive an instant decision in most cases, although a 30-minute medical exam may be required.

MassMutual Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance provides lifelong coverage, fixed premiums and cash value with guaranteed growth that can be accessed during your lifetime. MassMutual’s whole life insurance policies must be purchased through an agent.

• MassMutual Whole Life Insurance is good for those who aren’t comfortable with risks and who are seeking lifetime coverage and are willing to pay for the guarantees that it provides. It builds a cash value you can use for emergencies, major expenses (such as college tuition) or supplemental income in retirement.
• MassMutual CareChoice One is a hybrid long-term care (LTC) and whole life insurance policy for people aged 35 to 69. You pay a single premium. The policy gives you access to an initial LTC benefit amount that’s two times the base policy face amount. Cash value and the death benefit will decrease by the amount of LTC benefit you use. If you never need long-term care, the policy will pay a guaranteed death benefit or surrender value.
• MassMutual Survivorship Whole Life Insurance is good for couples who want to leave an income-tax-free legacy to their family. It has a guaranteed death benefit and cash value you can tap into in retirement.

Related: Cash value life insurance

MassMutual Universal Life Insurance

Universal life insurance offers a bit more flexibility than whole life with flexible premiums and flexible death benefits. That makes it a good fit if you want to change your policy terms down the road. MassMutual has two types of universal life policies—both of which you can purchase through an agent:

• MassMutual Universal Life Guard (UL Guard) has a flexible premium you can pay in exchange for lifetime coverage or coverage until a certain age, depending on your goals. You can also customize your policy with an accelerated death benefit rider or a rider that waives your premium if you become disabled.
• MassMutual Survivorship Universal Life Guard (SUL Guard) covers two people on the same policy and pays a death benefit once the second person dies. Couples often use it for legacy planning, business continuation, charitable giving or caring for a child with special needs. According to MassMutual, this policy typically has lower guaranteed premiums than other types of survivorship life insurance.

MassMutual Variable Universal Life Insurance

Variable universal life insurance is similar to universal life insurance but offers more flexibility in how you can invest your money. Variable universal life policies are best for people with high risk tolerance because with the increased flexibility in investments comes higher risk. MassMutual offers one universal life insurance policy through its agents:

• MassMutual Apex Variable Universal Life (Apex VUL) allows you to invest your money in a variety of ways, including index funds from Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock and more. It may be a good fit for individuals who want lifetime protection and the potential to accumulate wealth—all with the same product. You can also customize your policy with 10 different riders.

MassMutual’s Term Life Insurance Rates vs. Top Competitors

MassMutual’s Haven Life 2.0 costs an average of $174 a year for a 20-year, $500,000 policy for a healthy 30-year-old female, based on Forbes Advisor’s analysis. That’s lower than most other top companies.

Here’s a comparison of MassMutual’s term life insurance rates and other top competitors.

Company	Term life insurance policy name	Cost per year: Female buyer age 30, $500,000 for 20 years	Cost per year: Male buyer at 30, $500,000, 20 years
MassMutual (Haven Life)	Haven Term 2.0	$174	$219
Pacific Life	PL Promise Term	$187	$221
Protective	Classic Choice Term	$187	$221
Symetra	SwiftTerm	$187	$221
Legal & General America	OPTerm	$187	$221
Corebridge Financial	Select-a-Term	$188	$223
Penn Mutual	Non-Convertible Term	$188	$223
Transamerica	Trendsetter Super	$190	$225
Lincoln Financial	TermAccel	$190	$225
Midland National	Premier Term	$205	$240

Source: Forbes Advisor research. Rates are based on buyers who are healthy and qualify for the best rates.

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A life insurance rider is an add-on that provides extra coverage beyond what’s included in your base policy. Some life insurance riders are included for no extra cost, but some increase the cost of your life insurance rate. MassMutual gives customers several insurance rider options, although exact availability depends on the policy type.

• Additional Insurance Rider. This MassMutual add-on allows you to purchase life insurance coverage for your children or a spouse.
• Catastrophic Disability Rider. You may want to consider this rider from MassMutual if you’re worried about what would happen if you became disabled and couldn’t work. The rider provides a monthly income as a salary replacement.
• Early/Enhanced Cash Value Rider. This rider allows you to access a portion of your cash value early for things like educational expenses or a down payment on a home.
• Estate Protection Rider. The Estate Protection Rider from MassMutual is designed to help your beneficiaries pay any estate taxes that may be due when you die.
• Guaranteed Insurability Rider. MassMutual’s Guaranteed Insurability Rider gives you the option to purchase additional life insurance coverage at set intervals without having to go through the underwriting process again.
• Lapse Protection Rider. This rider from MassMutual will allow your life insurance policy to stay in force for a certain period of time, even if you don’t pay the premiums.
• Long-Term Care Rider. You may want to consider this MassMutual rider if you’re worried about the costs of long-term care.
• Option to Split/Change/Convert Rider. This rider from MassMutual gives you the option to split your life insurance policy into two separate policies, change the death benefit amount or convert it into whole life insurance.
• Overloan Protection Rider. This rider from MassMutual protects you from having your life insurance policy lapse if you borrow against the cash value.
• Terminal Illness Accelerated Death Benefit Rider. This MassMutual rider allows you to access a portion of your life insurance policy’s death benefit while you’re still alive if you’re diagnosed with a terminal illness.
• Waiver of Premium Rider. If you become disabled, this rider from MassMutual will waive your life insurance policy premiums for a specified period of time.

MassMutual was founded in 1851 in Springfield, Massachusetts. While it started out as a life insurance company, it has since grown to become one of the largest financial services firms in the world. (It’s No. 100 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list.)

Over the years, MassMutual has acquired a number of other companies, including the Great American Life Insurance Co. Today, MassMutual offers a wide range of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, investments and long-term care insurance.

To find the best life insurance companies, we evaluated term life and permanent life insurance for each company:

• For term life insurance rate analysis, we used our own research. and data provided by AccuQuote, a national online life insurance agency. AccuQuote has been in business for over 30 years and works only with insurance companies that have top financial strength ratings.
• For cash value life insurance analysis, we used data provided by Veralytic, an independent publisher of life insurance research and analytics. Veralytic measures the competitiveness of permanent life insurance products and can provide a customized analysis to you and your financial advisor of policies you own or are considering buying.

Our evaluation was based on:

Term life insurance rates (50% score): We used term life insurance rates for healthy buyers ages 30 and 40 for policies for 10, 20 and 30 years. The coverage amounts analyzed were $250,000, $500,000, $1 million and $2 million.

Financial strength (10% of score): This measure incorporates the insurer’s financial strength ratings from four major ratings agencies: AM Best, Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s. Financial strength is particularly important when you’re relying on a company’s ability to pay claims many decades from now.

Cost competitiveness of cash value policies (10% of score): This measures the level of premiums and internal policy charges, including the cost of insurance, fixed administration expenses and cash value-based wrap fees.

Reliability of policy illustrations (10% of score): This factor measures the reliability over time of the company’s illustrations for its permanent life insurance products. When you plan to be holding on to a policy for decades and counting on cash value to accumulate, you want an illustration that’s accurate.

Historical performance (10% of score): This measures whether the historical performance of the company’s investments that fuel cash value growth are superior to other companies’ comparable products.

Access to cash value (10% of score): This measure evaluates the liquidity of cash value and a policyholder’s access to it. Some policies will build cash value better in the early years, and with other companies you may be waiting several years before you have meaningful cash value within a policy. Generally speaking, the higher the liquidity, particularly in early policy years, the better—but some insurers charge more for greater liquidity, so consider the possible tradeoff.