With a quick look at Midland National’s website, it’s easy to see the many financial products they provide. As well as life insurance, they offer annuities, financial planning advice, and numerous retirement tools. However, are the products worthwhile and, on a grander scale, is the company worthwhile? In this review, we’re going to answer these questions!
About Midland National Life Insurance Company
Midland National
4350 Westown Parkway
West Des Moines, IA 50266
United States
Web: www.midlandnational.com
Phone: 605-335-5700
Fax: 605-373-2752
With a history spanning more than a century, Midland National was originally founded as Dakota Mutual Life Insurance Company. Even through wars, the Great Depression, and a name change to Midland National, they continually expanded both financially and in the products offered.
Today, Midland National is part of the larger Sammons Financial Group (SFG) which contains a number of financial service companies. Sammons Financial Group is comprised of North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, Midland National Life Insurance Company, Sammons Retirement Solutions, Inc. and Sammons Financial Network, LLC.
Despite the many changes the company has experienced over the years, they’ve continually focused on the consumers as well as building a reputation as a great place to work for employees.
Industry Ratings
With over one million life insurance and annuity products currently active, amounting to $156 billion of life insurance in-force, we can see that Midland National certainly has a claim to a portion of the market. But what do financial rating agencies make of their financial situation?
First, A.M. Best has awarded the company with an A+ (Superior) which is one of the strongest ratings available. In particular, A.M. Best noted how Midland National had a focused growth strategy, were strong in risk-adjusting, and had a ‘strong and noble commitment’ when it comes to maintaining mutuality.
After this, Midland National also has strong ratings with Fitch and Standard & Poor’s; A+ with both.
Ultimately, this means the company is not only strong now but should also have success in the future in spite of external forces (such as the economy).
Finally, we should also mention the Comdex ranking of 88 (out of 100) and the A+ from the BBB since these can also prove the strong market position of Midland National.
Midland National Financial Ratings
A.M. Best rating: A+
S&P rating: A+
Fitch rating: A+
Moody’s rating: N/A
Comdex ranking: 88
Products and Services
As the next section will show, the number of life insurance products from Midland National is extensive (to say the least!). However, this isn’t the only service they provide. Midland National is a top provider of different types of annuities, which provide another major part of the insurance company’s business.
Fixed annuities offer tax-deferred growth, market linked growth, liquidity features, a guaranteed lifetime income, with an optional death benefit.
The more traditional fixed annuities provide customers with either guaranteed multiple-year rates and a guaranteed first-year interest rates, depending on the type of annuity you choose.
Immediate annuities are also available for those who want to start receiving payments as soon as possible.
With Midland National, they allow for multiple pay-out options depending on the need of the policyholder.
In addition to this, the Midland National website has free calculators and plenty of information on the industry, how products work, and how to plan finances for the future.
Their regularly-updated blog makes for a great read whether it’s mental wellness advice for millennials or lifestyle tips such as throwing a Halloween party on a budget.
Life Insurance Policies
Like many life insurance companies, Midland National focuses its products on different types of life insurance; whole life, term life, universal life, indexed universal life and variable universal life.
Term Life
Midland National’s term life policy guarantees a period of between 10 and 30 years. Throughout this time, term life insurance premiums will remain fixed.
It is also convertible term life insurance so there will be an option to convert to a permanent form of life insurance coverage.
Midland National has five underwriting classes and four different term life policies (10, 15, 20, and 30 years) so we couldn’t possibly provide expected premiums for every group.
However, we can tell you that a 30-year-old male from California who wants a face amount of $200,000 will pay just under $12 per month in the ‘Preferred Plus’ category (for a 10-year policy).
For 20 years and the Non-Tobacco underwriting, which is the middle of the five, this premium increases to $24 per month.
Meanwhile, what about a 30-year-old female in Florida who wants $100,000 of coverage? Well, a Preferred Non-Tobacco underwriting (second strongest) will lead to a monthly payment of $10 for a 15-year policy or $14 for a 30-year policy.
Whole Life
The whole life insurance policy offers the most traditional form of permanent insurance for those who want guaranteed cash value growth, death benefit and fixed insurance premium payments.
You can read more on the pros and cons of whole life, but know that those who want a secure place to save money in a tax deferred growth vehicle, whole life policies are one of the best bets in the marketplace.
Universal Life
Now, we start to reach the more expansive end of Midland National’s product offering. There are three types of universal life policies including the traditional policy, indexed, and variable.
Universal life provides policyholders with flexible premiums and the universal life policy’s death benefit can be adjusted depending on one’s circumstances.
As financial priorities change and a more important expense comes along, premiums can be reduced for a period of time.
Additionally, Midland National claim to offer ‘affordable’ rates which keep them competitive in the market. This, coupled with the cash value component which grows without tax, makes this universal life policy a sensible option for many.
Indexed Universal Life
Next, indexed universal life with Midland National is perfect for anyone who wants life insurance with the opportunity for additional growth tied to the stock market.
With IUL insurance, the cash value will grow depending on the performance of stock market indexes. For those worried about risk, there’s still some protection with this policy because the policyholder doesn’t invest directly into the market.
With Midland National, the policy has a ‘zero percent floor’ which means that, even if the market is performing poorly, the account will never be credited with less than 0% growth.
On the Midland Financial website, they provide a useful table displaying the performances of various indexes. For example, the focus is on the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, Russell 2000, DJIA, NASDAQ-100, and EURO STOXX 50 indexes.
Variable Universal Life
By far their most extensive product, Midland National has different variable life insurance policies to choose from, including;
- Variable Universal Life 1-4
- Variable Executive Life 1-2
- Survivorship Variable Universal Life
At first, it can be a little overwhelming seeing all the options but a conversation with a life insurance agent versed in VUL insurance should remove these concerns because they’ll note the policies that apply depending on investment goals, age, location, coverage amount, etc.
All the variable universal life policies offer the basics of cash value life insurance – tax advantages and cash value accumulation – before then branching out down different avenues.
Taking the standard Variable Universal Life 1 policy as an example, $50,000 is the minimum face amount, both level and variable death benefits are available, and there’s an opportunity to add a handful of riders.
Popular life insurance riders by Midland National include Family Insurance, Accidental Death Benefit, Extended Maturity, Children’s Insurance, and Waiver of Charges.
If your main focus is on the investment portfolio side of the policy and you want extensive options with a variable universal life product, Midland National is one of the best options around.
With many different variable life insurance products in this area alone, you’re almost guaranteed to find one that matches the needs of you and your family!
