In this review, we’ll explain… why ***we think*** you should NEVER BUY LIFE INSURANCE from SelectQuote. And, trust us; it’s not jealousy or sour grapes! We take the time to put ourselves ‘in your shoes’: to attempt the online quoting and application process, as a shopper. Our experience was quite frustrating (to say the least)! If your own personal experience was better —or just different, in any way— we’d like to hear about it!

This is Our Story… Please Share Yours

As an independent insurance broker…

I must admit, I don’t like SelectQuote life insurance very much.

They are the Goliath of the life insurance industry. It’s true.

SelectQuote Life does sell more life insurance —in one month!— than an independent agent OR broker sells in an entire year.

But this does not make them better. It just means they are bigger! Bigger advertising budgets and, therefore; more name recognition.

David VS Goliath

Every day we compete against SelectQuote.

Despite the fact that their marketing budget —and therefore, their name recognition— is much MUCH bigger, we have actually had pretty decent success competing against them.

How have we done this? Quite simply… we listen!!! And we take the time to answer your questions.

We have MORE Life Insurance Companies to quote —and compare for you— than SelectQuote does, so we can provide you with more choices. There’s no sales quota to fill here. We just want to help you get the best policy at the best possible price.

After 30+ years in the business, we have MORE first-hand in-depth knowledge about company underwriting guidelines than any (call-center / auto-dialing / quota-filling) SelectQuote insurance service representative ever could. They won’t take the time to “LISTEN”: to ensure you’re getting the right quotes, from the right companies— based on your unique circumstances and goals.

For Example:
Did you know that Banner Life —unlike most life insurance companies— will still give you their BEST HEALTH CLASS, even if you have a family history of cancer?

We specialize in getting you approved, when others say they can’t (or just simply don’t want to try). If you have any health issues (or certain hobbies OR habits), don’t assume you won’t qualify: give us a call at 888-681-4852 or get a free instant quote.

Our approach is not aggressive!!! SelectQuote primarily just wants to collect your personal information, so they can add you to their call center call list. We do not pester people.

When we speak, our focus is on YOU! —on your budget, your goals, and on finding the best life insurance product to meets your needs— Not on gathering data or filling sales quotas!!! We take great pride in offering REAL HUMAN CUSTOMER SERVICE —which is a rarity, these days!— if and when you want it. We’ll take the time to explain the details of all the options that are available to you and help you select the best company and policy —for you!— based on your specific goals and circumstances.

SelectQuote Has a Very Aggressive Approach to Advertising and Selling Life Insurance

SelectQuote saturates the market with multiple TV, Radio, & Print Ads… EVERY DAY!

They also pay Google, Bing, Yahoo (and many others) LOADS of $$$ to RANK #1 in your online search results for Life Insurance.

All the power to them, right? But what this means is: there is huge pressure to SELL lots of Life Insurance, to cover these BIG ADVERTISING BUDGETS.

In fact, many SelectQuote sales representatives (former AND current employees) have reported that there is “a lot of pressure” to make sales (take a look through a few of their 1-Star Reviews) on Glassdoor.

Agents that have worked in SelectQuote’s call center have said they were held to a quota to close “5 Life Insurance Applications PER DAY”.

That’s 1,200 in a year!!!

How can the representatives keep up with that pace and provide excellent service???

They can’t!!!

Also, even when you are specifically only trying to buy Life Insurance, the SelectQuote representative is required to “cross-sell” (i.e. ask about your auto, homeowners, or a possible medicare supplemental policy) at least 3X during the initial conversation.

Another sales rep posted in Glassdoor that SelectQuote “goes out of their way to take money from agents’ pockets.”

According to a former employee, this creates massive of employee turnover. In other words…

You will likely NEVER SPEAK with the same person, twice!

So… BE PREPARED TO REPEAT YOURSELF, over and over again; as you will witness our ‘Secret Shopper’ doing (in the video, below).

The SelectQuote sales representative’s approach is the “one call close”. The goal is to get you to commit to completing an application and medical exam, the first time they speak to you. There is a rush to get it done “FAST” (because of the quota), which doesn’t generally lead to… getting it done “RIGHT“!

Lousy Service. That Would Be a “Compliment” for What You Get from SelectQuote.

No Quote!

No instant online life insurance quotes are provided on SelectQuote’s website— Even after you’ve entered all your information (more on this from our Secret Shopper, below). I mean… the word “Quote” is right in their name. It’s baffling!

Many Complaints!

SelectQuote has a lot of complaints about their application and underwriting process. It takes a long time to get your application approved!

No Back Up Plan or Follow-Through!

There is NO second option OR back up plan! What happens if your application is approved with a different health class than you applied for? This occurance requires shopping the original life insurance company’s medical exam —and any collected medical records— around to multiple Life Insurance Companies to get the best possible price: a task that requires a lot of extra administrative processing time. So, with that ***5/day new application*** sales quota; the SelectQuote “insurance services representative” does NOT HAVE TIME to shop around for you! This means the first company’s offer is going to be your only offer from SelectQuote. Take it or leave it.

No Service!

Even though the representative you speak to is licensed, they will NOT be the one who signs your application as the “agent of record”. The call center manager —or the owner of SelectQuote, Charan Singh— is the agent appointed with multiple life insurance companies and may sign the application, as your agent, even though you never spoke with them. What if there is a problem? Or you need service, after you’ve already bought a policy from SelectQuote? Who do you call, when there is a death claim OR you need to change your beneficiary? Not your SelectQuote “insurance services representative”! He or she has already moved on to the next potential sale (or —more likely, if the reviews on Glassdoor are any indication— no longer even works there). Don’t count on a call back from Charan Singh either. He actually stepped down as CEO in 2017 (not that we think he was providing customer service or support on any policies before that). Perhaps you’ll have better luck with his successor?

You Can Compare Rates from All the Top Companies, Right Here… We’ll Actually Show You the Quotes!

SelectQuote’s Online Quoting Process

If you try to get an online life insurance quote from SelectQuote, it is quite the process!

And, as mentioned —in the end— they don’t actually show you any quotes!!!

Our “secret shopper” went through the entire process and found they ask detailed questions about:

Age, gender, height & weight
Family history of disease
Health questions such as blood pressure and cholesterol
and many more…

It took about 8-10 minutes. It was pretty in depth!

An agent had to call to complete the quote and —while he was polite and knowledgeable— he proceeded to ask every single question that had already been filled out in the online form, as you can see for yourself in this video:

I think what bothered me about this whole process was how SelectQuote asks you several questions on their website and still doesn’t show you a quote.

I expected they’d show me at least a ballpark quote after all that time spent.

Instead, once you’re done, they show a message saying “Your quote is being processed” and tell you that you’ll need to “answer your phone to complete your free quote”.

And then… the SelectQuote rep proceeds to ask all the same questions all over again!

I liked the agent, but I definitely felt like they wasted quite a bit of my time.

The Bottom Line?

If you try to get an online life insurance quote from SelectQuote, it is quite a process!

And —in the end— they don’t actually show you any quotes!

What’s more: SelectQuote Life Insurance does NOT (can NOT!) Save You More Money than we —or any other Independent Life Insurance Broker— can.

SelectQuote Life Insurance can not offer lower premiums.

This is because the exact cost of your life insurance —of everybody’s life insurance!— depends on these 3 Variables:

The amount of the policy (coverage OR face amount)
When the policy is set to expire
Which health class you are approved at

The price of Life Insurance is fixed by Insurance Companies based on those 3 Variables.

This means a 20 year term life insurance policy with Prudential is the same price at SelectQuote as it is on this and all other life insurance sites.