Banner is one of the handful of marijuana friendly life insurance companies. Although you will find “marijuana friendly” has a fairly loose definition among life insurance companies. While Banner Life Insurance and marijuana are compatible, it depends on how frequently you smoke.

Is this company right for you? We will take a look at who they are, what they sell, and how they underwrite life insurance for marijuana.

We will also examine the company’s financial strength and how their term life insurance prices compare with other competitors.

Banner Life Insurance Background

Banner Life Insurance Company officially started in the U.S. in 1949. At first, the founders called the company GELICO. GELICO is an acronym meaning for “Government Employees Life Insurance Company.”

Legal and General acquired GELICO in 1981. Then GELICO officially became Banner Life Insurance in 1983. The company now currently operates in every state in the union. Although it sells life insurance in New York under William Penn Life Insurance Co.

Banner Life Insurance Financial Rating

Banner life is a subsidiary of Legal General. They are currently the 5th top seller of life insurance products. The company has over $7.3 billion in assets.

Just about every public traded company on the stock market receives reviews from several financial rating agencies. These agencies analyze the financial stability of these companies on an annual basis. Rating agencies consider Banner’s portfolio “well diversified” and they carry 94% investment grade corporate bonds.

Why is this important to know? The reason why you should always review the financial strength of the company where you buy your policy is to ensure they will be able to pay their claims.

How do these financial rating agencies rate Banner life insurance?

Here are our results of the most recent financial review of this company from 4 rating agencies:

A.M. Best – A+

Standard and Poor’s – AA-

Fitch – AA-

Comdex Score – 94

Conclusion: If you are interested in Banner Life Insurance as a marijuana friendly company, these ratings indicate that the company is financially strong as well as stable. We feel quite confident that this company will be able to pay any and all life insurance claims for the immediate future.

Products for Banner Life Insurance and Marijuana Consumption

Banner Life Insurance offers both term and permanent life insurance policies. These products are available to marijuana enthusiasts and medical patients alike.

Banner life offers the following forms of life insurance which include:

• Term life insurance
• Universal Life
• Annuities

You purchase term life insurance in units of time. These are also known as terms which range from anywhere from 10 – 30 years. It’s a simple policy offering only a death benefit and a couple riders. A term policy is the least expensive form of life insurance.

Permanent life insurance policies are more expensive than term. They cover your entire lifetime and never need renewing. They provide death benefit coverage and also include a cash value accumulation component. This is an extra part which builds in value during the life of the policy.

Banner Term Life Insurance

Term insurance can save you caches of money because it’s so straightforward. People primarily use term insurance to cover something specific like a child or a mortgage.

The term policies provided by Banner Life Insurance and marijuana use are for 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years. These are level term policies which mean the premiums and death benefits remain the same through the life of the term.

Banner term policies contain a conversion feature which allows you to convert your policy to a permanent policy without having to undergo a medical exam. You could also renew it as a term policy if you prefer. The primary advantage of a conversion option is you convert with the same health classification at which you bought the policy.

Banner Life Insurance also sells no-medical exam policies which are surprisingly affordable. If you need something without a medical exam it is doable, just more difficult with life insurance for recreational cannabis.

Banner Universal Life Insurance

Banner universal life insurance products are considered by many agents to be very versatile products. Universal life insurance is somewhat different than Whole life policies because they are generally more flexible for policyholders.

The Universal policy available through Banner allows greater versatility in premium payment and offer adjustable death benefits. Their Universal policies allow you to pay a lower premium for a shorter coverage guarantee, or a higher premium for lifetime coverage.

Banner Policy Features

Banner life insurance also offers its clients a means to enhance their coverage through a variety of different riders. A life insurance rider is a separate form of coverage sold separately in addition to your primary coverage. The riders Banner Life Insurance offers include the following:

Waiver of Premium – This feature provides coverage should you become totally disabled, have a serious injury or long term illness. Premiums will be covered during this period of disability which consists of a minimum duration of 6 months.

Policy Conversion – This feature applies to term policies only. The conversion permits you to convert your term policy to a Universal policy anytime during the period of the guaranteed level premium and up to age 70. The underwriting approach used will be the same as your existing term. Those who buy a policy at age 66 and over may convert their policy within the first 5 years.

Flexible Premium Payments – Banner allows you to choose how you pay your premiums. This can be annually, semi-annually, quarterly or monthly.

Accelerated Death Benefit Rider – This rider will provide with up to 75% of your death benefit or $500,000 – whichever is less. This can be used for situations such as a pending terminal illness. Any amounts used will be deducted from the death benefit coverage you purchased.

Children’s Rider – A children’s rider offers life insurance coverage for children up to age 25, the 65th birthday of the insured or the date the policy terminates.

Are Banner Life Insurance Term Policies Price Competitive?

Our review of Banner Life Insurance and marijuana use in considering the affordability of term policies show that Banner offers very competitive prices. The sample rates and ages we looked at reveal the Banner consistently ranks in the top 5 to 10 rank for lowest prices available for term insurance.

Their prices appear especially competitive for female applicants.

Banner Life Insurance and Marijuana Underwriting

Whether you smoke marijuana recreationally or are taking it as medication, you will want to know how Banner Life Insurance rates marijuana smokers.

Overall, this company is not as lenient as other marijuana friendly life insurers for occasional use. Banner tends to group both occasional users and more frequent users in the smokers’ category.

Banner Life Insurance underwriters rate marijuana in the following categories:

• Occasional Use  – Rated as a “Standard Smoker” (We could not get a straight answer from an underwriter on what “occasional use” means. We are guessing that it is limited to a few times a month.)

• Daily Marijuana Use – Rating begins at a “Substandard Table B Smoker”

We recommend other companies for more regular smokers. Especially considering that we could not get a hard definition of what “occasional use” is. You might consider Prudential or Met Life as an alternative.

Need to Learn More About Banner Life Insurance and Marijuana Friendly Life Insurance?

You always want use an independent agent when looking for life insurance if you smoke marijuana recreationally, or with a medical marijuana card, or even if you work in the marijuana industry.

Independent agents such as the ones here at Marcan Insurance specializes in finding affordable life insurance for recreational and medical marijuana patients. Our agents know which life insurance companies is marijuana friendly.

We also know which companies are more liberal in how they underwrite a variety of health conditions to help you get approval and at the lowest rates.

If you are interested in learning more about Banner Life Insurance and marijuana friendly companies, call Marcan Insurance at (888) 987-8447 today. All information is 100% confidential and there is never any obligation to buy.