Global Atlantic Life Insurance & Marijuana – An In-Depth Review

Global Atlantic Life Insurance Company recently changed its underwriting guidelines for recreational cannabis use. They will allow it without penalty in certain conditions.

Every single one of the cannabis-friendly life insurance companies has different underwriting guidelines for how frequently you can consume for fun without paying way too much for life insurance.

Even with medical marijuana, life insurance rates the health conditions differently. The good thing about cannabis-friendly companies’ policies on medical cannabis is they only care about the condition, not the treatment.

To see current rates for marijuana users right now, use the Instant Quotes tool on this page.

Quick Summary

Global Atlantic is one of the more generous life insurance companies when considering recreational cannabis. They work a little differently than other companies. The older you are, the less they care about how often you indulge.

Global Atlantic Rating

The company financial ratings should heavily factor into a life insurance decision. If it’s anything less than an A rating, they may have some financial trouble in the future.

Granted, even A-rated companies can change and lose their ratings. However, most companies will work hard to keep financial stability. Especially long term companies like life insurance. After all, what good does a policy do anyone if the company goes out of business in 10 years?

Global Atlantic holds solid ratings across the board:

• A.M. Best – Rating (A) – Outlook: Stable
• Fitch – Rating (A) – Outlook: Stable
• Standard and Poors – Rating (A-) – Outlook: Stable
• ‘Moody’s’ – Rating (A3) – Outlook: Stable

Quick Company History

Global Atlantic has a history dating back to 1896 as Central Life. They have been involved in many mergers and acquisitions over the years, which is common for life insurance companies. Some of their merger and acquisitions include:

• AmerUs Life
• Indianapolis Life Insurance Company
• Aviva USA
• Accordia Life
• Forethought Life Insurance Company

Global Atlantic was founded at Goldman Sachs in 2004 and became an independent company in 2013. While operating like a publicly traded company, they are privately held with roughly 1,500 shareholders.

These shareholders consist mostly of the company’s management and employees, with individuals and institutions thrown in the mix.

Global Atlantic specializes in retirement and life insurance products without the baggage of holding to old ideas that used to work. They pride themselves in supporting local charities throughout the country as well.

Recreational Marijuana Underwriting Guidelines

This insurer underwrites recreational cannabis differently than others. They break up the use and class assignments by your current age. The older you are, the less they care about you using it.

It’s one of the few companies that adjusts their permissible use based on age.

All of the following qualify for non-tobacco rates:

• Age 25 or younger: Decline for recreational or medicinal marijuana use
• Age 26-30: Up to 1 use per week: Premier possible
• Age 26-30: Up to 3 uses per week: Standard
• Age 30 and up: Up to 3 uses per week: Premier possible
• Age 30 and up: Daily use: Standard possible
• Age 26 and up: Medicinal use – Rate for the medical condition

It’s important to note that Global Atlantic is about the only company that is ok with daily use.

With any cannabis consumption – recreational or medical – they will not allow applications for accelerated underwriting. This means you will need a quick exam paid for by the company.

If you forget to mention on your application any recreational marijuana consumption, it’s an auto-decline. Your application must match what they find in your urinalysis.

The health classes above are the best possible. Other factors like general health, family history of illness, and hobbies also affect your rates.

Depending on your health and how often you indulge, it’d be smart to explore other options too. You save the most money by shopping the market.

The other reason we love Global Atlantic’s underwriting policies is because they are also friendly toward marijuana industry employees and owners. Many companies shy away from people who work in the cannabis industry. This insurer doesn’t care, as long as the company doesn’t own the policy.

Global Atlantic Life Insurance Products

Global Atlantic has a variety of life insurance types to choose from. Even without access to the accelerated underwriting program, there is a well-designed product for most needs.

The term life products work better for covering limited needs. For example, if you are covering the years until your children are grown or a mortgage, term will cover you and save you the most money.

Permanent life insurance works better for estate planning and long-term wealth building goals. The downside is that it is much more expensive than a term policy.

Global Term Life Insurance

They have two types of term life insurance available:

• Annual Renewable Term
• Guaranteed Level Term

Both types of term life insurance only offer the face amount. However, you can customize it slightly by adding riders.

The annual renewable term is a policy that requires renewing every year. It’s not an option we recommend in most cases because every time you renew the premiums increase. This type of policy works best when required to cover short term business loans.

Guaranteed level term is what most people choose when looking for life insurance to protect their family. Global offers 10, 20, and 30-year terms. The minimum face amount is $50,000.

If you aren’t sure whether a term or permanent policy makes or sense – or just want to leave the door open if you change your mind later – both policies offer a conversion option. It lets you convert your policy into a permanent one before the end of the term.

There are almost a dozen ways to customize your policy through riders. The general list includes:

• Wellness for Life
• Accelerated Access Rider
• Overloan Protection Rider
• Primary Insured Rider
• Additional Insured Rider
• Children’s Insured Rider
• Accidental Death Benefit Rider
• Terminal Illness Accelerated Rider
• Return of Premium Rider
• Waiver of Monthly Deductions Rider

Specific policies have unique rider options. Talk to your agent about customizing the best policy for your family.

Global Permanent Life Insurance

Global Atlantic offers universal life and indexed universal life. Both of these permanent policies cover you for life. You get the face amount plus the cash value accumulation, which makes the policy useful during your lifetime.

The cash value grows as you pay your premiums. You can borrow against this as a no-questions-asked loan. Families take advantage of this by using it for everything from buying a new car to funding their retirement.

Permanent policies are more expensive than term ones. Insurers design them for people with higher incomes, large estates, or people looking to expand their wealth building strategies.

Universal Life Insurance

A universal life policy allows you to adjust both the face amount and premiums as you progress through life. If you suddenly need more insurance, you can do that without taking out another policy. On the flip side, if a financial catastrophe hits, you can reduce your premiums and keep your policy intact.

Global Atlantic also offers a guaranteed minimum rate of return on the cash value accumulation. Even if the market crashes, your cash value will still grow.

Global Index Universal Life Insurance

Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is possibly the most misunderstood type of life insurance policy available by both buyers and agents.

The difference between an IUL and a universal life policy is IULs provide a return to your cash value accumulated based on the increase of a stock market index. There is a cap on the return in exchange for never losing money when the index falls.

No money is ever actually invested in the index.

IULs get complicated because you want to pay the highest premiums for the smallest benefit – the complete opposite of most life insurance. This allows you to take advantage of the lightning-quick growth of your cash value accumulation. In simpler terms, it’s more about using your life insurance during your life with the fast accumulation of cash value.

Global Atlantic offers 4 different IUL policies:

• Lifetime Builder Elite
• Lifetime Foundation Elite
• Lifetime Provider
• Survivorship Builder

Each one focuses on different IUL needs. It gets complicated, so talk with an agent who specializes in IUL policies (like us) about customizing the right policy for your family.

Conclusion

They offer a variety of life insurance types to cover virtually every family situation.

Global Atlantic is worth your consideration if you’re over 30 and smoke recreationally. If you’re under 30, compare their guidelines to other companies.

You can use the Instant Quotes box on this page to see life insurance rates from our other cannabis-friendly companies.

How Marcan Insurance Can Help

At Marcan Insurance, we specialize in connecting families with the insurer who has the right underwriting guidelines. It can be tricky with recreational and medical marijuana. Life insurers don’t like publishing their guidelines so we’re here to help.

We work with over 70 top-rated life insurance companies to find the right one for our clients. Because we have so many options to choose from, we can work solely for our clients and never for the insurance company. If they aren’t treating you fairly, it’s easy enough to drop them and find someone who will.

Our goal is to save you time and money by shopping the market for you, finding the lowest premiums for the best policy. We’re here to walk you through every step of the process and will continue helping years down the line.

Give us a call today at (888) 987-8447. We’re here to answer any questions and to help you get approved for life insurance (with marijuana use) at the lowest rate.