Overhyped Life Insurance With Alex Trebek and Colonial Penn
Easy Navigation
You may have heard about Colonial Penn’s $9.95 plan and you most likely have heard of Alex Trebek, former host of “Jeopardy!” For years Trebek was a spokesperson for Colonial Penn and promoted their life insurance to seniors.
The commercials Alex Trebek filmed for Colonial Penn were very successful and helped bring more eyes to the $9.95 plan Colonial Penn offers. The plan was heavily promoted to be affordable, but advertising and coverage were difficult to understand as they were somewhat misleading.
In this article, we break down everything you need to know about the Colonial Penn $9.95 plan and let you know whether this plan is worth investing in. In the meantime, feel free to talk to one of our expert agents every weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (866) 786-0725. To get a quick estimate, check out our free quoting tool.
What is Alex Trebek Life Insurance?
The Colonial Penn $9.95 plan, sometimes referred to as “Alex Trebek Life Insurance,” is a guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance policy that does not require the applicant to answer any health questions.
This type of insurance is a whole life final expense policy, meaning your premiums will never increase and the policy will not expire due to age. The policy will not decrease in value but rather build monetary value. Since this plan has no health questions, there is a two-year waiting period. If the policyholder passes away during the first two years, the beneficiaries will only receive a refund of the paid premiums and a designated interest amount.
Following Alex Trebek’s death, Jonathan Lawson became the successor as spokesperson for Colonial Penn. Lawson is a Colonial Penn employee who appears in TV commercials promoting the $9.95 plan. Unlike Alex Trebek, who was a paid spokesperson, Lawson has been an employee at Colonial Penn for over ten years. Lawson’s official title is “Director of Quality Assurance & Escalations.”
Who is Alex Trebek?
Alex Trebek was best known as the host of the popular televised game show “Jeopardy!” for over 37 seasons. He hosted “Jeopardy!” from 1984 until he died in 2020. Alex Trebek’s cause of death was stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed in March of 2019.
Before his unfortunate passing, Trebek was a household name for any American alive in the ’80s and ’90s. Trebek’s appearances in game shows and commercials put him on the television screens of millions. It came as no surprise that Colonial Penn Life Insurance wanted to partner with Alex Trebek to advertise their insurance. Trebek was a spokesman for Colonial Penn Life Insurance for over 25 years.
Trebek marketed life insurance to those on a fixed budget by emphasizing that anyone looking for insurance should watch out for the “Three P’s” (price, price, and price). The “Three P’s” represented the following:
- Price you can afford
- Price that can’t increase
- Price that fits your budget
Colonial Penn 995 “Three P’s”
In the Alex Trebek Life Insurance Commercial for Colonial Penn, we see Alex Trebek introduce the 995 plan with the “Three P’s”, which as stated earlier equates to price, price, and price. On the surface, this may seem redundant, but the marketing tactic used was clever.
Colonial Penn begins the Alex Trebek Life Insurance commercial with a brief explanation before we meet the three individuals they use to benchmark various demographics that would be interested in the Colonial Penn 995 policy.
The Alex Trebek Life Insurance commercial states all individuals are eligible for coverage, starting at just $9.95 monthly.
“Guaranteed Acceptance Colonial Penn 995”
Colonial Penn’s most elusive coverage option, or the Alex Trebek Guaranteed Acceptance Plan, will not ask you any disqualifying questions, and everyone who applies is approved.
The rate you are given may be adjusted depending on multiple factors. A few drawbacks to this policy involve the mandatory two-year waiting period, in which Colonial Penn will not deem you eligible for payout.
The benefits to this plan are apparent in most whole life insurance policies, where you are guaranteed coverage regardless of your age, on top of the fact that your premiums will not increase regardless of the economic state.
Your Options With Colonial Penn Life Insurance
Colonial Penn offers two different forms of insurance, generally separating the two types by how the policy is renewed, or lack thereof. A few insurance types nest within these categories, but this is what you can expect when pursuing coverage with Colonial Penn.
Whole Life Insurance
Whole Life Insurance, also known as Traditional Life Insurance or Guaranteed Life Insurance, is sold as a policy meant to cover an individual for the remainder of their life, as long as premiums are paid accordingly.
Whole Life Insurance policies indicate a premium that is decided at the time of purchase and cannot go up due to factors such as inflation, what have you. Although Whole Life Insurance is considered the “default” insurance type, it does not indicate the only insurance type that may be “permanent”.
Whole Life Insurance works simultaneously in that it accumulates a cash value so long as the policy is in place, which someone may use to their benefit while accruing interest. On top of the fact that this policy is paid regardless of circumstances, the individual upholding the policy may also withdraw these funds or adjust coverage at any time. This insurance type also usually does not require a medical exam, but rather a medical questionnaire. Due to this, the price point may be higher than other similar policies. Whole Life Insurance may include other insurance types, such as Final Expense Insurance.
Term Life Insurance
Term Life Insurance is similar to Whole Life Insurance, but there is one key difference. A term life insurance policy must be renewed and upheld over the term period given to you, usually 5-20 years. Whole life insurance is more expensive, but it provides lifelong coverage and builds value over time.
This may sound like an inherent drawback to term life insurance, but the pros of this insurance type involve the generally lower price point. As a result of this lower price point, term life insurance policies usually require a medical exam. This form of insurance generally sees the most use with children and middle-aged individuals, as those who foresee unfortunate circumstances or are frequently in the hospital may wish to seek a whole life insurance option.
What is a Colonial Penn Rate Lock?
The Colonial Penn Life Insurance “Rate Lock” is a tagline you may have heard in the various Alex Trebek Life Insurance commercials from Colonial Penn, but what does it mean? As far as we can tell, this “Rate Lock” indicates the rate that you confirm when assessing your initial coverage. If this is the case, this “lock in” is present on all whole life insurance policies, as this is one of the main factors in how a whole life insurance policy is defined.
Guaranteed Acceptance with Alex Trebek Life Insurance
You may have seen the Alex Trebek Life Insurance commercials before, “You can get guaranteed coverage for $9.95/month” but, how accurate is this? It’s important to pay attention to the system Colonial Penn uses with their insurance policies, which is a unit system.
With said unit system, your coverage isn’t as all-encompassing as “$10,000 in coverage, just pay your premium”, as these units are priced individually depending on the individual’s qualifications. As a result, your coverage amount is constantly changing. This is likely a stressful aspect most people don’t want to worry about, especially considering term policies already renew at a fixed rate.
Alex Trebek Life Insurance Commercial and The “Fine Print”
We’ve already touched on the fact that Colonial Penn Life Insurance markets their coverage in units and this may be misleading, as these units are priced based on the person applying for insurance. The Alex Trebek Life Insurance Commercial also fails to mention that the Colonial Penn 995 plan contains a two-year waiting period, which, by itself, isn’t a huge deal.
The problem comes from Colonial Penn Life Insurance’s waiting periods do not pay you until that two-year waiting period is over. There is no compromise or proportional payouts to how long you’ve been paying premiums.
What You Get With Colonial Penn 995 Life Insurance
A section of Life Insurance offered by Colonial Penn, otherwise known as a “unit”, is the unique way Colonial Penn markets their coverage options. Unfortunately, this unique system is overshadowed by how unfriendly it is to consumers.
One unit may only cost $9.95/month, but the amount a unit covers you depends on many qualifications such as your age, weight, pre-existing conditions, smoking history, or questions that would qualify/disqualify you on a medical questionnaire.
For example, a 50 yr/old male would have their unit equate to roughly $1,700 in coverage vs an 80 yr/old male’s unit only containing not even $500 in coverage, both having the same qualifications.
Colonial Penn Rate Chart by Age
Now, you may be wondering, with the whole unit option, what would a sample of my Colonial Penn Life Insurance Rates look like? Below is a chart demonstrating a few sample Colonial Penn Life Insurance Rates per unit.
| Age | Units | Coverage Per Unit | Monthly Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
|
50 |
1 |
$1,786 |
$9.95 |
|
55 |
1 |
$1,732 |
$9.95 |
|
60 |
1 |
$1,214 |
$9.95 |
|
65 |
1 |
$932 |
$9.95 |
|
66 |
1 |
$880 |
$9.95 |
|
67 |
1 |
$834 |
$9.95 |
|
68 |
1 |
$792 |
$9.95 |
|
69 |
1 |
$753 |
$9.95 |
|
70 |
1 |
$717 |
$9.95 |
|
71 |
1 |
$683 |
$9.95 |
|
72 |
1 |
$652 |
$9.95 |
|
73 |
1 |
$620 |
$9.95 |
|
74 |
1 |
$589 |
$9.95 |
|
75 |
1 |
$560 |
$9.95 |
|
77 |
1 |
$503 |
$9.95 |
|
78 |
1 |
$477 |
$9.95 |
|
79 |
1 |
$450 |
$9.95 |
|
80 |
1 |
$426 |
$9.95 |
Reviews For Colonial Penn Life Insurance
Is the Colonial Penn Life Insurance plan worth it? Here at Final Expense Benefits, we do not recommend the Colonial Penn 995 plan.
When looking at Colonial Penn Life Insurance reviews, many felt misled and warned others to read the fine print. We feel horrible for those who have been deceived, as after having initially watched the Colonial Penn 995 commercial, it seemed almost too good to be true.
We agree that it is very easy to be misled by Colonial Penn’s vague description of policies and seemingly inexpensive insurance. Colonial Penn sells a life insurance policy for $9.95 a month, but they don’t tell you that the company sells policies in units, with some having expensive fine print attached.
Call us at (866) 786-0725 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, to talk to one of our expert agents. We only work with the top insurance companies to ensure the best rates and care for you and your family. You can also use our free quoting tool to find an accurate life insurance estimate for your budget.
3rd Party Colonial Penn Life Insurance Reviews
BBB
The BBB, or Better Business Bureau, offers a rating (out of five) that indicates how likely a company is to positively interact with their customers. This rating is similar to a out of 5-star rating and is averaged together using customer reviews, complaints, and other public data sources.
The most recent rating given by the BBB to Colonial Penn Life Insurance was 1.15/5 stars.
A.M. Best
They utilize a rating, similar to the ratings placed on restaurants, to help you discern their overall quality. This letter ranking varies from A+ to F, similar to a scholastic grading system. The rating itself is determined by a variety of different factors, such as performance, management, financial flexibility, shareholder safety, etc.
Colonial Penn was given an A rating as of the most recent statistics, indicating great financial strength.
NAIC
The NAIC, or The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, is a regulation standard support organization based in America meant to add credibility to insurance companies. Essentially, the goal of this organization is to protect consumers and to mandate that insurers deliver on promises made. The rating used within the NAIC involves a numerical value usually ranging from one to ten. One implies average customer complaints, where anything above this is above average, and so on.
As of the most recent rating given to Colonial Penn Life Insurance by the NAIC, the rating given to Colonial Penn Life Insurance was 3.06, indicating almost 3x of the average customer complaints.
Are Colonial Penn 995 Units Worth My Time?
In short, no. This unit system, when factoring in more proportional coverage, makes this option unappealing in almost every case. Yes, you may be paying a mere $9.95/month, but the payout will reflect that.
With 1 unit priced at $9.95 a month, how many units would be required for a standard $10,000 policy? On average, you would need 14 units at age 70 without pre-existing conditions to maintain $10,000 in coverage. 14 units at $9.95/month adds up to $139 in monthly premiums, much more than someone with these qualifications could get elsewhere, such as with Mutual of Omaha or Prosperity.
However, one policyholder is allowed an allotted maximum of 12 units, so this isn’t possible for most individuals.
Our Best Alternatives To Colonial Penn 995
It’s surprising to think about how many options there are for senior funeral insurance. We at Final Expense Benefits partner with over 20 carriers, including:
These are just some of our A+ rated carriers. Reduce the stress from life insurance for seniors and let us do all the heavy lifting for you. To find the best carrier for you, call us at (866) 786-0725 and agents are available to speak with you from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday ET.
To put it into perspective, let’s compare Colonial Penn Life Insurance with Mutual of Omaha. This chart will be based on $10,000 of coverage to cover funeral expenses.
With the Colonial Penn $9.95 plan, the monthly premium would cost you around $59 because you would need to purchase 6 units to receive the coverage you have opted in for.
The same $10,000 coverage would be a monthly cost of $30 with Mutual of Omaha.
Conclusion
After reviewing the Colonial Penn $9.95 plan, we at Final Expense Benefits cannot recommend this plan due to the misleading advertised information. The Colonial Penn plan will be more expensive due to the number of units you would have to buy to get the amount of coverage you have opted into.
At Final Expense Benefits, we only work with the most reputable healthcare companies and can help you find a plan that provides the coverage you need. Call us at (866) 786-0725 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, and we can help you find a plan for you and your family. You can also use our free quoting tool to get an estimate at any time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Colonial Penn Whole Life Insurance?
Colonial Penn Life Insurance does come in the form of whole life insurance. It also may come in the form of term insurance. Both insurance types offer their coverage in units.
Does Colonial Penn Have a Waiting Period?
Yes, all Colonial Penn Life Insurance policies have a two year waiting period wherein you are not entitled to any payout until after the two year period is over.
Is Colonial Penn 995 Plan Legit?
Yes, Colonial Penn Life Insurance is legit, it’s just not a great deal in our opinion.