Brighthouse Financial (Formerly MetLife) Review BY Insurance Guru

MetLife established Brighthouse Financial in 2017 to sell life insurance and annuities. MetLife, meanwhile, will focus on products sold as employee benefits. If you have a life insurance policy from MetLife, it will now be from Brighthouse Financial. Everything else about it will stay the same unless you are notified of changes in writing. Brighthouse Financial life insurance policies are sold only through financial professionals.

NERDWALLET RANK: 15TH

Brighthouse Financial has not yet been scored by NerdWallet. MetLife ranked No. 15 out of 18 large companies scored by NerdWallet. NerdWallet’s life insurance company rankings combine its A.M. Best rating, consumer complaints, and J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction score.

A.M. BEST FINANCIAL STRENGTH RATING: An (EXCELLENT)

Brighthouse’s financial strength is “excellent,” according to rating agency A.M. Best.

Financial strength is important because it indicates how well an insurer can pay claims. It’s especially important when choosing a life insurance company because claims might not be made until many decades after a policy is purchased.

CONSUMER COMPLAINTS: BETTER THAN THE MEDIAN

Brighthouse drew fewer than the median number of complaints to state regulators in 2016 for a company of its size, according to the latest data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. (Complaint numbers from 2016 and earlier are for MetLife, before the company transitioned to Brighthouse, but are now applicable to Brighthouse.)

J.D. POWER RATINGS: GENERALLY AVERAGE

J.D. Power has not yet scored Brighthouse for customer satisfaction. MetLife scored “about average” for most measurements and ranked “better than most” for billing and payment in a 2016 J.D. Power customer service survey. MetLife ranked No. 6 overall out of 21 companies included in the survey.

MORE ABOUT BRIGHTHOUSE FINANCIAL

Fast access to cash value: Brighthouse’s Premier Accumulator Universal Life policy allows you to potentially access most or all of a policy’s cash value within the first few years, unlike traditional policies, where cash value takes several years to build up. It also has potentially no surrender charges in the first few years, unlike many other universal life insurance policies.