Brighthouse Life Insurance Review – Is It the Right Choice for You?

Thinking about Brighthouse for your life insurance? They’ve got strong financial ratings but there are some important limitations to consider before you apply.

In this review, we cover their life insurance products and underwriting to help you make an informed decision about the company.

Brighthouse Financial’s story goes back over 150 years. The company started as Travelers Insurance in 1863. MetLife bought it in 2005 and later spun it off to create Brighthouse Financial.

Although it has roots with MetLife, Brighthouse now follows a limited distribution model and plays a much smaller role in today’s life insurance market.

• AM Best: “A”
• Moody’s: “A3”
• S&P: “A+”
• Fitch: “A”

The company has over 2 million customers and $240 billion in assets. For comparison, New York Life has $700 billion in assets under management.

Brighthouse offers a limited lineup of products.

• Term Lengths: 10, 20, or 30 years
• Issue Ages: 25 – 49.5
• Coverage Amounts: $100,000 to $2 million
• Medical Exam: May be waived with accelerated underwriting
• Terminal Illness benefit

Brighthouse sells this product through one agency in the U.S.

This policy offers basic, short-term protection.

• Issue Ages: 18 to 85
• Coverage Amounts: $100,000 to company limits
• Convertible and Renewable Options:
  • Extends coverage up to 5 years.
  • Enables conversion to permanent life insurance
• Underwriting:
  • Simplified underwriting up to age 65
  • Full underwriting is required for higher face amounts & riders.

This policy can help bridge gaps in coverage or provide for short-term needs. I would recommend working with Prudential instead, as they offer a competitive PruTerm One policy.

This is not available as a stand-alone policy. You can only get this policy by converting from an existing Brighthouse term life plan.

• Permanent coverage with guaranteed level premiums
• Guaranteed death benefit and cash value
• Loan availability and optional riders, including:
  • Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
  • Waiver of Premium Rider

While the Conversion Whole Life policy is simple and guarantees lifelong protection, it’s only accessible to existing Brighthouse term policyholders, and not cheap.

If you want whole life insurance, look at Mass Mutual, Guardian, New York Life, Penn Mutual, and Northwestern Mutual. These companies have the best whole life insurance.

Brighthouse SmartGuard Plus offers a flexible premium, index-linked universal life (IUL) insurance policy that includes a Guaranteed Distribution Rider (GDR). This unique feature provides consistent, tax-advantaged retirement income.

This hybrid product targets consumers who want permanent life insurance, potential upside from market-linked growth, and income distribution options later in life.

Many other companies offer permanent coverage that can provide supplemental income to you in retirement. Companies such as John Hancock, Nationwide, Lincoln Financial, Corebridge Financial, and North American all offer this option.

Brighthouse SmartCare is an indexed universal life (IUL) policy that offers long-term care (LTC) benefits through built-in riders.

Often referred to as a “hybrid” life insurance product, this policy provides individuals with both a death benefit and built-in protection against rising long-term care costs, while still allowing for market-linked growth.

• Hybrid Life + LTC Coverage in One Policy
• Guaranteed death benefit and long-term care protection
• Up to 98% of the death benefit can be accessed early for long-term care (LTC) expenses.
• Extension of Benefits Rider pays benefits for up to 4 additional years.
• Benefits are paid monthly as a cash indemnity.

Once a claim is made, the policy pays monthly cash indemnity benefits, allowing policyholders to spend the money as they choose—no receipts are required.

SmartCare gives you three ways to grow your LTC benefit:

• Indexed LTC Option – Benefits grow based on market index performance
• Fixed Growth LTC Option – Choose guaranteed 3% or 5% compound growth.
• Level LTC Option – Keeps LTC benefits flat.

These options allow you to lock in benefit growth that keeps pace with rising care costs, something many traditional life policies lack.

SmartCare allows the cash value to grow based on market performance (S&P 500, Russell 2000, MSCI EAFE), with a 0% floor, meaning no loss from market downturns.

This indexed growth can help increase the value of your policy over time.

Brighthouse generally provides responsive and helpful customer service.

• Phone: 800-638-5000
• Online: here
• Address: 1225 N. Community House Road – Charlotte, NC 28277

Brighthouse offers solid financial strength and unique options, such as a one-year term and simplified conversion to permanent coverage. However, their limited distribution and lack of commitment to the industry are drawbacks.

For most people, better pricing, access, and policy features are available from top-tier competitors.

Need help comparing your options? Request a free quote today, and we’ll show you how Brighthouse stacks up to other top-rated life insurance companies