Colonial VS Aflac

[ABC]

I wrote this 8 years ago, how the biz has changed.
Both companies suck now. colonial has hired all the old Aflac scammers, now aflac is begging for broker distributions after they stepped on everyone's toes. Both companies enrollers jam as many policies down an employee's throat as possible. Any HR with experience wants nothing to do with either company.

 

[Life Hawk]

I am currently breaking down the two carriers on Cancer, Medical bridge, Accident, Hospital & life plans.


On the Cancer plan
Aflac is 30% more a month than Colonial level 3.

Alfac has a $3,000 benefit paid once you are diagnosed but Colonial pays $100 for Cancer screenings.
The rest of the plan benefits are very similar with the same max benefits in place.

The better product is Colonial because of price and the $100 benefit per year that everyone can use a year.

Medical Bridge vs Afac's Accident and Hospital plan

This is a tough one because I don't know if I am comparing apples to apples. The medical bridge is a lump sum payment of $3000. So there is no ret tape here its a flat out cover your HSA deductible.

The Accident benefit has lump sum of $1,000 and the Hospital plan would pay $400/ $500 a day for confinement.
These plan have more bells and whistle with the potential of paying more each day you are in the hospital or receiving treatment.

The Aflac policy is 50% more than colonial.

I am going to give the advantage to Colonial because of cost and simplicity of covering a HDHP.

On life insurance Colonial is cheaper.


There is a big cost difference here between the two carriers.

The big difference is with the age banded rates.
Colonial is 18-49 and Aflac is 18-39. This creates a very large price difference.

What do you guys think?

Have you checked out UNL?

 

[RJT Consulting]

This is patently untrue with regards to Colonial. You will have pockets where you are 100% correct but as a whole, Colonials reputation in the business is solid. I run most of Illinois for Colonial and have never had an employer say a negative word. Because of our reputation, my team has landed multiple exclusive deals with national GA's to offer our benefits to their agents. I realize all it takes to get burnt is one bad leader and no doubt they are there but your generalization is not applicable across the board.

 

[Johnny Earl]

This is an old post, but for posterity I will say, AFLAC is not at all worth the effort. For a company with its listed assets, it has less than optimal systems, constant problems, long hold times. They hire way too many agents and saturate an area. You'll be hitting places that has just had an agent leave. The products are decent, but honestly AFLAC seems more bent on not writing businesses and placing hurdles to sales, than actually making ways for agents to sell. The management teams are not too effective at helping, some just like hearing themselves talk and people say the same thing over and over and over again.

The people that sing the praises of AFLAC are probably uplines that are making money no matter what. For the agent, you will starve unless you have other means of income, huge savings or a significant other that is supporting you.

 

[rousemark]

This is an old post, but for posterity I will say, AFLAC is not at all worth the effort. For a company with its listed assets, it has less than optimal systems, constant problems, long hold times. They hire way too many agents and saturate an area. You'll be hitting places that has just had an agent leave. The products are decent, but honestly AFLAC seems more bent on not writing businesses and placing hurdles to sales, than actually making ways for agents to sell. The management teams are not too effective at helping, some just like hearing themselves talk and people say the same thing over and over and over again.

The people that sing the praises of AFLAC are probably uplines that are making money no matter what. For the agent, you will starve unless you have other means of income, huge savings or a significant other that is supporting you.

If you are just judging by assets you would have to take in account that AFLAC built almost half their assets on their Japan units... They supposedly were selling more premium in Japan than the US.

 

[GatorRep]

If you are just judging by assets you would have to take in account that AFLAC built almost half their assets on their Japan units... They supposedly were selling more premium in Japan than the US.

I believe around 3/4 of AFLAC business is Japan based. AFLAC thrives in the small business market in the US seemingly by brute force in recruiting agents. Colonial seems to carry a higher reputation in the broker space.

AFLAC has recently committed resources to technology and to a division focused on driving broker sales. They've failed with brokers in the past and have bumped shoulders rather than shaken hands with them - it will be interesting to see if they can repair their reputation there. My experience has been that AFLAC has poached some Colonial members away to overcome deficiencies that AFLAC has to catch them up with Colonial - whether it's technology (Everwell came out a few years after Harmony), commission structure (AFLAC will be announcing a commission structure more competitive and similar to Colonials here in the coming months), product offering (AFLAC recently purchased a dental group out of Tampa that will enable them to offer a true network based dental product, something colonial has had for years).

AFLAC service does vary greatly depending on the rep, but the biz model seems to be more focused on getting new business than providing a high level of service to current accounts. And their customer service line routinely has an hour wait time - not to mention the different answers that seem to be given on the same topic.

Tim Arnold - CEO from Colonial - seems to have colonial on a solid upward trajectory. I believe Dan Amos is the last Amos left with AFLAC, it will be interesting to see the path AFLAC takes once an AMOS is no longer majority stakeholder.

 

[Mark Squire]

AFLAC is a complete joke. I've been in the insurance game doing supplemental insurance for the better part of a decade, and a day doesn't go by without hearing someone badmouthing them. The prices are sky high (you're paying for the duck), the service is generally awful, agent turnover is absurdly high, billing issues are the norm (they have an odd billing schedule), and if you're a new agent trying to make a living? Forget it. Every market is as saturated as it could possibly be.

Colonial is far better as far as service goes. But Colonial, just like AFLAC, has expanded way too much in recent years, and their home office is messing up a lot these days. Constant billing issues, claims taking forever to pay, and way too many clueless agents going out into the field under trained. But, that's more of a district problem, because some district managers have no business being in their roles. They tend to promote people who have no business being promoted, into managerial roles.

Allstate has the same cookie cutter supplemental policies as AFLAC and Colonial. Good pricing. But the service is LAUGHABLE. Horrendous billing and claims issues. Allstate doesn't have a dedicated service team. They have a sales and enrollment team, but service is an afterthought, because Allstate's main business is Auto & Home. I would never recommend Allstate supplemental in a zillion years. Way too many potential issues.

The best supplemental out there right now is Globe Life/Family Heritage. They used to be Family Heritage Life, but Globe Life bought them last year. They have return of premium on all of their policies, which is incredible for supplemental The prices are on the high side, because ROP products are designed for the insurance company to be able to invest some of that premium, but the prices aren't obnoxiously high like ROP Term Life policies are. ROP products for supplemental insurance are an unbeatable selling advantage. Since Globe took over Family Heritage, they've absolutely blown up. Sales are going through the roof. The agents seem to be a lot more polished as well. The best trained out of all of the supplemental companies.

I know there are other supplemental companies out there, like Combined, Washington Mutual, and a bunch of others. But they're not even in the conversation. They're such minor players, they're not even worth mentioning. Combined is trying to make a push right now. They're recruiting a lot of AFLAC and Colonial managers away from them, offering base salaries. But Combined won't go anywhere. They just don't have "it".

 

[Sherri L Haskins]

AFLAC is a complete joke. I've been in the insurance game doing supplemental insurance for the better part of a decade, and a day doesn't go by without hearing someone badmouthing them. The prices are sky high (you're paying for the duck), the service is generally awful, agent turnover is absurdly high, billing issues are the norm (they have an odd billing schedule), and if you're a new agent trying to make a living? Forget it. Every market is as saturated as it could possibly be.

Colonial is far better as far as service goes. But Colonial, just like AFLAC, has expanded way too much in recent years, and their home office is messing up a lot these days. Constant billing issues, claims taking forever to pay, and way too many clueless agents going out into the field under trained. But, that's more of a district problem, because some district managers have no business being in their roles. They tend to promote people who have no business being promoted, into managerial roles.

Allstate has the same cookie cutter supplemental policies as AFLAC and Colonial. Good pricing. But the service is LAUGHABLE. Horrendous billing and claims issues. Allstate doesn't have a dedicated service team. They have a sales and enrollment team, but service is an afterthought, because Allstate's main business is Auto & Home. I would never recommend Allstate supplemental in a zillion years. Way too many potential issues.

The best supplemental out there right now is Globe Life/Family Heritage. They used to be Family Heritage Life, but Globe Life bought them last year. They have return of premium on all of their policies, which is incredible for supplemental The prices are on the high side, because ROP products are designed for the insurance company to be able to invest some of that premium, but the prices aren't obnoxiously high like ROP Term Life policies are. ROP products for supplemental insurance are an unbeatable selling advantage. Since Globe took over Family Heritage, they've absolutely blown up. Sales are going through the roof. The agents seem to be a lot more polished as well. The best trained out of all of the supplemental companies.

I know there are other supplemental companies out there, like Combined, Washington Mutual, and a bunch of others. But they're not even in the conversation. They're such minor players, they're not even worth mentioning. Combined is trying to make a push right now. They're recruiting a lot of AFLAC and Colonial managers away from them, offering base salaries. But Combined won't go anywhere. They just don't have "it".

 

[Sherri L Haskins]

I am fond of AFLAC! Our company has had the same agents for the past 18 years. They have become family. I can only recall 2 other agents that have came into our business to sell us AFLAC, they know we have great agents, so they don't even come in.I have never had a problem with AFLAC paying a claim; unless our employee hasn't provided all the information needed for AFLAC to process the claim; which is when I step in and help my employee get what they need from their EOB's from their Dr.'s office/Hospital, and then the claim is paid in a timely fashion. My employees love the 24 hour direct deposit. AFLAC billing is best I've experienced in the 22 years of being an HR. I can terminate employees right from the bill. I have not found another company that does this. My son was in the military and he was hurt during that time,and several (6) years later I found out I could submit those claims and they paid them very quickly. I have never had to wait long on the phone for CS agent, if its more than 10-15 minutes they will call me back and usually within the hour. I can't say enough about AFLAK!!

 

[mobilegent]

I am a life and health insurance agent in Alabama,who has a client,who is a trucking company in Alabama (20 employees), who is looking at long term and short term disability insurance for its employees. They are currently looking at Colonial regarding their long term and short term disability insurance needs. How competitive is Colonial regarding this marketplace and what insurance companies would be best in competing against Colonial? Any help regarding this matter would be appreciated. Thanks.