Fidelity Life life insurance

Overview

Fidelity Life Association, A Legal Reserve Life Insurance Company, is an Illinois life insurer that sells simple term, senior, final expense and accidental death coverage to middle-market families, mostly by phone and online. It ranked #85 among U.S. life insurance groups by 2024 individual life direct premiums written, according to NAIC market share data, with about $180.6 million in premiums and a 0.12% market share. It files with the NAIC as a single company (NAIC code 63290).

Fidelity Life is a stock insurance company owned by Vericity, Inc., which in turn has been owned since June 28, 2024, by iA Financial Corporation, the parent of Quebec-based iA Financial Group. Its sister company eFinancial is a direct-to-consumer insurance agency that sells Fidelity Life policies (and other carriers') over the phone and online. iA also owns iA American Life in the U.S.

The company reports $684 million of total assets, $165 million of statutory capital and surplus, $233 million of direct and assumed premiums and $46 billion of life insurance in force for the year ending December 31, 2025. It is best known for its RAPIDecision product line, built around quick, often exam-free underwriting decisions.

History

Fidelity Life began in 1896 as the Mystic Workers of the World, a fraternal benefit society organized in Fulton, Illinois, to provide life and health coverage to members. The society dropped its ritual work and renamed itself Fidelity Life Association in 1930, and it later converted from a fraternal society into a mutual legal reserve life insurer, which explains the unusual legal name it still carries.

The company was later reorganized under a mutual holding company, Members Mutual Holding Company, which also owned eFinancial. Fidelity Life built a record as an early adopter of automated underwriting: it says it was among the first to deploy automated underwriting engines (2006), offer e-signatures (2007) and go paperless (2009), received a patent for its RAPIDecision Life term product in 2011, used predictive analytics at the point of sale to let some term buyers skip the medical exam in 2015, and launched fully online term sales in 2020. In 2021 it launched RAPIDecision Life One, a one-year term product, with Progressive Insurance.

On August 7, 2019, Members Mutual converted from mutual to stock form in a demutualization: when a mutual insurer goes public, and Vericity, Inc. became the holding company for Fidelity Life and eFinancial in an initial public offering at $10.00 a share. An affiliate of the private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. bought most of the shares and became the majority owner. On October 3, 2023, iA Financial Corporation agreed to buy Vericity, and the all-cash deal, valued at about $170 million ($11.43 a share), closed in June 2024, taking Vericity off the Nasdaq.

Life insurance products

All current products carry the RAPIDecision name:

• RAPIDecision Life, a patented level term policy for ages 18 to 65 with 10, 15, 20 or 30-year terms and $50,000 to $2 million of coverage. The company's sample monthly rates for a healthy 30-year-old woman start at $16.31 for a 10-year term; treat those as illustrations, not quotes. Some applicants can be approved without a medical exam (see no-medical-exam term life insurance: how it works).
• RAPIDecision Senior Life Term for ages 50 to 70, $10,000 to $150,000 depending on age, with 10, 20 or 30-year terms and level premiums. The full death benefit is paid after year three; a reduced benefit applies after the level period, and the policy eventually expires.
• RAPIDecision Final Expense for ages 50 to 85, whole life from $5,000 to $50,000 with no medical exam and no waiting period: approval depends on health questions and database checks such as motor vehicle records, and full coverage starts on approval. See final expense insurance: what it covers and costs.
• RAPIDecision Guaranteed Issue for ages 50 to 85, whole life up to $25,000 with no health questions; it pays a reduced death benefit in policy years one through three and the full benefit from year four, a graded benefit design.
• RAPIDecision Senior Whole Life for ages 50 to 85, $10,000 to $150,000 with level premiums, cash value, partial coverage at first and full benefits after year three; the policy matures at age 121.
• Accidental death insurance, a guaranteed-issue policy for ages 20 to 59 paying $50,000 to $500,000 only if death results from a covered accident.

Available riders include accidental death benefit, family accidental death benefit, a terminal illness accelerated death benefit, a child rider, an inflation rider and a return of premium rider; availability depends on the product and state.

Buying and service

You can get a quote online and apply by phone or online, usually through eFinancial's licensed agents (sales line 855-737-1546), or through independent agents and marketing partners. Coverage on some products can start the same day.

Existing policyholders can register for an online customer account to change contact details, beneficiaries or ownership, or download service request forms for name, address, beneficiary and ownership changes, loans and withdrawals, surrenders, premium payment options and collateral assignments. Customer service is at 800-369-3990, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central, or [email protected].

Claims

Fidelity Life posts state-specific claim forms on its website (separate forms for many states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, plus an "all other states" form). Download the form for the state where the policy was issued, complete it and return it with a certified death certificate; call 800-369-3990 with questions. Final expense, guaranteed issue, senior term and senior whole life policies have graded or limited benefits in the early years, so beneficiaries should check what the policy pays if death occurs in the first three years. Our claims guide explains the general process.

Ratings and reputation

On October 16, 2026, AM Best upgraded Fidelity Life's financial strength rating to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and its issuer credit rating to "a" from "a-", with the outlook revised to stable from positive. AM Best now rates Fidelity Life as a member of IA American Life Group, iA's U.S. life insurance group, after two years of integration following the Vericity acquisition, and expects Fidelity and its digital agency to help expand that group; it assesses the group's balance sheet as very strong but its operating performance as marginal. Earlier, on October 10, 2025, AM Best had affirmed Fidelity Life's A- (Excellent) financial strength rating and "a-" issuer credit rating and revised the outlooks to positive from stable, citing very strong balance sheet strength and capital contributions from iA in late 2024 and the second quarter of 2025 that let the company recapture business it had previously reinsured. AM Best had removed the ratings from under review and affirmed them in September 2024 after the iA acquisition closed. The company does not publish S&P, Moody's or Fitch ratings for Fidelity Life itself. Forbes included Fidelity Life in its America's Best Insurance Companies lists for 2023, 2024 and 2025, according to the company. It was not ranked in the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study.

Who it suits

Fidelity Life suits people who want a fast, mostly exam-free purchase of plain coverage: young families buying term, adults 50 to 85 buying final expense or senior whole life, and people with health problems who need guaranteed-issue or accidental death protection. It is less suited to buyers who want cash value accumulation, participating whole life, universal life or a long relationship with a local agent.

• Strengths: Term to $2 million with 10 to 30-year terms; no-exam final expense with no waiting period up to $50,000; guaranteed-issue and accidental death options for hard-to-insure applicants; backed by iA Financial Group, with an AM Best upgrade to A (Excellent) in October 2026.
• Weaknesses: A (Excellent) is a lower rating than many larger carriers carry, and AM Best rates the iA U.S. group's operating performance as marginal; senior term, guaranteed issue and senior whole life pay reduced benefits in the first years; no universal, indexed or dividend-paying whole life; sales are mainly through a phone-based agency rather than local agents.

How to contact Fidelity Life