Life insurance can be a great way to protect your loved ones from the financial fallout of an untimely death.

But having to jump through too many hoops to finalize a life insurance policy leaves this important task unchecked on many to-do lists.

That’s why Walnut’s life insurance policies can be so convenient. With Walnut, you can have a policy up and running in a matter of minutes. Plus, you’ll unlock member benefits to enjoy throughout the policy.

Ready to learn more about what Walnut has to offer? Let’s take a closer look at this life insurance option.

What Is Walnut Insurance?

Walnut offers life insurance policies with no medical exam required in most cases for adults aged 18 to 55.

Although Walnut itself is relatively new to the life insurance industry, it has partnered with The Savings Bank Mutual Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts (SBLI) to back its policies.

Walnut is based in Canada but is available in most U.S. states with the only current exceptions being New York and North Carolina. 

What Does It Offer?

Curious about Walnut? Here’s a closer look at what it offers to its customers. 

Fast Life Insurance Coverage

Walnut offers an entirely digital life insurance experience. You can fill out the application in less than a minute. From there, you’ll have the ability to explore your coverage options.

We ran a quote for a 26-year-old woman, and it took just 2 minutes to see the coverage options. The 10-year term option offered monthly premiums from $9.18 per month for $50,000 in coverage to $22.62 per month for $1,000,000 in coverage. When the option member benefits were added in, the costs were $11.68 and $25.12, respectively.

Once selected, it would just take a few more minutes to decide on the best option and finalize coverage. 

10- or 20-Year Terms

With any term life insurance policy, your coverage ends when the term expires. If you're working with Walnut, you’ll be able to choose between 10 and 20-year terms.

Unfortunately, these terms are on the shorter side. But Walnut could still be a good option if these terms fit within your financial goals.

Need help deciding what term you need? Check out our full guide. 

Coverage Limits Are On The Low Side

Walnut offers coverage that ranges from $50,000 to $1 million. While that's certainly not a bad range of limits, other companies offer higher maximum coverage amounts. 

For example, Haven Life's policies can go as high as $3 million and Ladder has an $8 million coverage limit. If you aren’t sure how much coverage you need, read this piece. 

Digital Protection Membership

In addition to life insurance, Walnut also offers a Digital Protection Membership. The goal of the membership is to protect your identity and passwords and secure your financial information.

Here’s what’s included with the $10 monthly fee:

• CyberScout. This service offers $1M in identity reimbursement coverage, $25K in social engineering coverage, credit monitoring services, $25k ransomware coverage, and 24/7 support. 
• Dashlane Premium. Dashlane works to keep your passwords secure on all of your devices.

This bundle could definitely save you time and money if you're someone who already pays for a password manager, identity theft protection, and credit monitoring all separately. On its own, Dashlane Premium will set you back $6.49 per month. So adding in all the CyberScout services for just a few extra bucks per month provides a nice value.

Extra Member Benefits Available

When signing up for your life insurance policy, you’ll have the option to include member benefits. These benefits include access to Headspace Plus, Dashlane Premium, and Classpass Digital.

In our test case, adding some of the optional benefits only increased the monthly premium by a few dollars. Each of those subscriptions would cost more when purchased separately, so it would certainly appear that Walnut customers get a discount through bundling.

Are There Any Fees?

You’ll pay a monthly premium for your life insurance policy. The amount you pay will vary dramatically based on your age and the coverage amount.

As we already mentioned, the test quotes we received for a 10-year policy for a 26-year old female, with no member benefit upgrades, ranged from $9.18 to $22.62. We also ran a test quote for a 20-year policy for a 28-year old male and monthly premiums ranged from $12.23 to $43.45.

If you want access to the extra member benefits, you’ll have to pay a bit more per month. The exact cost will vary, but based on our test quotes, it seems to cost $2 to $3 for this upgrade.

How Does Walnut Compare?

Walnut tries to separate itself from online life insurance pack by also offering digital protection and extra member benefits. But if you're looking for more term options, you might want to look elsewhere. Bestow and Ladder, for example, offers term lengths of 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years.

If you're comfortable submitting to a medical exam in exchange for a potentially higher coverage amount, then Ladder may be a smart choice. You can find coverage of up to $8 million with Ladder. But you may or may not have to undergo a medical exam.