After some quick research, it turns out that there is no Bank of America insurance department or product to review. Bank of America does not offer it's own life insurance products. Rather, using their network of Bank of America personal bankers, they offer life insurance through third party carriers.   

Like all the "money center" banks, Bank of America branches have personal bankers for the their clientele. These Bank of America  personal bankers are often life and health licensed and can act as the conduit between the client and a third party agency contracted with the bank to provide life insurance services.

No Bank Of America Insurance Department

This setup is  is problematic for the consumer because the Bank of America personal banker is not an insurance expert, but rather a jack of many trades.

Should You Buy Life Insurance From A Bank Of America Personal Banker

Although the answers to this question are self serving, they have the benefit of being demonstrably true, as will be shown in the case study later in this article.

I. Service

This critique of service has nothing to do with how pleasant the personal banker is or whether you were offered coffee while you waited.

In the context of life insurance, "service" refers to beneficiary changes, address changes, activation of riders and conversions. The truth is you will probably own your policy for 20 or 30 years and having a steady hand to help you navigate the process is helpful.

This begs the question, will your twenty seven year old Bank of America personal banker be around when you need help or will you be calling the carrier's 1-800 number and listening to bad hold music? With neither dedicated professional agent's, nor a Bank of America insurance department the bad music is a good bet.

For professional independent agents, life insurance is not a stepping stone, it's our business. We are interested, even eager, to do service work because that is how we earn referrals.

II. Laser Focus

Experienced, professional life insurance agents don't do other things. With the exception of disability insurance or long term care insurance, good independent life insurance agents concentrate on their craft.

That means there is no time spent opening checking accounts, selling mutual funds, and playing corporate politics. This allows the best agents to find you the best deal for your unique situation.

Finding the best deal for your unique situation is sometimes as easy as using a free quote tool. This is because different insurance carriers have different appetites for specific risks.

III. Choice of Carriers

Banks and huge agencies like Select Quote and Zander offer the best deal among the carriers they carry. This is no different than most independent agents, accept they have fewer companies from which to choose.

The reason for this is simple, they negotiate the highest commissions in the industry because they do big volume business. In order to maintain the volume requirements for specific carriers they must limit the number of carriers. This is sound business for them, but it limits the ability to find the carrier that best fits your unique situation. In short their business model has no use for niche carriers.

IV. Experienced Independent Agents

Experienced independent life insurance agents have the niche carriers available and, they know specific carrier niches.

If you are in perfect health knowing the guidelines shouldn't matter because you will be preferred plus everywhere. In this case you really can just use the quote tool.

However, if you have a health condition, having an agent that knows the underwriting guidelines at various carriers is the key to finding the best deal possible for your specific condition.

Experienced independent agents will also be better situated to know which carriers allow for no exam options, specific riders and conversion privileges, financial ratings and underwriting turnaround times.

Bank of America Life Insurance Review: Example of Using an Independent Agent Instead of BOA Personal Banker

For example Prudential may have more of an appetite for the risk that say, depression presents than say Banner Life. In this case the underwriting grade will reflect this increased appetite.

This table which shows only a few of the major life insurance companies available illustrates the difference in rates. For standard rates Principal is 15%% more expensive than Banner.

On its' face this seems like a pretty straight forward choice and if underwriting grades between carriers is the same, it really can be that simple.

This kind of easy price shopping is particularly useful for younger folks in good health and demonstrates why you want to use an independent Agent.

For people who suffer from RA or any other serious diagnosis, it gets much more complicated.

Because life insurers manage their appetite for specific risks by being more lenient or more stringent with underwriting grades, you need to know which company will grade you a standard or table 2 risk and which ones will grade you as table 4-6.

In the case above Principal (the most expensive standard rate) is likely to be the best deal because the more competitively priced carriers will likely rate the risk table 4 while Principal might well go standard.

This is something you can't know by simply looking at the lowest price. In this case using an independent agent could save you 15% (the difference between principal @ standard and Banner @ Table 4).