Our Verdict: The Short Answer
Bestow no longer sells new life insurance. Sammons Financial Group bought the carrier in 2024, rebranded it Lantern, and closed it to new applications in August 2025. If you already hold a Bestow policy, the news is good: it remains fully in force, now serviced under the Lantern name and backed by Sammons, one of the better-capitalized groups in the business. If you are shopping today, you will need a different carrier.
Existing policy questions go to Lantern at 800-835-8803.
Key Takeaways
- Bestow Stopped Selling New Policies: Sammons Financial Group bought Bestow’s carrier on July 1, 2024, renamed it Lantern Insurance Company in early 2025, and closed it to new applications in August 2025. Bestow itself is now a business-to-business technology platform.
- Existing Policies Are Safe: If you bought a Bestow policy, it remains fully in force with the same terms, premium, and death benefit, now serviced under the Lantern name.
- Backed By Sammons: Lantern is a Sammons company, alongside A+ rated North American Company for Life and Health. The financial backing behind your policy is solid.
- Manage Your Policy Through Lantern: Existing policyholders pay premiums, update beneficiaries, and file claims through Lantern at 800-835-8803 or the online portal.
- Shoppers Need An Alternative: Because new sales have ended, anyone seeking no-exam term today should compare other digital-first carriers.
- Compare no-exam term life options
What Happened to Bestow Life Insurance?
Bestow no longer sells life insurance to consumers. The company launched in Dallas in 2016 as a digital-first term life agency, built on a five-minute online application with no medical exam, and for a few years it was one of the better-known names in no-exam term. That chapter is over. Sammons Financial Group bought Bestow’s insurance carrier and folded it into its own operation.
The paperwork puts a date on it. Sammons, through its North American Company for Life and Health Insurance subsidiary, completed the purchase of Bestow Life Insurance Company on July 1, 2024, for about $20.6 million. The carrier was renamed Lantern Insurance Company and rebranded in early 2025, and by August 2025 Lantern had stopped taking new applications. The Bestow brand still exists, but it now sells software to other insurers rather than policies to the public.
For a shopper, the practical takeaway is simple. You cannot buy a Bestow policy today, and you cannot buy a Lantern one either. For the people who bought while Bestow was open, the more useful question is whether the coverage still holds, and that one has a clear answer.
Is Your Bestow Policy Still Safe?
Yes. An in-force life insurance policy is a contract, and an acquisition does not let the new owner walk away from it. When Sammons bought the carrier, it took on every obligation that came with it. Your policy keeps the same death benefit, the same premium, and the same terms you signed up for, as long as you keep paying.
I spent years around carriers that were bought, sold, and merged, and the policyholder fear is always the same: my company got acquired, so is my coverage still good. The answer, almost without exception, is that the contract travels with the book of business. What changes is the name on the statement and the number you call, not the promise behind the policy.
The backing here is sound. Lantern sits inside Sammons Financial Group alongside North American Company for Life and Health, which holds an A+ (Superior) rating from AM Best, and Midland National. Lantern Insurance Company itself carries a BBB+ financial strength rating from S&P with a stable outlook. On complaints, North American posted a 2023 NAIC complaint index of 0.33, well under the 1.0 baseline, which is the kind of number that suggests claims get paid without a fight. Keep your premiums current and your beneficiaries are protected.
How to Manage or Log In to Your Bestow Policy
Servicing moved to Lantern, so that is where existing Bestow policyholders now go to log in, pay, or make a change.
- Policyholder login and account management: the Lantern customer portal at lanterninsurance.com
- Phone: 800-835-8803, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central
- Email: team@lanterninsurance.com
- Premiums, beneficiary changes, and forms: handled in the online portal
Claims run through the carrier rather than a sales desk. A beneficiary can file online or by phone, and a claim packet outlining the next steps arrives within two to three weeks. North American Company targets a 10-day turnaround on straightforward claims once it has complete documentation.
Two policy terms still matter for current holders. Miss a premium and coverage continues for a 60-day grace period from the last payment date, with any missed premiums deducted from the death benefit if a claim is filed in that window. The original two-year contestability and suicide clauses also continue to run from each policy’s start date.
What Bestow Offered, and What It Cost
For readers comparing notes on what Bestow actually was, here is the product as it stood while the company was open. Bestow sold one thing: term life insurance, with no riders, no permanent options, and no conversion privilege. Face amounts ran from $50,000 to $1.5 million, term lengths from 10 to 30 years, and eligibility from ages 18 to 60. It did not operate in New York, Maine, or Puerto Rico.
The draw was the underwriting. Instead of a paramedical exam, Bestow’s algorithm pulled prescription history, driving records, credit data, and prior insurance applications to reach a decision, often in minutes. That speed carried a tradeoff. The model worked cleanly for young, healthy non-smokers and tended to decline anyone with a meaningful medical history, since an algorithm has less room than a human underwriter to weigh nuance.
On price, Bestow was competitive for the demographic it targeted. A healthy 32-year-old non-smoking woman could buy $500,000 of 20-year term for roughly $18 a month. The value held up best for younger women, and the no-exam convenience cost more for men and older applicants, where a 25-year-old man buying $1 million over 20 years paid around $66 a month against a market average closer to $42.
If You Wanted to Buy Bestow, Here’s What to Do Now
Since new Bestow and Lantern coverage is off the table, the move is to shop the carriers that still sell fast, no-exam term. Ethos is the closest match to what Bestow did, a digital-first application with no exam for many applicants. If you want permanent coverage, which Bestow never offered, Corebridge and MassMutual sell whole and universal life. Anyone with a health history that an algorithm would decline should look at carriers that underwrite by hand, or at guaranteed-issue options.
Whichever direction you go, pull two or three quotes before committing. The no-exam market has tightened over the last two years, with both Bestow and Haven Life closing to new business, so the field of digital-first options is smaller than it was, and pricing varies more than the marketing suggests.
Our Verdict & Rating for Bestow
As a product, Bestow did one job well. It got healthy people covered quickly, without an exam, at a fair price for the right demographic, and it was backed by carriers that could pay. For the buyer it was built for, it was a legitimate option.
That product is no longer for sale. The only two actions a reader can take today are to manage an existing Bestow policy through Lantern, which remains straightforward and well-backed, or to shop a different carrier for new coverage. Neither calls for much hand-wringing about Bestow itself. The company kept its promises, sold the book to a strong buyer, and left the consumer market in an orderly way.
If You Already Have a Bestow Policy
Keep your premiums current and your coverage stays intact, serviced now by Lantern. Save the Lantern contact details, confirm your beneficiaries are up to date in the portal, and file any claim through the carrier. There is nothing you need to fix because of the ownership change.
If You Were Planning to Buy
Bestow and Lantern are closed, so compare live no-exam carriers instead. Ethos is the nearest equivalent to the Bestow experience, and a broker or comparison tool can surface options that underwrite the health histories an algorithm would have declined.
Methodology
Our evaluation weighted five core factors based on their importance to policyholders making purchase decisions:
- Stability: 20%
- Coverage Options: 10%
- Affordability: 30%
- Claims Process: 20%
- Customer Service: 20%
