Bestow Life Insurance

What Bestow Life Insurance does

Bestow Inc., founded in 2016 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a B2B SaaS platform provider for the US life insurance industry. The company offers an end-to-end, modular platform organized around three pillars: New Business (Application Suite, Underwriting Platform, Agent Portal), Administration (Admin Portal, TPA Services, Customer Portal), and Intelligence (Performance IQ, Data Optimization Suite, Innovation Lab). Carriers can license the full stack or adopt individual modules, with implementation timelines of 4-6 months. The platform supports term life, final expense, IUL, and is expanding toward annuities, with white-label customer experiences and configurable underwriting rules engines that allow carriers to retain control over pricing, branding, and risk selection.

Bestow's revenue model combines recurring SaaS platform licensing with managed TPA services. The company sells exclusively through direct enterprise sales to life insurance carriers, with no consumer or retail channel. Named customers include Transamerica, USAA, Nationwide, Equitable, and Sammons Financial Group. Quantified outcomes cited by the company include 45% lower per-policy costs in year one, 81% instant decision capability, 22% lower underwriting costs via the Recommendation Engine, and a 2x close-rate improvement achieved within six weeks for a carrier partner. In 2024, Bestow sold its legacy direct-to-consumer term life carrier (Bestow Life Insurance Company) to Sammons Financial Group, which renamed it Lantern Insurance Company, completing a pivot from D2C insurer to pure-play B2B SaaS. In May 2025, the company closed a $120M Series D led by Goldman Sachs and Smith Point Capital. Bestow is a privately held company with 101-250 employees, two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries (Bestow Agency LLC and Bestow Insurance Administration Services LLC), and is currently recognized on Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers list.

Name

Bestow Life Insurance

Legal name

Bestow Inc.

Website

https://bstow.me

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Bestow is a Dallas-based B2B SaaS platform that provides end-to-end digital infrastructure — including underwriting, application, agent, administration, and analytics modules — to US life insurance carriers such as Transamerica, USAA, Nationwide, and Equitable.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Life Insurance SaaS / Insurtech

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design Services (541512)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Policy Administration, Underwriting & Rating Platforms (Core Insurance SaaS) (FSAGAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data, Analytics & AI for Insurance (Risk, Pricing, Personalization) (FSAGAGAE), Document, Workflow & Policy Servicing Automation (RPA/No-Code) (FSAGAGAK)

Keywords

• Life insurance SaaS
• Insurtech platform
• Underwriting software
• Insurance administration
• Digital insurance platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Dallas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Licensing: Bestow provides its life insurance technology platform to carriers through SaaS licensing agreements. Carriers can implement the full end-to-end solution or select individual modules (Application Suite, Underwriting, Admin Portal, etc.) on a modular basis.
2. TPA Services: Third-Party Administrator services trusted by top carriers for post-issue servicing of policyholders.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Bestow is a SaaS platform provider that enables life insurance carriers to launch and operate digital life insurance products end-to-end. The platform is organized into three pillars — New Business (Application Suite, Underwriting Platform, Agent Portal), Administration (Admin Portal, TPA Services, white-labeled Customer Portal), and Intelligence (Performance IQ, Data Optimization Suite, Innovation Lab with AI tooling) — and can be adopted as a full end-to-end solution or as individual modules, supporting term life, final expense, IUL and other products with implementation timelines of 4–6 months.

Product overview

Bestow is a leading life insurance SaaS platform provider offering an end-to-end platform architecture with modular solutions for life insurance carriers. The platform consists of three main pillars: New Business (Application Suite, Underwriting Platform, Agent Portal), Administration (Admin Portal, TPA Services, Customer Portal), and Intelligence (Performance IQ, Data Optimization Suite, Innovation Lab). Carriers can implement the full end-to-end solution or adopt individual modules independently. The platform supports term life, final expense, IUL, and other life insurance products with white-labeled technology that can be live in as little as 4-6 months.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Application Suite Digital journeys for customers and agents covering the full application process — quote, illustration, multi-channel application (online, in-person, phone), modern checkout and bind with digital payments — sold to life insurance carriers as part of Bestow's SaaS platform.
• Underwriting Platform Modern underwriting solution with a sophisticated rules engine and streamlined workbench that lets underwriters build, test, and launch data-backed, compliant underwriting programs using multi-path decisioning (automated + underwriter referral). Sold to life insurance carriers as part of Bestow's SaaS platform.
• Agent Portal Sales management portal and agent enablement tools featuring a clean, modern interface and a fast, flexible quote illustration interface for distribution teams. Sold to life insurance carriers as part of Bestow's SaaS platform.
• Admin Portal Feature-rich administrative dashboard for post-issue policy servicing with self-service portals that simplify policy administration for life insurance carriers.
• TPA Services Third-Party Administrator services trusted by top carriers to handle post-issue policyholder servicing on behalf of the carrier.
• Customer Portal User-friendly, white-labeled self-service portal that allows policyholders to self-serve up to 97% of typical service needs with 24/7 access to policy documents, delivered under each carrier's brand.
• Performance IQ Vital insights platform for ops teams and product leaders across the policy lifecycle, providing data-backed decision support to realize smarter outcomes at lower cost.
• Data Optimization Suite Data modeling, integrations, and activation suite that enables smarter product and marketing decisions through data-infused technology.
• Innovation Lab Access to the latest innovations including AI tooling for marketing and product decisions, allowing carrier customers to test, learn, and implement new features quickly.

Quantifiable outcome

• Products launched in <6 months (vs. years)
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered strategic and core.

• Sammons Financial GroupstrategicTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2024Sammons Financial Group purchased Bestow Life Insurance Company in 2024, renaming it Lantern Insurance Company. Bestow transitioned from a direct-to-consumer life insurer to a B2B SaaS platform provider. This strategic relationship allows Bestow to focus on technology while Sammons manages the legacy carrier business.
• TransamericacoreTechnology or IntegrationTransamerica is a carrier partner that launched FFIUL II Express using Bestow's platform to deliver 100% instant-decision life insurance. Represents a key product integration partnership showcasing Bestow's underwriting capabilities.
• USAAcoreTechnology or IntegrationTop 20 life carrier partner using Bestow's platform solutions for digital transformation.
• NationwidecoreTechnology or IntegrationNationwide is a carrier partner leveraging Bestow's technology platform for life insurance operations.
• EquitablecoreTechnology or IntegrationEquitable is a carrier partner utilizing Bestow's SaaS platform solutions.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Socotra: Socotra offers a cloud-native core insurance platform used by life and health carriers for policy administration and underwriting. It competes head-to-head with Bestow's end-to-end modular SaaS approach targeting life insurers.
• FINEOS: FINEOS is a SaaS provider focused on life, health, and disability insurance core systems, including policy administration and claims. It is a direct peer to Bestow in delivering digital core systems to life insurance carriers.
• Sapiens International: Sapiens offers insurance software platforms including life and annuities policy administration, illustration, and underwriting. It competes with Bestow's life insurance SaaS platform for carrier customers undergoing modernization.
• Majesco: Majesco provides cloud-based insurance software for life, health, and P&C carriers, including policy admin, underwriting, and data analytics. Its Life and Annuities suite overlaps materially with Bestow's end-to-end platform offering.
• iPipeline: iPipeline is a long-standing SaaS provider for life insurance carriers, offering illustration, e-application, underwriting, and policy administration. It directly competes with Bestow's Application Suite, Underwriting, and Agent Portal modules for the same carrier buyer.
• EIS Group: EIS Group provides a core insurance platform (EIS CoreSuite) for life, health, and P&C carriers, covering underwriting, policy admin, and claims. It is a direct competitor to Bestow in digital life insurance platform modernization.

Emerging players

• InsureMO: InsureMO is a cloud-native insurance middleware and platform provider serving life and P&amp;C carriers. It is an emerging alternative for carriers evaluating best-of-breed components alongside or instead of Bestow's monolithic platform.
• Definity Partners / Equisoft: Equisoft provides life insurance illustration, e-application, and policy administration software to carriers and advisors. It is a direct functional peer for Bestow's illustration and application suite capabilities.

Broad incumbents

• Insurity: Insurity provides insurance software and analytics primarily to P&C carriers, but competes broadly for digital transformation spend at large insurance groups, including those with life operations evaluating platform modernization.
• Duck Creek Technologies: Duck Creek is an established insurance SaaS provider primarily focused on P&C, but its broader platform and OnDemand suite compete for the same digital transformation budgets at large insurance groups that may also have life insurance lines.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bestow Life Insurance