Lantern Insurance Company

Lantern Insurance Company is the brief but consequential final chapter of Bestow’s direct-to-consumer life insurance story. Born from the sale of Bestow’s carrier entity to Sammons Financial Group in 2024, Lantern operated as a standalone term life insurer for less than two years before closing its doors to new applicants in August 2025. Existing policyholders remain covered, and their policies continue to be administered by Lantern under the financial umbrella of one of America’s most stable insurance holding companies.

Origins: From Bestow to Lantern

To understand Lantern, you have to understand Bestow. Founded in Dallas in 2016 by Melbourne O’Banion and Jonathan Abelmann, Bestow set out to modernize term life insurance with a fully digital, no-medical-exam application that could be completed in minutes. The company built its own carrier subsidiary — Bestow Life Insurance Company — to underwrite the policies it sold directly to consumers.

Bestow raised more than $300 million in venture capital over its lifetime, including a $70 million Series C and a $120 million Series D led by Goldman Sachs. But by 2022 it was clear that the direct-to-consumer model was under pressure across the insurtech sector. Bestow laid off approximately 41 employees — about 14% of its workforce — in the summer of 2022, and began pivoting its strategic focus toward business-to-business software services for established carriers.

Rather than continue operating a carrier alongside a SaaS platform, Bestow sold Bestow Life Insurance Company to Sammons Financial Group in a transaction that closed on July 1, 2024, for approximately $20.6 million. For the full story of Bestow’s pivot, see our Bestow company profile. Sammons is a privately held, Des Moines-based financial services holding company with roots dating to 1886 and member companies that include Midland National Life Insurance Company and North American Company for Life and Health Insurance — both carrying A+ (Superior) ratings from A.M. Best.

Under Sammons ownership, the carrier was renamed Lantern Insurance Company and rebranded in early 2025 as state-by-state regulatory approvals were received.

Lantern as a Standalone Insurer

Under its new identity, Lantern continued offering term life insurance online, preserving the same no-medical-exam, instant-decision model that Bestow had pioneered. Applicants could apply entirely online and receive a coverage decision in minutes, with policies available across most of the United States — Lantern was not licensed in New York, Maine, Colorado, or Puerto Rico.

The Lantern brand leaned into clarity and simplicity: an accessible digital interface, straightforward term coverage, and the financial backing of Sammons Financial Group’s broader portfolio. Policies were supported by reinsurance arrangements, and the Sammons parent relationship provided institutional credibility that standalone insurtechs often lacked.

Despite these structural advantages, Lantern stopped accepting new insurance applications in August 2025 — less than a year after the rebrand was complete.

What Happened to Lantern Policyholders

If you purchased a term life policy through either Bestow or Lantern, your coverage is not affected by the closure to new business. All existing policies remain in force with the same terms, premiums, and death benefits that were in place at the time of issuance. Claims are administered and paid by Lantern Insurance Company, which continues to service existing policies as a member of Sammons Financial Group.

Policyholders can manage their accounts through the Lantern online portal or reach customer care at 1-800-835-8803 (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time) or by email at [email protected].

Policies do not auto-renew — they simply expire at the end of the term. For policyholders who need new or replacement coverage, they will need to apply through a different carrier.

Legacy and Industry Context

The Bestow-to-Lantern arc is one of the clearest illustrations of the structural challenges that confronted consumer-facing insurtechs in the early 2020s. Bestow built genuinely innovative underwriting and distribution technology — but the economics of acquiring individual life insurance customers online at scale proved difficult to sustain. The solution Bestow ultimately chose was to monetize that technology as infrastructure for other carriers rather than as a consumer brand.

The $20.6 million sale price of the carrier entity — a fraction of the $300 million-plus raised — reflected those realities plainly. Sammons acquired a licensed, operational carrier with a seasoned policy administration infrastructure at a price that made sense as a bolt-on to an existing insurance portfolio rather than as a standalone consumer business.

Lantern’s brief independent chapter closed quietly in August 2025. Its policyholders remain protected, its parent is among the most financially sound insurance organizations in the country, and the technology it was built on continues to power other carriers’ digital distribution through Bestow’s B2B platform.