As you shop for life insurance, keep in mind that there is no best company for all situations. Many life insurers have strengths and weaknesses that we’ll share with you here.
Our Best Life Insurance Companies Guide Reviews:
Life Insurance Company Overviews
How do you choose the best life insurer, and what criteria should you consider when shopping for life insurance?
At RiskQuoter, we answer your questions in this comprehensive guide to the premier life insurance carriers available.
Something for you to keep in mind is that there is no single life insurer in the industry that will be the top for every insured and situation encountered.
Therefore it’s essential to work with independent agents who will match you with the best carriers based on your needs, rather than captive agents who only represent one company.
The life insurers we review include:
AIG – American General Life Insurance
Find out why AIG-American General is worth considering when you are looking for life insurance.
AIG-American General Life Insurance Company Review
Banner Life Insurance
Legal and General America is the parent of Banner, offering competitive life insurance options that are worth considering.
Banner Life Insurance Company Review
John Hancock Life Insurance Company
Term life insurance and universal life insurance policies are available.
In addition to that, John Hancock is the only company with a program to reward healthy lifestyle behavior.
Read More: John Hancock Life Insurance Company Review
Lincoln Financial Group
If you’re looking for excellent life insurance whether it’s term life insurance or universal life insurance, Lincoln is very competitive, especially for higher face amounts and ages.
Lincoln National Life Insurance Company Review
Principal Life Insurance Company
Principal Life, also operating as Principal National Life in some states, offers term life insurance, universal life insurance, disability insurance and more.
Read More: Principal Life Insurance Company Review
Protective Life Insurance Company
Protective Life offers competitively priced term life insurance and universal life insurance.
Read More: Protective Life Insurance Company Review
Prudential
Prudential Life Insurance Company offers competitive term and permanent coverage.
As a leader in life insurance underwriting, Prudential may be an excellent option for you.
Prudential Life Insurance Company Review
West Coast Life Insurance Company
West Coast Life Insurance Company is now part of Protective. Known for it’s aggressive policy pricing, many insureds still have policies that offer conversion and other great features.
Read More: West Coast Life Insurance Company Review
Life Insurer Financial Strength Ratings
These rating agencies issue life insurer financial strength (IFS) ratings.
- A.M. Best
- Fitch
- Moody’s
- S&P
A.M. Best
AM Best was founded in 1899 by Alfred Best.
A.M. Best analyzes companies to determine the company’s claims-paying ability. A.M. Best is the only agency that focuses exclusively on the insurance industry and seems to be the easiest for most consumers to understand.
Analysis includes:
- Balance Sheet Strength
- Operating Performance
- Business Profile
- Enterprise Risk Management
Ratings offered by A.M. Best include:
- A++ and A+ = Superior
- A and A- = Excellent
- B++ and B+ = Good
- B and B- = Fair
- C++ and C+ = Marginal
- C and C- = Weak
- D = Poor
- E = Under Regulatory Supervision
- F = In Liquidation
Fitch Ratings
The main driver of Fitch’s Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating is the evaluation of the life insurance company’s performance under the Key Credit Factors defined by Fitch.
Some of the qualitative review factors include:
- Sovereign and country related constraints
- Business and industry profile
- Ownership and management
Some of the quantitative factors include:
- Capitalization, debt service, and financial flexibility
- Financial performance and earnings
- Risk mitigation
Fitch ratings include:
- AAA = Exceptionally Strong
- AA = Very Strong
- A = Strong
- BBB = Good
- B = Weak
- CCC = Very Weak
- CC = Extremely Weak
- C = Distressed
Additional Fitch rating information can be found on their website, although their site makes it very complicated to find life insurer ratings.
Moody’s Ratings
Provides forward-looking opinions of the relative credit risks of financial obligations issued by the life insurer
Ratings include:
- Aaa = Judged to be the highest quality
- Aa = Judged to be high quality
- A = Judged to be upper-medium grade
- Baa = Judged to be medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk
- Ba = Judged to speculative
- Caa = Judged to be speculative of poor standing
- Ca = Judged to be highly speculative
- C = Lowest rated and typically in default
S&P Ratings
The focus is to provide forward-looking opinion about the life insurance company’s ability to pay its insurance policies under the terms of those contracts.
S&P ratings include:
- AAA = Extremely strong financial characteristics
- AA = Very strong financial characteristics
- A = Strong financial characteristics
- BBB = Good financial characteristics
- BB, B, CCC, and CC = Vulnerable financial characteristics, with each of these broken down further.
You can find more information here about S&P life insurance ratings.
Comdex
Comdex is a composite score developed by Ebix software company that sells life insurance quoting software to life insurance companies.
It’s hard to use this score as a means to evaluate a company, so we don’t promote this score.
Best Term Life Insurance Company
Legal & General America
Known as Banner Life in the industry, Legal & General offers term life insurance using an e-application and e-policy.
You may complete your application online or during a phone interview, and receive your policy electronically with Banner.
Other companies worth mentioning:
Best High Risk Life Insurance Company
Prudential
While many life insurance companies specialize in one or two health conditions, Prudential is the best overall impaired risk life insurance company.
Whether it’s heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV+ or just about any other health condition, Prudential is almost always one of the better companies.
Other companies worth mentioning:
Best Final Expense Life Insurance
AIG-American General Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Insurance
When you need a small life insurance policy without the hassle of medical underwriting, AIG’s Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Insurance (GIWL) is a great choice.
With a quick online application, guaranteed rates, living benefits in many states, AIG is hard to beat.
Other companies worth mentioning:
- United of Omaha
- Kemper Life & Health Company
The first step is always for us to review your medical history to see which companies will do the finest job in life insurance underwriting for your needs.
We’ll then work through how much life insurance you need to work on quotes for you.
We’ll put it all together for you, and then we can review the ratings of life insurance companies that interest you.
Please take a few minutes to submit your quote request today. Thank you.