The 10 Best Life Insurance Companies: Reviews & How to Choose the Right Carrier for You

Our 10 Best Life Insurance Companies below were last updated in March 2020.

For instant quotes from the best life insurance companies in the United States, complete the form on the right and quotes will be displayed on the next screen.

We have reviewed over 60 of the top life insurance carriers in the US, and narrowed down the list below to the 10 best companies!

Below, find out who made the list, how we determined the best life insurance companies, and how you can choose the right company for you.

• Our Process for Reviewing Life Insurance Companies
• The Best Life Insurance Companies by Age & Type
• The 10 Best Life Insurance Companies: Reviewed!
• Alternative Life Insurance Companies: Runners Up
• How to Choose the Best Life Insurance Company for You

Below, you’ll be able to read why each company is a good choice for life insurance, and who they might be best for. For example, if you have diabetes or if you’re over 70, we might recommend one company over another.

With that said, we only work with financially stable life insurance companies that have a strong history of paying our claims.

Here is the list of the 10 best companies. Click the company to go to see a review on each company and why they made the list.

Life Insurance Company	A.M. Best Rating	Comdex Score	Affordability Index	Ease of Applying	Customer Service	Root Rating
Protective	A+	87	9.9	9.6	9.7	9.8/10
Haven Life	A++	97	9.2	9.8	9.6	9.7/10
Banner Life	A+	94	9.8	9.5	9.2	9.7/10
Prudential	A+	90	9.3	9.5	9.6	9.7/10
Mass Mutual	A++	97	6.1	9.2	9.9	9.6/10
Northwestern Mutual	A++	100	9.1	8.1	9.8	9.6/10
Mutual of Omaha	A++	93	9.5	9.2	9.3	9.5/10
Principal Financial Group	A+	90	9.1	9.5	9.7	9.4/10
Lincoln Financial	A+	91	9.5	9.6	9.3	9.4/10
AIG	A	82	9.3	9.2	8.9	9.3/10

When searching for a life insurance company, the best company for you will depend on your situation. Your life insurance choices should reflect you and your unique needs. The carrier that is best for someone else may not always be the best choice for you.

See all our life insurance company reviews here.

To help you begin your life insurance search, we have compiled a ranked list of some of the top life insurance companies in the United States. This overview is designed to give you a little more information about some of the best companies and where they excel.

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Our Process for Reviewing Life Insurance Companies

Financial strength is one of the most important aspects to consider when looking at an insurance company. If a carrier can protect itself against market downturns and financial ruin, the chances are good that they will be able to adequately protect your loved ones.

We use A.M. Best and Comdex ratings to provide you with a brief snapshot of a company’s financial strength because they are the industry’s benchmarks for financial strength.

We use our own data and research to come up with the Root Rating which we’ll explain below.

About A.M. Best Ratings

A.M. Best has been the industry’s go-to for financial strength ratings for over a century. Their financially secure ratings range from B+ to A++, and are qualitative-and-quantitatively based on a company’s ability to pay out insurance claims.

A.M. Best also looks at the strength of a carrier’s notes, bonds, and financial tools as well as a company’s operating performance and business profile, comparing them to industry-standard and other life insurance companies.

All the life insurance companies on our list have at least an “A” rating by A.M. Best.

About Comdex Ratings

A company’s Comdex rating is also an important part of an insurance company’s financial strength.

A company’s Comdex score is a ranking, from 1-100, that compiles ratings from A.M. Best, Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard & Poor’s. The closer a company’s Comdex score is to 100, the more highly that company has been ranked by two or more of these agencies.

More about Financial Strength for Life Insurance Companies

Something to keep in mind when it comes to financial strength is that no company in the history of life insurance has not paid claims due to insolvency. Big life insurance companies absorb smaller life insurance companies all the time. Even if it did happen, there are state guarantee funds that will kick in to cover around $300,000 (varies by state).

About our “Root Rating”

A.M. Best and Comdex are great when making sure you choose the best life insurance company that pays out claims, but what matters most to consumers is affordability, customer service, and confidence in the life insurance product they’re purchasing.

We’ve factored in the following to create our Root Rating:

1. Affordable Rates – This is the heaviest weighing factor. We researched rates for over 60 of the nation’s strongest life insurance companies.
2. Customer Service – We polled life insurance owners across the US and combined it with other studies around the web.
3. J.D Power – U.S. Life Insurance Study (referenced here)
4. Convenience – How easy is it to apply and get a policy active.
5. Internal workings – Since we’re licensed, we stay up-to-date on things like underwriting, speed to issue, and innovation.

We’ve combined these criteria to come up with an effective rating system where we can rate each company on the factors below.

Affordability Index

We can see every life insurance company’s rates on a spreadsheet and determine which companies are the most affordable. This is for fixed-priced life insurance plans like term life insurance, final expense life insurance, and guaranteed universal life insurance.

If the affordability index is above a 9, feel confident that the company you’re considering has very competitive rates as compared to the open market. Anything below an 8, you can likely find lower rates for a similar life insurance policy.

Ease of Applying

This takes into account how quick and easy it is to apply for life insurance once you decide to do so.

• Can you apply online, over the phone, or through an e-application?
• Is it easy?
• Is it fast?
• Are there additional requirements such as phone interviews?

We look at each company’s application process and assign a rating based on ease of applying for life insurance coverage. Anything above a 9 will have a simple application process that won’t involve you having to print or mail any documents as everything can be completed electronically.

Customer Service

This is taking into account the service a life insurance company provides after you purchase a life insurance policy, including:

• If you speak with someone during normal business hours.
• Can customer service help with beneficiary and billing changes?
• Overall consensus of customer service reputation.

If customer service is over a 9, feel confident that you’ll be able to handle any policy changes over the phone.

All these factors combine to create our Root Rating, giving you the best life insurance companies in the industry.

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The Best Life Insurance Companies by Age & Type

Generally, when someone is searching for life insurance, they are looking for one of three types.

• Term Life Insurance
• Whole Life Insurance
• High-Risk Life Insurance

While many life insurance carriers offer all three types, most companies specialize in one area of life insurance. Below are our picks for each of these 3 categories, broken down by age group.

Age Group	Best Term Company	Best Whole Life Company	Best High-Risk Company
39 & Younger	American National	Mass Mutual	Banner Life
40 – 49	Protective Life	Northwestern Mutual	AIG
50 – 59	Lincoln Financial	Northwestern Mutual	Prudential
60 – 69	Protective Life	Mutual of Omaha	Banner Life
70 – 75	Banner Life	Mutual of Omaha	AIG
76 & Older	AIG	Mutual of Omaha	AIG

Be sure to compare the company that fits you best in our chart above to other top carriers below.

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Reviews of the 10 Best Life Insurance Companies

Below are comprehensive reviews of each company in our top 10.

In addition to looking at A.M. Best grades and Comdex scores, we have listed the company history, our recommended products, and the company strengths.

Remember you can get instant quotes from all of these companies by filling out the quote form on the side.

1. Protective Life Insurance

Protective remains a leader in universal life insurance options, providing clients with great coverage at affordable prices.

Best Life Insurance Products

Protective’s Custom Choice UL (Our #1 Root Rated term product). This term life insurance policy guarantees policyholders coverage at a level premium for a specific term, for 10, 15, 20, and 30 years. When your policy expires, the death benefit will decrease slightly, but your premium will never increase – a great feature that’s rare in term life insurance products (most get outrageously expensive).

Game changer: What’s more is if you’re between the ages of 18-45 and applying between $100,000 and $1,000,000 or age 46-60 and applying between $100,000 and $500,000, you can qualify for their accelerated underwriting program which will bypass the medical exam and get you coverage within 2-3 business days. You need to be in average to good health to qualify for this.

Pros of Choosing Protective Life Insurance

Protective typically has very low-cost term life insurance and their underwriting is very fair.

Protective’s conversion privileges are some of the longest in the business. This means you can convert to a permanent policy without any underwriting.

As mentioned above, they also offer a unique level premium, reduced death benefit at the end of your term period.

As far as underwriting goes, Protective has a very available underwriting department where licensed agents can speak with underwriters directly about your risk while keeping your identity private. What that means to you is if you have any health conditions, a licensed agent can speak with an underwriter about the details before applying so you can get a more accurate estimate of your premiums.

Protective also has very competitive rates for people with various health complications and lifestyle risks.

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2. Haven Life

Root Rating	A.M. Best Rating	Comdex Score	Our Full Review
9.7/10	A++	97	Haven Life Insurance Review

Best Company For

• Healthy individuals who want to purchase term life insurance online

History of Haven Life

Haven was founded by Yaron Ben-Zvi in 2015 in New York. Yaron has a background working with financial services start-up companies.

With Haven Life, he wanted to remove the traditional hassles that come with purchasing life insurance.

They started with an idea to have people purchase life insurance completely online with the ability to get a decision and coverage in force quickly. They sell term life insurance an annuities and currently have $5.3 billion in-force policies.

Best Life Insurance Products

With Haven Life Term life insurance, you can qualify from $100,000 to $3,000,000 in term life insurance with 10, 15, 20, and 30-year terms completely online. Anything $1,000,000 and under will get an instant decision.

Pros of Choosing Haven Life

You NEVER have to speak with an agent. It’s a 100% online process and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Haven life’s term policies come with up to $3 million in coverage which is more than other online life insurance companies. Their policies are instant issue and do not require a medical exam.

With that said, you can call a customer service representative at any time with any questions you have.

Their policies are competitive for healthy individuals when it comes to price, and they offer other benefits and riders.

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3. Banner Life Insurance (Legal & General Insurance)

Best Company For

• People with minor to moderate health issues
• People who quit smoking 3 to 5 years ago
• Other health risks

History of Banner Life

In 1949, Banner Life Insurance began as Government Employees Life Insurance Company (GELICO). In 1981, GELICO was acquired as a wholly-owned subsidiary by Legal & General Group Plc. Two years later, in 1983, GELICO’s name was changed to Banner Life and the company gained a chief position with Legal & General America. Recently Banner has officially changed its name to Legal & General, but the market still refers to them as Banner Life.

Best Life Insurance Products

Banner’s OpTerm coverage is term life coverage that offers policyholders level premiums for the duration of the term. The terms are either 10, 15, 20, or 30 years, with 20 being the most popular.

This type of coverage comes with a free accelerated death benefit rider, which allows policyholders to receive a portion of their death benefit in case they fall terminally ill.

OpTerm coverage is renewable up to the age of 95 and gives policyholders under the age of 66 to convert to a premium policy. For individuals aged 66 and over, the conversion period only extends through the first 5 years of the policy.

Pros of Choosing Banner Life

Banner consistently offers the lowest costs for term life insurance coverage on the market.

They also are known for competitively underwriting individuals with impaired risks, such as former smokers and those with high blood pressure. If you have any health issues that are considered insurable, it’s likely Banner will be a good option for you since they have favorable table ratings.

Additionally, Banner was the first life insurance company to sell universal life coverage nearly three decades ago, and they remain on the cutting edge of bringing modernized life insurance products to market.

• On top of that, Banner is tops in the market for a number of specific health niches. You can get their best health class if you quit smoking 3 years ago, while most of the industry makes you wait 5 years.
• High blood pressure and cholesterol treated with medications can qualify for the best health classifications.
• If you’re over 50 years old and are diabetic, you can qualify for “Standard” rates.
• A family history of cancer doesn’t exclude you from the preferred plus rating either, as it does with most companies.

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4. Prudential

Prudential offers great customer service and highly competitive rates for smokeless tobacco users, high-risk clients, and aging applicants. Additionally, Prudential is one of the only companies in the industry to insure active-duty military members with deployment orders.

Best Life Insurance Products

Prudential has more than a few stand-outs among its products.

Term Essential is affordable level-premium coverage offered in terms of 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. This policy is customizable with rider options such as accidental death benefit, child protection, and waiver of premium. Policyholders are given the option to convert up to the age of 65 or before the end of their term.

Prudential also offers Term Elite protection, which provides policyholders the protection of term life while preparing them to convert to whole life insurance. Like Term Essential, Term Elite policies are offered in 10, 15, 20, or 30-year terms, are customizable, and allow policyholder conversion options. However, Term Elite offers a conversion credit if you convert your policy to one of Prudential’s whole life policies within the first 5 years. This conversion credit offers credit toward your permanent policy, equaling the amount you’ve paid for your term policy in the past 12 months.

95% of the term policies we sell from Prudential are the Term Essential plans.

PruLife Universal Protector is another great product from Prudential. This universal policy features a guaranteed death benefit and can be used toward key man business life insurance. Two unique aspects to this coverage are that the policy is competitively priced and you are given the option to purchase a rider allowing you to access death benefits to cover chronic illness medical costs.

Pros of Choosing Prudential

Prudential has many great qualities when it comes to life insurance.

1. They use your current age as opposed to the nearest age. This is important because if you’re within 6 months of your next birthday when your policy goes in force, you’re considered one year older with most life insurance companies.
2. They have great rates for smokers who do not smoke cigarettes. If you smoke cigars, you get their “Regular Plus” non-smoker rates. Prudential’s term product is “Non-Smoker Plus”.
3. They view smokeless tobacco users (dip, chew, snuff, etc) as non-smokers as well. On top of that, if you have medical marijuana prescription, they offer non-smoker rates as well and only rate based on the reason for the medical marijuana prescription.
4. They have liberal build charts. This means if you’re overweight, chances are Prudential will be one of the top options for you.
5. They’ve been fantastic for various risks including prostate cancer risks, foreign nationals, and people with DUIs.

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5. Mass Mutual

Mass Mutual only offered life insurance until 1946 when they expanded into offering group benefits. In 1981 Mass Mutual expanded further by introducing universal life insurance, among other financial products and services.

Best Life Insurance Products

• Whole Life/ Permanent Life Products
• Variable Universal Life
• Universal Life
• Term Life Insurance
• Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance

Pros of Choosing Mass Mutual

If you’re looking for whole life insurance to build cash value, Mass Mutual consistently ranks among the top when it comes to performance and dividend payments.

Mass Mutual is a great option for most healthy individuals who want to look at whole life insurance or business owners who want to fund their succession plans. They have all the planning, expertise, and products to do this efficiently.

Their financial strength and trusted name make them a company that should be considered for most types of policies. Of course, it is always best to compare with other companies.

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6. Northwestern Mutual

It was only 6 years later that Northwestern Mutual was able to expand into the Midwest and across the East Coast.

Initially, Northwestern only focused on life insurance. In the 1970s Northwestern began expanding into new insurance products such as disability. They also added retirement planning and annuities to their catalog.

Best Life Insurance Products

• Term Life Insurance
• Universal Life Insurance
• Variable Universal Life Insurance
• Custom Pay Whole Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance

Pros of Choosing Northwestern Mutual

Like Mass Mutual, Northwestern Mutual is a good choice for whole life insurance and in 2019 paid the biggest dividend ever to its policyholders – $6 Billion (source).

Policyholders seem to love Northwestern Mutual with 96% of policy owners staying year after year, giving them over 4.5 million policyholders.

They offer a wide range of insurance products and have a long-standing history that, along with the company’s financial strength, ensures your policy is safe.

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7. Mutual of Omaha

Throughout the years Mutual of Omaha has been on the cutting-edge of the insurance industry. For example, they extended insurance coverage to women wage-earners during World War I and became the first company to include a rehabilitation provision in their disability income protection policies in 1960. They continue to be active in their local communities.

Also, Mutual of Omaha also writes life insurance under the United of Omaha name.

Best Life Insurance Products

• Term Life Insurance | 10-30 Years
• Final Expense Life Insurance
• No-Lapse Universal Life Insurance
• Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance
• Simplified Issue Disability Insurance

Pros of Choosing Mutual of Omaha

Mutual of Omaha offers very competitive rates for life insurance, especially final expense life insurance.

They are typically in the top 10% in rates for term life insurance as well. They have benefits like their Fit Program, which can lower your term life insurance rates further.

Mutual of Omaha is great at simplified issue products, meaning there’s no exams and approvals happen within days instead of months. Their simplified issue disability policy called Priority Income Protection (we call it PIP) is a fantastic product to protect your income.

Their Term Life Express mortgage protection term life insurance is a very popular product because of it’s simplified issue underwriting process and ability to take on some moderate risks, although pricier than others on the market.

With a financially secure history, they are certainly worth comparing for your life insurance.

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8. Principal Financial Group

Principal has become a household name with their TV advertising and growing broker workforce.

Best Life Insurance Products

Principal’s term life insurance line has 10, 15, 20, and 30-year term lengths as well as an annually renewable term that renews every year for short-term needs.

They also have universal life insurance that can be guaranteed level for the rest of your life with a secondary guarantee. Think of it as “term for life.” It has the lowest possible premium payments to secure a level of death benefit and level premium payment for life.

Principal also has cash value universal life insurance including variable universal life and survivorship policies, commonly used in estate planning.

Pros of Choosing Principal Financial

They are very competitive on price especially in the ages 35-55 range in cases of $1,000,000 of life insurance coverage or more.

Where they stand out the most is you can get up to $1,000,000 of life insurance coverage with no medical exam and get a decision within 48 hours if you qualify. You must be in great health and qualify for their preferred rates. This is through their Accelerated Underwriting program.

Their term coverage also gives you the availability to convert to a permanent product with no evidence of insurability. It has some of the most favorable terms around as you can covert all the way up to age 70.

Currently, there are no health underwriting questions for their child rider for term life insurance. If you have a child that can’t qualify for any type of life insurance and has health complications, you can get them covered with Principal. This product is making its rounds for parents who have children with special needs.

Combine that with their excellent customer service and we’re big fans of Principal and our clients are as well.

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9. Lincoln Financial

Best Life Insurance Products

• Term Life Insurance
• Universal Life Insurance – Several Options

Pros of Choosing Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln has a lot of great underwriting niches where you can get better rates over other companies simply because they have aggressive underwriting stances for various risks.

For example, Lincoln doesn’t give you smoker rates if you dip, chew or use any smokeless tobacco products (like Prudential). You’ll be at their Standard non-smoker rates.

Another underwriting example is their “table shave” program for any of their universal life insurance products. If you’re a substandard risk up to Table 4, they’ll “shave” off some tables to get you to Standard, potentially saving you 50% on your life insurance.

Where they really shine is in term life insurance over $1,000,000 in coverage. They’ll typically always be in or very close to the top 3 in pricing, if not #1.

Lincoln Financial has several variations of term and universal life insurance, so there’s likely a good option for you. Their TermAccel product, for example, is a very straightforward term policy with low rates.

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10. AIG (formerly American General)

A lot of people have mixed feelings about the name “AIG” because of the bailout. 2 things to consider:

1. AIG repaid the government back.
2. AIG Life Insurance is a completely different subsidiary of AIG. They were associated by name only. We have complete confidence in AIG and wouldn’t hesitate to cover our own families with them.

With that said, AIG made our list of 10 best life insurance companies thanks, in large part, to its flexible underwriting. AIG excels at underwriting higher risk clients, particularly those with type 2 diabetes, and offers some of the lowest prices for guaranteed universal life insurance policies.

Best Life Insurance Products

The AIG Select-A-Term coverage allows policyholders to choose from 17 different term lengths, 10 years, and between 15 and 30 years. This is particularly beneficial to those looking to purchase customizable term coverage. You can:

• choose the duration of your term.
• choose your benefit size.
• customize your coverage with riders.

One of the best aspects of this insurance option is the 25-year term option! This is beneficial to those looking to purchase a 30-year policy, but who are intimidated by the premium price, as it offers an extra 5 years of protection for not much more than a 20-year term life insurance policy. Policyholders are also given the option to convert their term policy to a permanent policy up to the end of their term, or the age of 70.

AIG Secure Lifetime GUL is a flexible guaranteed universal life insurance policy. With this coverage, policyholders are allowed to select the coverage amount, how long they want to pay premiums, and the duration of the death benefit guarantee. These options provide policyholders with a unique form of guaranteed universal coverage. The policyholder can adapt their coverage if their future needs change.

Pros of Choosing AIG

AIG is usually very competitive for both healthy and high-risk applicants. Their “substandard” table rating pricing is similar to Banner Life’s. When comparing a table rating across the market, AIG will always be in the top few best-priced companies.

Specifically, we’ve seen AIG competitive with health risks such as Multiple Sclerosis and COPD (plus many others). Because of their substandard pricing, they’re usually competitive for most risks.

We love their guaranteed universal life insurance policy. Often called “term for life” as it’s guaranteed level premiums for the rest of your life, it’s usually one of the best-priced life insurance companies on the market for this type of product.

For both term and guaranteed universal life insurance quotes (choose “lifetime” for GUL), just complete the form on the side.

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Alternative Life Insurance Companies: Runners Up

There are a lot of life insurance companies innovating, re-branding, and moving the industry forward so it’s tough to pick only 10 carriers.

Below are our honorable mentions, or “runners up”:

• Foresters Life Insurance – Great benefits for members and low rates on no-exam term life insurance.
• American National Life Insurance – Low rates for term and universal life insurance.
• Sagicor Life Insurance – One of the best priced instant issue term life insurance policies.
• AARP Life Insurance – Great policies for seniors.
• AICPA Life Insurance – For Certified Public Accountants.
• Policy Genius – PolicyGenius doesn’t sell life insurance, but they make the process a lot easier. This online agency lets you quickly compare over a dozen companies.
• North American – Great for guaranteed universal life insurance.
• SBLI – Great for term life insurance with no medical exam.
• Minnesota Life (Securian Financial) – Good rates for higher coverage amounts.

All 9 fantastic companies are innovating like the top 10 we just discussed.

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How to Choose the Best Life Insurance Company for You

If you’re just getting started in your research, trying to find the best life insurance company for your needs, here is the process you should follow.

1. Decide what Type of Policy You Need

The type of policy you need will depend on your situation. You need to know:

• How much coverage you need.
• How long you need coverage.
• If you need any additional benefits like riders.

After you figure out the right type of policy for you, you’ll be ready for the next step.

Read about different types of policies here.

2. Find the Best Companies for the Policy You Need

Most companies specialize in a niche of life insurance. This means one company might give you better rates whole life insurance, while another is better for term, and a third company is better if you need guaranteed acceptance.

This is why you should find the type of policy you need first.

From there, you research the best life insurance companies for that specific policy. For example, you might research the best term life insurance for smokers or the best burial insurance companies.

3. Get Quotes from Each Company and Compare

At this point, you need to get quotes from every company you found and compare.

It’s important to compare quotes from multiple companies so you get the lowest rate possible. Skipping this step can cost you $100’s or even $1,000’s of dollars.

After comparing the quotes, you can choose the cheapest option. Or one is slightly more with extra benefits, determine if that is worth it to you.

The Easiest Way to Find the Best Company

The insurance industry is constantly evolving, and there is no guarantee that the top life insurance companies today will remain so in the future.

We continually research innovative trends in the insurance market, as well as company ratings, rankings, and reviews in order to keep our network strong.

The fastest way to find the best company for you is to fill out our instant quote tool or give us a call. Our network of experienced life insurance agents will contact you to help you with the application, underwriting, and purchasing process. They’ve likely worked with someone just like you and will know which are the best life insurance companies to compare so you save time and money!