Why there is no ranking on this page
A ranking would need a table, and there is no national table that measures life insurance companies on the same terms. Companies differ in the products they sell, the underwriting classes they offer, the states they operate in, the health conditions they view favourably, and the prices they charge for the same applicant — and any ranking that ignored those differences would be ranking something other than the cover you would actually buy.
The second reason is that the “best” company depends on the applicant. An insurer that offers the lowest premium to a healthy non-smoker in their thirties may offer a poor price to a sixty-year-old with diabetes, and an insurer that declines one applicant may offer standard rates to another with a different health history. This site’s health guides make the same point for diabetics, for high blood pressure, for seniors and for atrial fibrillation: carrier selection matters more for health cases than for most others, and the same applicant can be rated differently by different insurers. A single ranking cannot capture that, because the ranking would have to be re-done for every applicant.
The third reason is that the measures people usually rank companies on do not measure the same thing. Financial strength measures whether the insurer can pay claims decades from now. The complaint record measures how customers have been treated. Price measures what one applicant was quoted for one policy. Customer satisfaction measures something else again. A company can be strong and expensive, or cheap and heavily complained about, or well-liked and narrow in the products it offers — and a single ranked list has to pretend those are one thing, when they are four.
So this page does what the site’s long-term care companies guide does: it compares the cover first, and treats the companies you quote as a starting point, not a ranking. The method below is the page. Use it on any company you consider, and the comparison you produce will be worth more than any list.
What to compare first — the cover
Start with the cover, not the company. The NAIC’s advice, which runs through its buyer’s guide, is to determine which type of life insurance fits your needs first, and then to compare similar policies from different companies. A term policy and a whole life policy are not two prices for the same thing; they are two different products, and comparing their premiums tells you nothing useful about either company.
The cover questions are the ones this site’s hub articles answer. Is the need temporary or permanent? The term life hub article explains protection for a set number of years, the whole life hub article explains permanent cover with a fixed premium and a cash value, and the universal life guide explains permanent cover with flexible premiums — with the IUL guide covering its indexed form. Decide the type first, then the amount — the life needs calculator sizes the amount from debts, income replacement, mortgage and education costs — and only then ask companies for prices.
Within one type, the cover still differs. A term policy differs in its term length, in whether it can be renewed, and in whether it can be converted to a permanent policy and into which products. A whole life policy differs in whether it participates in dividends, in its nonforfeiture options, and in its loan terms. A universal life policy differs in its crediting method, its minimum premium, and its lapse conditions. Two policies of the same type from two companies can differ on every one of those terms, and the premium difference between them may be the price of the difference in terms — or it may be the price of nothing at all. The policy wording, not the brochure, is where the terms live.
Riders are part of the cover too. A waiver-of-premium rider, an accelerated death benefit rider, a child rider, an accidental death rider — each one changes what the policy does, and each one is priced and worded differently by each company. If one quote includes a rider and another does not, the prices are not comparable, and the comparison should be re-done with the riders matched or removed.
How to compare price — like with like
Once the cover is matched, the price can be compared — but only like with like. The site’s guide to life insurance quotes explains the quote process in full, and the rules are worth repeating here because they are the rules that make a company comparison honest.
First, the same death benefit and the same term length across every quote. A twenty-year term policy and a thirty-year term policy are not two prices for the same cover, and the thirty-year policy will almost always cost more because it covers ten more years. Second, the same underwriting class assumption. A quote at the best class — preferred plus, or whatever the company calls it — is not a price until underwriting agrees with the class, and comparing a best-class quote from one company with a standard-class quote from another tells you nothing about either company.
Third, the same basis for permanent policies: guaranteed values against guaranteed values, and illustrated values against illustrated values, never one against the other. A universal life policy illustrated at a high credited rate will look cheaper than a whole life policy quoted on its guaranteed column, and the comparison will be false in exactly the direction the illustration wants it to be. Decide whether you would buy the permanent policy on its guaranteed column alone, and compare on that column.
Fourth, the total cost, not the first year’s premium. A term policy’s premium is fixed for the term, so the total is the annual premium times the term length. A universal life policy’s premium is flexible, so the total is the premium needed to keep the policy in force to the age you need — on the guaranteed column, not the illustrated one. A whole life policy’s premium is fixed for life, so the total is the annual premium times the years you expect to pay it. Compare totals, and the cheapest first year will stop winning for the wrong reasons.
No price is quoted in this guide, and no company’s price is stated, because no price is a fact about a company in general. A price is a fact about one applicant, one death benefit, one policy type and one insurer, and it changes with all four. Any guide that quotes a company’s price without naming the applicant, the benefit and the policy is quoting a figure that applies to no one in particular.
Financial strength, complaints and licensing
Price and cover are not the whole comparison. A life insurance policy is a promise that may not be called on for forty years, and the promise is only as good as the company that makes it. Three checks cover that side of the comparison, and none of them requires a ranking.
The first is financial strength. Independent rating agencies assess insurers’ ability to pay claims, and their ratings are published. This guide names no agency’s rating for any company, because ratings change and this site does not republish them — but the check itself is simple: look up the company’s financial strength ratings from more than one agency, and be wary of a company whose ratings are low, withdrawn, or absent. A policy from a weak insurer is a promise from a weak promisor, and the premium saving is rarely worth it.
The second is the complaint record. The NAIC publishes a complaint index that benchmarks each insurer’s complaint performance against the average for its line of business, and your state insurance department publishes complaint information of its own. A company with a persistently high complaint index is telling you something about how it treats customers — at application, at claim time, or both — and that is information the premium cannot show you. Check the record for the last several years, for the line you are buying, and for the legal entity that would actually issue your policy, because a large group can contain entities with very different records.
The third is licensing. The NAIC recommends checking that an insurer is authorised to operate in your state, and your state insurance department is the place to check. An insurer that is not licensed in your state cannot lawfully sell you a policy there, and a policy sold by an unlicensed insurer may not be backed by your state’s guaranty association if the insurer fails. The check takes minutes, and it is the check that protects you against the companies that most need checking. Complaints are the satisfaction signal regulators publish, and the health side of it is in health insurance companies customer satisfaction.
The large writers, as a starting point — not a ranking
Start with the large writers — the companies with the largest books of life business — as a starting point for quotes. They are not ranked, they are not recommended, and any starting set is incomplete: a large company can offer a poor price to your health profile, and a smaller company can offer a better one.
Build that first set from this site’s life insurance comparison, which lists the product types each company itself publishes, and from the long-term care companies guide, which explains how to check a company’s record. Neither page ranks the companies it covers, and neither does this one.
What the large writers have in common is size and longevity, and size and longevity are worth something in a promise that lasts decades — but they are not a verdict on any individual policy. Use them as the first set of quotes to collect, then add companies that specialise in your situation — a health condition, a hazardous occupation, a large benefit, a small benefit — and compare all of them on the method above.
One more category deserves a mention, because it changes the comparison: mutual companies and stock companies. A mutual life insurer is owned by its policyholders, and a stock life insurer is owned by shareholders. Participating whole life policies, which may pay dividends, are a feature of mutual companies more often than of stock companies — though the distinction is not absolute, and the product matters more than the ownership. If dividends matter to you, ask whether the company is mutual and whether the policy participates; if they do not, the ownership of the company is not a reason to choose it or reject it.
How to shop — the sequence
The sequence matters, because each step depends on the one before it. First, size the need with the life needs calculator — debts, income replacement, mortgage and education costs, set against savings and cover already in place. Second, choose the type: term, whole or universal, from the hub articles, matched to whether the need ends or lasts for life. Third, collect quotes for the same cover from several companies, including the large writers and any company that specialises in your situation. Fourth, check financial strength, the complaint record and the licence for each company you are seriously considering. Fifth, read the policy wording for the one you would buy — the exclusions, the conversion or renewal rights, the lapse conditions, the loan terms — before you sign.
When the policy arrives, use the free-look period. The NAIC says you can usually return a new policy for a full refund within about ten days of receiving it, with the exact period stated in your policy and set by your state. The free-look period is the last chance to read the policy as issued, rather than as quoted, and to return it if the issued policy differs from the one you were sold.
And do not cancel your current policy until the new one is issued. That is the NAIC buyer’s guide advice, and it is the advice this site repeats in every guide where it applies: changes in your health may affect whether you can get a new policy and what it costs, and a gap between the old policy ending and the new one starting is a gap with no cover at all. The old policy stays in force until the new one is issued, even if the new one looks cheaper. The same sequence works for home insurers - see home insurance companies.
What a quote does not tell you
A quote tells you the premium for the cover you described, at the underwriting class the quote assumed. It does not tell you whether the insurer will actually offer that class, whether the policy as issued will match the policy as quoted, how the insurer treats customers at claim time, or whether the insurer will still be there in forty years. Those are the questions the rest of the comparison answers, and they are the reason a quote comparison is only the middle of the process, not the end of it.
The quote also does not tell you what the policy costs over its whole life. A term quote is an annual premium for a fixed term, so the total is the annual premium times the term length — but a universal life quote is a premium for a flexible product, and the total is the premium needed to keep the policy in force to the age you need, on the guaranteed column. A whole life quote is an annual premium for life, so the total is the annual premium times the years you expect to pay it. Compare totals, and the cheapest first year will stop winning for the wrong reasons. The site’s guide to life insurance quotes explains the quote process in full, including the five like-for-like rules and the four traps that make a cheap quote expensive.
Nor does a quote tell you what happens if your health changes. A term policy’s conversion right, a whole life policy’s nonforfeiture options, a universal life policy’s lapse conditions — none of those appear in a quote, and all of them matter more over thirty years than a small difference in the first year’s premium. Read the policy wording for the one you would buy before you sign, and use the free-look period — usually about ten days — to read the policy as issued. A quote is the beginning of the comparison; the policy is the end of it.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE buyer, 45, in good health, who needs cover for twenty years and has sized the need with the life needs calculator. The buyer collects twenty-year term quotes for the same death benefit from four companies, including two of the large writers. The quotes differ, and the lowest is not from the largest company. The buyer then checks the financial strength ratings and the complaint records of the two cheapest, and finds that the cheapest has a markedly higher complaint index than the second-cheapest. The buyer reads the policy wording of the second-cheapest and finds a conversion right the cheapest does not offer.
The buyer chooses the second-cheapest, pays more than the lowest quote, and buys a policy with a better complaint record and a conversion right that may matter in twenty years. That is the comparison working as it should: the price was compared like with like, the non-price checks changed the decision, and the policy wording decided it. These are ILLUSTRATIVE steps to explain how the method works; they are not a recommendation of any company, and no price or rating is asserted for any real insurer.
The test to apply to any company comparison is the like-for-like test: same benefit, same term, same underwriting class, same riders, guaranteed column against guaranteed column. If the comparison fails that test, it is not a comparison — it is a list of numbers that happen to be next to each other.