Agent Owner, Gilmore Insurance Services, Marysville, Washington State
There are quite a few good insurance companies out there. What you want to do is look at financial ratings to get an idea of the quality of a carrier. Carriers pay financial ratings companies to review their books and assign a letter grade as a representation of the company's quality. Different ratings agencies view companies with a different pov, so it is always good when choosing a good company to find one that has been reviewed by several ratings companies. You might want to check with your state insurance commissioner's office to see what complaints or fines have been applied to companies. The good thing to know, is there are a lot of companies that are good out there. That is where the strength of the insurance industry is. Not just a few companies, but many companies of quality.
There are six rating services that measure the financial strength and claims paying ability of many of the life insurance companies that do business in the U.S.: A.M Best, S&P, Moody’s’, Fitch, Weiss and Comdex. There are also product spreadsheets published by independent industry Intel groups that rank by premium cost, policy provisions and serving claims experience.
There are hundreds and hundreds of good life insurance companies. There are certain things to look for in getting good products at good premiums.
First look for life insurance companies that specialize in life insurance and not the car or health companies that sell life insurance as a product line. You can choose well known life companies like Metlife, Prudential, NY Life, Transamerica, ING or John Hancock. These are great life insurance companies with big marketing budgets so they do not always have the best premiums for the coverage. There are great little known life insurance companies like SBLI, Banner, Genworth, Assurity or Minnesota Life that usually independent brokers know about but not the general public because they don't market their company and many times have better premiums for the same exact product of the well known names.
Second look at the companies ratings with AM Best, Moody's, Standard Poor's and Fitch. Only choose "A" rated companies for financial strength. You want the company to pay your loved ones when you die.
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First look for life insurance companies that specialize in life insurance and not the car or health companies that sell life insurance as a product line. You can choose well known life companies like Metlife, Prudential, NY Life, Transamerica, ING or John Hancock. These are great life insurance companies with big marketing budgets so they do not always have the best premiums for the coverage. There are great little known life insurance companies like SBLI, Banner, Genworth, Assurity or Minnesota Life that usually independent brokers know about but not the general public because they don't market their company and many times have better premiums for the same exact product of the well known names.
Second look at the companies ratings with AM Best, Moody's, Standard Poor's and Fitch. Only choose "A" rated companies for financial strength. You want the company to pay your loved ones when you die.