Top 50 Highest Rated Insurance Companies
Today we’re going to list the Top 50 highest rated insurance companies, because who you buy from is extremely important. These are the best life insurance companies in the USA according to the top rating agencies. Sometimes when you’re buying life insurance, you’re so focused on the lowest rate that you don’t evaluate the actual carrier. Buying from top rated insurance companies can be just as important as selecting the right life insurance policy.
What company is the best?
Are you just looking for the best Cash Value Whole Life Insurance companies? We reviewed the top rated companies right here.
How Are Insurance Companies Rated?
Who rates insurance companies? How are insurance companies rated? Well there are several well respected ratings agencies and each one of them has their own rating system. It is because of this that we wanted to make a comprehensive list of the top-rated insurance companies.
That means an “A” from one agency doesn’t equal an “A” from another.
The following life insurance companies ratings were organized alphabetically by the strength of their ratings. We’ve provided the ratings from these top rating agencies:
- A.M. Best
- Standard and Poor’s
- Fitch
- Moody’s
These are the top insurance companies ratings agencies. They are all a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization. Also known as NRSRO, the SEC gives them permission to provide ratings to insurance companies. These ratings shows the strength of each company’s financial reserves.
The top companies will provide you a variety of product options, be strong financially and rated highly from the 4 most popular rating agencies. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with these four agencies so you’ll get an idea of the overall financial strength of a company.
Top 50 Highest Rated Insurance Companies
All of the insurance company ratings below are ranked off of their A.M. Best rating. In addition, we wanted to also provide you the Fitch ratings, S&P ratings and Moody’s ratings in order to compare them too. Be aware that ratings do change and Life Insurance Blog makes every attempt to update these ratings.
So take your time and review our Top 50 list below. After you’ve taken a look at their insurance ratings, we’ll then over what all these grades mean so you can make sense of all of these rankings.
| Company | A.M. Best | S&P | Moody’s | Fitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian Life | A++ | AA+ | Aa2 | AA+ |
| GEICO | A++ | AA+ | N/A | N/A |
| Haven Life | A++ | AA+ | Aa2 | AA+ |
| Mass Mutual | A++ | AA+ | Aa2 | AA+ |
| New York Life | A++ | AA+ | Aaa | AAA |
| Northwestern | A++ | AA+ | Aaa | AAA |
| State Farm | A++ | AA+ | Aa1 | AA |
| TIAA | A++ | AA+ | Aa1 | AAA |
| Thrivent Financial | A++ | AA+ | N/A | AA+ |
| USAA | A++ | N/A | Aa1 | AA+ |
| Allianz Life | A+ | AA | A1 | N/A |
| Allstate | A+ | A+ | A1 | A |
| AXA Equitable | A+ | A+ | Aa3 | AA- |
| Banner | A+ | AA- | N/A | AA- |
| Costco Life Insurance | A+ | AA- | A2 | A+ |
| Great-West Life | A+ | AA | Aa3 | AA |
| Globe Life | A+ | N/A | N/A | AA- |
| Jackson National | A+ | AA | A1 | AA |
| John Hancock | A+ | AA- | A1 | AA- |
| Knights of Columbus | A+ | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Lincoln Financial | A+ | AA- | A1 | A+ |
| MetLife | A+ | AA- | Aa3 | AA- |
| Midland National | A+ | A+ | N/A | A+ |
| Minnesota Life | A+ | A+ | Aa3 | AA |
| Mutual of Omaha | A+ | A+ | A1 | N/A |
| Nationwide | A+ | A+ | A1 | N/A |
| North American | A+ | A+ | N/A | N/A |
| Ohio National | A+ | A+ | A1 | N/A |
| Pacific Life | A+ | AA- | A1 | A+ |
| Penn Mutual | A+ | A+ | AA3 | N/A |
| Primerica Life | A+ | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Principal Life | A+ | A+ | A1 | AA- |
| Progressive | A+ | AA | Aa2 | AA |
| Protective | A+ | AA- | A2 | A+ |
| Prudential | A+ | AA- | A1 | A+ |
| Riversource Life | A+ | AA- | Aa3 | N/A |
| Sun Life | A+ | AA- | Aa3 | AA- |
| Transamerica | A+ | AA- | A1 | A+ |
| United American | A+ | AA- | N/A | N/A |
| William Penn | A+ | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| American General | A | A+ | A2 | A+ |
| Americo | A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| American National ANICO | A | A | N/A | N/A |
| Foresters | A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Gerber | A | A | N/A | N/A |
| ING Reliastar | A | A | A2 | A |
| National Life Group | A | A+ | A2 | N/A |
| National Western | A | A | N/A | N/A |
| SBLI | A | A- | N/A | N/A |
| Symetra | A | A | A3 | A |
Quotes or Information?
There are usually 2 groups of shoppers when it comes to these ratings.
- The “I just want to buy a policy from top rated life insurance companies.”
- I want to know what all those grades mean.
If you’re in the first group you can get started by running instant life insurance quotes here.
What do these insurance ratings mean?
All of these agencies, including A.M. Best, Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P- use their own grading system. Although each is unique in their ratings, they each have some overlap. Let’s see how they’re similar.
Paying Claims
All of the agencies look to see if each insurance company has the capacity to pay their claims.
Capital
Agencies want to see how each company is financed.
Assets
The agencies want to see companies assets vs debts.
Risk
Agencies want to know if companies are risky with investments & are they setup to reduce risk.
Structure
How is the company run? Does it have a sound business structure?
Liquidity
Agencies want to see how easy a company’s assets can be liquidated.
Those were some of the main areas that the ratings agencies look at when handing out grades and providing life insurance company ratings.
Remember earlier when we said each company uses a different grading system? Let’s review each agency and see how they provide an insurance rating.
Who is A.M. Best?
What is A.M. Best? A better question might be “Who is A.M. Best?”, because it all started by a man named Alfred M. Best. He founded the A.M. Best Company just before the 20th century.
He wanted to a resource and provide life insurance company ratings. Fast forward to today- A.M. Best is the go to resource for finding financial ratings for the top rated life insurance companies.
What are the A.M. Best ratings?
- A++ Exceptional
- A+ Superior
- A Excellent
- A- Excellent
- B++ Good
- B+ Good
- B Fair
- B- Fair
- C++ Weak
- C+ Weak
- C Weak
- C- Poor
- D Poor
What is the Fitch Ratings scale?
The Fitch Group was established in the early 1900s by John Knowles Fitch. Fitch Ratings is a global leader in credit ratings, financial information services and research.
Fitch Ratings is also a leader of providing independent credit ratings, research and commentary.
The Fitch Ratings scale
- AAA
- AA+ Very strong
- AA
- AA-
- A+
- A Strong
- A-
- BBB+
- BBB
- BBB-
- BB+
- BB
- BB-
- B+
- B
- B-
- CCC Very weak
- CC Extremely weak
- C Failing
- RD In Default
- D In Default
What do S&P ratings mean?
Standard and Poor’s started out over a century ago. Also known as the S&P, their ratings of life insurance companies were designed by a group of analysts who look over important financial data prior to issuing a rating.
S&P Global ratings have been used to show how viable an insurance company’s finances are and if they should be able to pay their claims.
What are the S&P ratings?
- AAA Extremely strong
- AA Very strong
- A Strong
- BBB Fair
- BB Marginal
- B Weak
- CCC Very weak
- CC Extremely weak
- C Failing
- D In Default
Who is the Moody's Ratings agency?
The Moody’s system of rating was started by John Moody in the early 1900s with the purpose to provide investors with a basic system of gradation to gauge the creditworthiness of securities.
Moody’s uses a rather unique grading system compared to the other 3 agencies. They add either a 1, 2 or 3 to alter their rating. For example, when the modifier “1” is used, it has a superior rank to a “2” modifier. A “2” is superior to a “3”.
The Moody’s Ratings scale
- Aaa
- Aa1
- Aa2
- Aa3
- Baa1
- Baa2
- Baa3
- Ba1
- Ba2
- Ba3
- B1
- B2
- B3
- Caa1
- Caa2
- Caa3
- Ca
- C
What is the Comdex Ranking?
We went over the top 4 ratings agencies, but what about Comdex? What is it and what is a good Comdex rating? The easiest way to explain the Comdex is that it’s an average of the various life insurance companies and their financial strength ratings from Moody’s, Fitch, S&P and A.M. Best.
How does Comdex rank them? A life insurance carrier has to have 2 or more from the top ratings agencies. Comdex ranks them somewhere between 1 and 100- with 100 being the best.
Shop only from the best companies
Now you know about the top 4 ratings agencies and how they rate insurance companies. You should always apply and buy from life insurance companies that are “A” rated or better. Very rarely do we recommend a company that isn’t A rated- unless it’s an impaired risk case where there is no other company available.
The highest rated company for YOU
Here are 3 basic steps you need to take to get a policy from the best rated insurance companies.
1. Instant Quotes
Use our website and get instant life insurance quotes.
Get term life, whole life and guaranteed universal life rates.
2. Compare Rates
Compare rates from the quote results to the Top 50 list on this page.
Apply
3. Once you found the "A" rated companies with the lowest rates from our free quotes results - choose the company who you'd like to apply with.
Final thoughts
There are hundreds of life insurance companies available to you and life insurance shoppers. We put together this Top 50 list to educate and help you find a financially strong company. Buying life insurance now and having it around in the future when your family needs it most- is one of the most important purchases you’ll ever make.
About Life Insurance Blog
At Life Insurance Blog, our focus is to deliver you the best life insurance options. We help shoppers like you find an affordable life insurance policy with the best carriers. We have saved shoppers thousands of dollars over the life of their policies, and we look forward to helping you as well.
Call us or contact us if you need any help comparing life insurance companies. You can also run instant life insurance quotes for free here.
