Why worry about Life Insurance Rates or ratings? Things like term insurance, etc., etc.. – all sounds kind of boring, doesn’t it? Choosing a Life insurance policy is one of the most important, yet boringly, daunting financial decisions we can make in our life times. The reason is quite simple: It’s hard to get excited about buying something we hope we never have to use. We love buying products that we want to use, not products we hope we never have to use. Why worry about Life Insurance rates? Such is life. A necessity, but hardly anything to get excited about.  Life Insurance is a Must-Do, not a Want-To-Do item in our lives. So, we look for the best life insurance rates and answer other questions like whole life insurance, universal life insurance, term life insurance rates. If you want cheap life insurance, you’ll have to do your home work; and you’ll need a medical exam. We go through all the trouble for our family; the same reason we need health insurance. These days, you don’t need to get insurance quotes from an agent; you can shop for life insurance rates, online. Either way, insurers are competing to give you the best life insurance rates.

How to find the Best Life Insurance

Why Life Insurance Ratings Count

Consumer advocate groups such as A.M Best Company, provide life insurance ratings on the top life insurance companies in America. Life Insurance Ratings on short-term, mid-termand long-term life insurance companies are based on several factors. Service, price, company stability are among the top criteria used to provide these annual life insurance ratings. Unfortunately, most of these consumer research advocates charge us a price tag to uncover the best life insurance ratings as part of their analysis. Companies like A.M Best are more geared towards providing us with a life insurance company’s financial stability, but charge us for the rest of the information. This sort of defeats the purpose of trying to save money on your term life insurance premium, doesn’t it?

Best Life Insurance Rates Through Referrals

Years ago, I found a really good insurance carrier thanks to a friend who referred me, and I realized that this is how most of us shop for term life insurance. We shop by premium from friends or relatives that had similar needs and told us what they pay. Keep in mind, there are a variety of factors that can influence these ratings. For one thing, when we sign up for a new policy, we are required to have a medical physical. In most cases, the life insurance company will send a registered nurse to your work or office to administer the physical. Your rates will go up dramatically if you smoke, and just slightly if you have ‘high’ cholesterol or are considered by their standards, overweight. It varies by insurance company how much of an impact your physical health with have on your life insurance premium. The other thing that will greatly impact rates from one Life Insurance company to another, is the amount of coverage. On average, most young to middle-aged, primary bread-winners are usually getting lump sum life insurance coverage that is 10-20 times greater than their annual income. The premiums from some life insurance carriers might be better for higher coverage amounts or vice versa. Determining which Life Insurance Carrier is best, is not that much different than comparing Cell Phone plans, where certain carriers are geared better for some people’s needs, requirements and desires than others. For the majority of us, the first place to determine a carrier is to shop for the best rates. Fortunately, there is an organization which provides us with Life Insurance Rankings based on Premiums. The Insurance Information Institute provides an annual ranking of the Top-10 life insurance companies. For your convenience, I have included their ratings of the rates, below.

Top-10 Life Insurance Ratings

1. MetLife
2. Prudential Financial
3. New York Life
4. TIAA-CREF
5. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
6. Northwestern Mutual
7. Aflac
8. Genworth Financial
9. Principal Financial
10. Lincoln Financial

 

Best Term Life Deals Come Through Friends

Life Insurance Ratings are only Part of the Equation

Ironically, the list above does not include the company I use for my own life insurance, First Penn. In fact, First Penn offered me better premium rates than the one at the very top of the list. So, while top ten Lists are a good starting point, the ultimate way to find the best carrier is to find people, friends and relatives you know whom roughly match your own profile and ask them about their own term policy. Lastly, you will want to compare your friend’s recommendation to the insurance company rating that is provided by a company like A.M Best or Moody’s. This information can be found on the internet in the form of  letter ratings such as AAA or A++,  or simply described in words like exceptional, strong or very strong.  Finding a good life insurance policy is really a two step process; life insurance ratings are the third.

• Shop Friend’s Advice
• Compare Friend’s to Company Stability Ratings
• Check out the Life Insurance Ratings

When said friend recommends an insurance company with a reasonable premium and a strong financial stability rating, you’re found what you need. Stay healthy, happy and safe. Pay as little as possible for something that both, your loved ones, and your insurance company hope is never used. Remember, only 1/3rd of the equation is life insurance rates.