Life insurance is a great way to protect your family financially in case of death. The best life insurance companies can help you secure enough coverage to replace your income, resolve debts or cover your family's expenses to address your child's compensation or care for aging parents .
Best Life Insurance Companies of 2022
1. Best Overall: Prudential
2. Best Instant Issue: State Farm
3. Best Value: Transamerica
4. Best Whole Life: Northwestern Mutual
5. Best Term Policies: New York Life
6. Best for No Medical Exams: Mutual of Omaha
7. Best for Military: USAA
Most insurance companies require new candidates to choose "masculine" or "woman" when applying for insurance, and they do not always offer an option for those who identify up non-commercial or transgender. While non-financial does not disqualify you from insurance, you should know that most insurance companies have not updated their subscription processes to reflect awareness of gender issues.
1. Prudential
Prudential was chosen as the best life insurance company overall based on the company history dating back to 1873, the broad selection of policies available, and excellent ratings for financial strength.
Prudential Financial dates back to 1873, which bodes well for its reliability. The Prudential Insurance Company of America also boasts an A+ rating with AM Best, as well as an AA- rating with Standard & Poor’s in terms of its financial strength.2
Prudential offers term life insurance coverage, universal life insurance, indexed universal life insurance, and variable universal life insurance, and you can add riders to your policy that include an accidental death benefit, a living needs benefit, and a children’s protection rider.
2. State Farm
We chose State Farm as the best company for instant issue policies based on the fact that you can apply online and get term life coverage without a medical exam or any hoops to jump through. State Farm’s excellent ratings and long history also helped it gain a spot in our ranking.
State Farm is another insurance company with a long and storied history. Founded in 1922 by a retired farmer, State Farm has grown from humble beginnings to offer a broad range of insurance products today. At the moment, State Farm comes in at number 39 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies.4 This company also boasts an A++ rating for financial strength from AM Best, which is the highest rating possible.5
Also, note that State Farm secured the highest ranking in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Life Insurance Study, which compared the experiences of life insurance and annuity customers nationwide.6
When it comes to the life insurance products it offers, State Farm lets consumers purchase term life insurance coverage, whole life insurance, and universal life insurance. State Farm also makes it easy to enter your information and get a free quote online for term life.
3. Transamerica
Transamerica offers very affordable term life insurance coverage and has a long history of financial strength and reliability, which helps the company stand out as the best value in life insurance in our review.
While Transamerica may not be a household name, this company has been around since 1904 and boasts solid ratings for financial strength, including an A rating with AM Best and an A+ rating with S&P Global.78
Transamerica also offers a broad selection of life insurance coverage including term policies, whole life insurance, universal life insurance, index universal life insurance, and final expense life insurance.
Transamerica has you speak to an agent in order to get a quote for most of its life insurance products. However, you can get quotes for term life online. Its premiums for term coverage tend to be an excellent value.
4. Northwestern Mutual
While Northwestern Mutual is known for quality overall, its whole life insurance policies are especially popular. The company paid out a record $6.2 billion in dividends to its policyholders in 2021.10 Not only do its policies tend to pay generous dividends, but you get the benefit of working with a financial advisor who can help guide you to the best whole or another type of life insurance policy for your situation.
Northwestern Mutual has been in business since 1857, and it has solid ratings that show its commitment to offering quality products and services. Not only does Northwestern Mutual boast an A++ rating from AM Best and an AA+ rating from S&P Global, but it also earned high marks for customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Life Insurance Study.611
Northwestern Mutual offers term life insurance coverage, whole life insurance coverage, and universal life insurance coverage. However, due to the fact it employs financial advisors who oversee your full financial picture, you will need to go through a complete financial review to get a quote.
5. New York Life
New York Life boasts excellent ratings for financial strength, as well as flexible term life insurance policies that you can convert to permanent insurance in the future—and the company makes it easy to tailor your term life coverage for your own specific needs.
New York Life has been in business since 1845, which is a testament to its reliability in the market. This company also reports very solid ratings for financial strength, including an A++ rating from AM Best and an AA+ rating from Standard & Poor’s.13 Furthermore, New York Life sits in the 9th spot in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Life Insurance Study.6
New York Life offers four main types of life insurance coverage—term life insurance, whole life, universal life, and variable universal life. It also offers an array of helpful life insurance resources on its website, as well as charts that can help you compare its policies and offerings.
We chose New York Life as the best for term life coverage based on the fact that it offers term life insurance that can convert to permanent life later on. It also offers customizable add-ons for disability or terminal illness, which you can utilize in order to build the type of coverage that best fits your needs.
