Best Life Insurance Companies
Life insurance can protect your loved ones after you die. ♓Our expert-written reviews and recommendations can help you find the right life insurance.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/LandingPage-TaxSCPage-final-c0041255892a4f12bb410d77b5340ff5.png)
Investopedia / Mira Norian
The best life insurance companies have excellent financial strength, a low ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚcustomer complaint score, and the features you need to help protect your loved ones after you die.
Our team surveyed 500 people wh🉐o had purchased a life insurance policy between 2022 and 2024 to learn what features were most important to them when choosing a provider. We used that information, plus our research and expertise, to create a list of 70 criteria with which to evaluate life insuraꦬnce companies, including policy types and features, application features, cost, and customer satisfaction. We determined that 45 life insurance companies met our minimum standard for financial strength, customer satisfaction, and online transparency.
After collecting 3,150 data points, we weiꦗghted and scored the criteria to determine the best life insurance companies.
We 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.
Winners
- Best Overall, Best for Children's Insurance, Best for People Over 50:
- Best Term Life Insurance, Best No-Medical-Exam Life Insurance:
- Best Whole Life Insurance:
- Cheapest Term Premiums:
- Best for Financial Strength, Best for Customer Satisfaction:
- Best for Universal Life Insurance:
- Also Great for No-Medical-Exam Life Insurance:
- Also Great for Children’s Life Insurance:
- Also Great for Whole Life Insurance:
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/11BestTermWholeandNo-ExamLifeInsuranceCompanies-final-1659b4ecc9c3410494a71833647d98d4.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestUniversalLifeInsuranceCompanies-final-fb6a9bd142594fbebcc9eb7b41115da5.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MostAffordableLifeInsuranceCompanies-v11-07c82438291c425a95c812c772195eb6.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestWholeLifeInsuranceCompanies-final-492bf534ded442de830628287dd50409.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestTermLifeInsuranceCompanies-final-b2106835adde47b1ac9cf2942968ad13.png)
Frequently Asked Questions
-
If your death would have a financial impact on the people you love, it might be time to consider life insurance. This could be when you get married, have a child, get a mortgage, or have other people who depend on you financially. Should something happen to you, your life insurance policy would pay off the mortgage, debts, and otheꦛr obligations. The idea is to keep the policy until these obligations are met or for as long as your loved ones are depending on your income for support.
-
You can borrow money from your life insurance policy if it carries a cash value. Importantly, only permanent and whole life policies carry a cash value, so you won't be able to borrow against your term policy.
-
Life ins🅷urance protects your beneficiaries in the event of your death. But most policies have exceptions. If you die as a result of certain risky activities or under other circumstances, your beneficiaries might not receive a death benefit.
-
There💞 is no tim𝔉e limit to file a life insurance claim, but beneficiaries also have no need to delay in filing one.
-
A guaranteed insurability rider allows you to🙈 increase your life insurance coverage without ꧋taking a medical exam.
Learn More: Guaranteed Insurability Rider -
The answer depends on your needs. Term insurance has much lower premiums, but it on💝ly lasts for a certain number of years and does not grow cash value. It may be best if you are looking for low-cost coverage and only need it for a limited amount of time, such as until your children are no longer dependent on you or you have paid off your mortgage.
Whole life carries higher premiums but lasts until you die, and it does build cash value. It gives you the flexibility to tap that cash value tax-free while you're alive for loans or withdrawals. It may be best for end-of-life planning such as covering funeral expenses and leaving an inheritance.
Key Terms
- Life Insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance company and a policy owner in which the insurer guarantees it will 𝓰pay a sum of money to one or more named beneficiaries when the insured person dies. In exchange, the policyholder pays premiums to the insurer during their lifetime.
- Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance pays out a stated death benefit if the policyholder dies within a specified time frame, usually 20 or 30 years. Term life premiums are much lower than premiums for permanent life insurance, which lasts your whole life and has a cash value componen🐲t. There is no cash value account with term insurance.
- Permanent Life Insurance
Permanent life insurance is an umbrella term for life ins🍃urance policies that last your whole life (as long as you pay the premiums) and usually include a cash value c🤪omponent. Permanent insurance includes whole, universal, and variable life insurance.
- Whole Life Insurance
Whole life insurance provid🌞es coverage until you die, as long as the premiums are paid. It includes a cash value component that grow✅s at a fixed rate, and you typically pay the same premium every month.
- Universal Life (UL) Insurance
Universal life in💯surance is permanent life insurance with a cash value that earns interest, as with whole lif𝕴e insurance. What makes universal life insurance different is that it features flexible premiums that can be adjusted over time. Universal life insurance can also offer either a fixed death benefit or one that increases over the course of the insured’s lifetime.
- Variable Life Insurance
Variable life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance that builds cash value. Its main difference from other types🌳 of permanent life insurance is that the cash value involves separate accounts that invest in various securities instruments like stocks, bonds, and annuities. Variable life insurance is considered a securities contract as it involves investment risk.
- Guaranteed-Issue Life Insurance
Guaranteed-issue l𝓰ife insurance is a type of whole life insurance that does not require you to take ♓a medical exam, answer health questions, or allow the insurer to review your medical history. It is easier to get approved for but also costs more.
- Death Benefit
A death benefit is the amount of money a policy pays beneficiaries upon the insured's death. Death benefits for term policies are fixed amounts. For permanent insurance, the value of any unpaid loans taken against the cash value account within the policy is deducted from the death benefit. Death benefits are usually tax-free and paid in a lump sum or in installments.
- Life Insurance Rider
Riders are additional benefits that can be bought and added to a basic life insurance policy. They allow you to customize a policy and can provide several kinds of protection if you meet their conditions🀅. Buying a rider means paying extra, but generally, the additional premium is low because relatively little underwriting is required.
- Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
Also referred to as living benefits or just accelerated death benefits, accelerated death benefit riders allow you to access your death benefit while you are alive, under certain conditions. These include covering the costs of a chronic, critical, or terminal illness, 🦋or long-term care. The payout🍷 ranges from 25% to 100% of the death benefit.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceCompaniesforYoungAdults-v1-d93ffe0ce2884c7a84150cd485367a02.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestBurialInsuranceCompanies-d48fd5f883cc4d75ba7be6dd91f25d67.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceforSmokers-v1-7664eb008016420db003ebb518025ab3.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceforParents-v1-55c60ce5cc71487db261f42eba37c231.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceforCancerPatients-v1-9c8ecad237cf41c6a62a281a3c0b1252.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceCompaniesforSeniors-v1-2b18165cb6ca4935ae88f10815577521.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceCompaniesforDiabetics-106371779fd14487893dc68d095f98ef.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestROPTermLifeInsurance-v1-03d2e9d984fb4cba9df06f2996c17210.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestNo-Medical-ExamLifeInsurance-final-f37fe665e6724c098b33125068cfa550.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestChildrensLifeInsuranceCompanies-v1-6f02811dfdcb4f7a8ebe56ad202a62b4.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/HowWeReviewandRateLifeInsuranceCompanies-9341bf99243949dda29b149240837e4b.png)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BestLifeInsuranceCompaniesforPeopleOver50-v1-fc89e590eeb74d7793c603929c149923.png)