No one wants to think or talk about it but death is a part of life. Leaving loved ones financially secure when you’re no longer around means buying life insurance with a trusted company. A life insurance policy is not like other insurance policies. You buy a life policy and continue to pay but don’t necessarily have to think about it on a regular basis. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vet the company for not only its financial stability but also services, especially customer service. For that reason, our team of experts have established and refined an annual survey to get genuine feedback and reviews from current life insurance policyholders and help you search for the best life insurance company.

Unlike reviews you might find elsewhere, Insure.com's Best Life Insurance Companies is the result of a survey of over 1,700 current life insurance customers – people just like you. We believe it to be the most comprehensive, assessment available and a useful guide to help you find the best life insurance company for your needs quickly and easily.

  • Best life insurance company for value for the price: Transamerica (Aegon) - 89.40
  • Best life insurance company for customer service: MassMutual - 90.60
  • Best life insurance company website and apps: Brighthouse Life Insurance - 88.22
  • Best life insurance company for recommendations: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance - 95%

Why You Should Trust Us

We’re not only life insurance experts who enjoy sharing our knowledge. We’re also consumers just like you. As consumers, we want to know what to expect when it comes to a company’s customer service and if the insurer has a decent website and apps. We, too, want a good price and to feel comfortable when deciding on a company to purchase an insurance policy. For this reason, we take our Best Life Insurance Company’s survey seriously so that all of us can find the insurance company that is the best fit for our needs.

Whether it’s your first-time buying life insurance or you’re looking to buy a supplemental life insurance policy, our mission is to provide you with a quick and easy way to review and determine which companies will be the best fit for you. Our reviews and rankings are unbiased and based on the earnest ratings and feedback from surveyed policyholders.

We’ve taken our many years of experience and crafted survey questions to find out what current policyholders like and dislike about their insurance company to make your life easier when evaluating insurance companies.

How to Pick Life Insurance Policy

Buying a life insurance is like wrapping a security blanket around your loved ones. It shows that you care and don’t want a financial burden to weigh them down when you're no longer around. There are a variety of life insurance policies. Funeral and final expense policies offer smaller policies to help your loved ones. Term policies and whole life offer more robust protections. You will have to determine which is better for your needs. Term covers you for a finite number of years. Whole life insurance lasts until your death, but is more costly to purchase.

Deciding the right life insurance policy for your family and finances is the first step. If you have a life insurance policy in place, you may buy a supplemental policy as your family situation changes. The next step is finding the right life insurance company. You want the company to be financially stable. From there, the right policy depends on your situation and what you want from a life policy. That includes price, customer service or reputation. Once you find the companies that fit your needs, you can compare multiple insurers in our Best Life Insurance Companies.

What We Surveyed

We commissioned a survey of top company policyholders. Many of those surveyed had multiple types of policies. The survey collected customer ratings for 20 leading companies in the auto category and 15 leading companies in each of the home, health and life categories. Only current customers of the insurers on our lists were surveyed, and the survey was not open to the general public on the Insure.com website.
We asked policyholders about the following categories for ranking purposes:

*Life insurance policyholders were not asked about claims or renewal as the policy tends to end with a claim and policies aren’t renewed annually but set for an extended time period.

We also asked for feedback and anecdotes to help people who may be looking to purchase a policy with their current insurance provider. And we asked questions that are not rated or ranked on, such as why they first purchased from the company and how they prefer to deal with their insurer, as this may be valuable to you when deciding if the company is the right fit for your needs. To view the extra information, be sure to click on the company logo to view its individual page.

How We Ranked

Our team of insurance and data experts ranked and identified the best life insurance companies based on what policyholders in our survey have to say about their experiences. This is an independent editorial analysis devoid of affiliations or partnerships of any kind – companies did not pay to be included. The A.M. Best financial ratings represent an assessment of an insurer's ability to meet its financial obligations to policyholders. These are separate from the editorial ranking.

Consumer’s feedback are weighted as follows:

Exception is life overall ratings that are based on:

The expert team reviews and analyzed the survey results to share with consumers because we believe it’s important to view and evaluate real-life feedback when shopping for insurance. Getting more information is always better when researching the best insurance companies, so continue on to see what our surveyed policyholders had to say.

MassMutual
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
89.43
Customers Who Recommend
90%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
90%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Value for Price
88.80
Customer Service
90.60
Website & Apps
86.87
Northwestern Mutual
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
88.79
Customers Who Recommend
95%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
95%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Value for Price
88.84
Customer Service
88.84
Website & Apps
87.95
Brighthouse Life Insurance
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
88.62
Customers Who Recommend
89%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
89%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Value for Price
88.40
Customer Service
89.00
Website & Apps
88.22
Transamerica
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
88.33
Customers Who Recommend
87%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
87%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Value for Price
89.40
Customer Service
87.20
Website & Apps
86.74
John Hancock
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
87.47
Customers Who Recommend
86%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
86%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
88.20
Customer Service
87.20
Website & Apps
84.84
State Farm
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
86.15
Customers Who Recommend
82%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
82%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Value for Price
85.00
Customer Service
88.00
Website & Apps
81.33
Allstate
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
85.57
Customers Who Recommend
83%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
83%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
85.20
Customer Service
86.20
Website & Apps
84.38
Mutual of Omaha
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
85.44
Customers Who Recommend
73%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
73%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
86.40
Customer Service
84.80
Website & Apps
84.10
Prudential
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
84.79
Customers Who Recommend
78%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
78%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
84.80
Customer Service
85.40
Website & Apps
80.71
Gerber Life Insurance
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
84.61
Customers Who Recommend
82%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
82%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Value for Price
84.60
Customer Service
85.20
Website & Apps
81.30
AAA Life Insurance
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
84.05
Customers Who Recommend
80%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
80%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Value for Price
84.00
Customer Service
84.00
Website & Apps
83.30
American General (AIG)
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
83.90
Customers Who Recommend
81%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
81%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A
Value for Price
83.60
Customer Service
84.60
Website & Apps
81.78
Globe Life Insurance
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
83.19
Customers Who Recommend
72%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
72%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
83.00
Customer Service
84.00
Website & Apps
80.22
Lincoln National Life Insurance Co.
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
82.76
Customers Who Recommend
78%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
78%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A+
Value for Price
81.80
Customer Service
84.00
Website & Apps
82.56
New York Life
Score Details
Our Score
HOW WE WEIGH OUR SCORE
80.35
Customers Who Recommend
71%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Score Details
Customers Who Recommend
71%
A.M. Best Financial Strength Ratings
A++
Value for Price
79.40
Customer Service
81.60
Website & Apps
79.51
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Here are what some policyholders in our survey had to say when asked to make a comment about their experience (you can see all comments for each company by clicking on the logo in the table above):

1. MassMutual (aka Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.)

Good to know

Founded in 1851, MassMutual offers life insurance, including term life and whole life. The company also provides long-term care insurance and retirement services. Despite MassMutual being around since the 19th century, the company has changed with the times. For instance, it offers term life policies with immediate approval.

Bottom Line

MassMutual ranked number one for customer service and second for price and website/app. It also ranked second for members who would recommend the life insurer. Ninety percent of members surveyed said they would recommend MassMutual. That ranked second only behind Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. The Springfield, MA-based company took the top spot for the west region, second in the midwest and third in the south. It's also popular with Millennials -- taking second place in the age group.

2. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Good to know

The Milwaukee-based company offers term and whole life insurance, disability insurance, wealth management and retirement planning. One aspect that sets Northwest Mutual from others is that it's owned by policyholders. That means policyholders are eligible to reap in dividends.

Bottom Line

Northwestern Mutual enjoyed the highest level of member recommendation. Ninety-five percent said they'd recommend the insurer to others. Despite not getting the highest rating in any subcategory, Northwestern Mutual ranked in the top three in each one. The company came in third place for two age categories: Millennials and Baby Boomers. The insurer also finished second place in two regions: South and West.

3. Brighthouse Life Insurance

Good to know

Brighthouse was once part of Metlife. Brighthouse separated from the parent company in 2017. Brighthouse offers term and universal life insurance and annuities to individuals. The Charlotte-based company also provides one-year policies to help people between jobs. Meanwhile, MetLife continues to offer group life insurance.

Bottom Line

Brighthouse ranked highest in the website/app category and came in second for customer service. Eighty-nine percent of members said they'd recommend Brighthouse. The life insurer was the top life insurer for both Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. It finished second in the Northeast and third in the Midwest.

Here is how insurance companies ranked when data were analyzed by age and region.

Best Life Insurance Companies by Age

  1. Transamerica
  2. MassMutual
  3. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
  1. Brighthouse Life Insurance
  2. Transamerica
  3. MassMutual
  1. Brighthouse Life Insurance
  2. John Hancock Life insurance
  3. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Best Life Insurance Companies by Region

  1. Mutual of Omaha
  2. Brighthouse Life Insurance
  3. John Hancock Life insurance
  1. AAA Life Insurance Company
  2. MassMutual
  3. Brighthouse Life Insurance
  1. Transamerica
  2. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
  3. MassMutual
  1. MassMutual
  2. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
  3. American General (AIG) (does business in NY as US Life Insurance Co.)