Life Insurance Rating Methodology 2024

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Table of Contents

The Forbes Advisor Philosophy Our Life Insurance Data Analysis and Ratings Process Factors Used in Our Life Insurance Company Ratings Star Ratings Methodology for Best Life Insurance Lists Why You Can Trust Our Life Insurance Team Forbes Advisor Life Insurance Editorial Team

The Forbes Advisor Philosophy

Forbes Advisor is dedicated to empowering you with the life insurance knowledge and research you need to feel confident in your life insurance decisions. We streamline the complexities of life insurance, allowing you to focus your attention on the important elements. Our editorial team is independent and values objectivity. We ensure honesty and transparency. Through meticulous analysis and transparent methodologies, we ensure that your priorities remain central in our life insurance reviews and rankings.

This methodology is only applicable to Forbes Advisor life insurance content.

Our Life Insurance Data Analysis and Ratings Process

Factors Used in Our Life Insurance Company Ratings


	Life insurance rates: We collect and analyze term life insurance rates for healthy buyers of various ages and coverage amounts. Source: Forbes Advisor research
	Why it’s important to customers: Knowing average rates at different coverage amounts will help you assess which companies and policies best fit your budget.

Life insurance rates: We collect and analyze term life insurance rates for healthy buyers of various ages and coverage amounts.

Source: Forbes Advisor research

Why it’s important to customers: Knowing average rates at different coverage amounts will help you assess which companies and policies best fit your budget.


	Financial strength: We assess financial strength ratings from four major ratings agencies: AM Best, Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s. Source: Veralytic
	Why it’s important to customers: Financial strength is significant when you’re relying on a company’s ability to pay claims many decades from now. A good financial strength rating means you can have confidence in the company’s ability to pay claims in the future.


	Cost competitiveness of cash value policies: This measures premiums and internal policy charges against industry benchmarks, including the cost of insurance, fixed administration expenses and cash value-based wrap fees. Source: Veralytic
	Why it’s important to customers: Policies with higher charges and fees can have a negative impact on your cash value.

Cost competitiveness of cash value policies: This measures premiums and internal policy charges against industry benchmarks, including the cost of insurance, fixed administration expenses and cash value-based wrap fees.

Source: Veralytic

Why it’s important to customers: Policies with higher charges and fees can have a negative impact on your cash value.


	Reliability of policy illustrations: Our data measures the reliability over time of the company’s illustrations for its permanent life insurance products. Source: Veralytic
	Why it’s important to customers: When you plan to hold on to a policy for decades and count on its cash value to accumulate, you want an accurate illustration.


	Historical performance of investments: This measures whether the historical performance of the company’s investments that fuel cash value growth is superior to other companies. Source: Veralytic
	Why it’s important to customers: Although past investment performance doesn’t guarantee future performance, seeing that a company’s investments have historically done well can give you confidence in its investment strategies. Also, good performance of investments can help keep policy costs down.


	Access to cash value: This measure evaluates liquidity and how fast cash value tends to build. Source: Veralytic
	Why it’s important to customers: Some policies build cash value better in the early years. With some companies you may be waiting many years before you have meaningful cash value within a policy. Generally speaking, the higher the liquidity, particularly in early policy years, the better—but some insurers charge more for greater liquidity, so consider the possible tradeoff.

Star Ratings Methodology for Best Life Insurance Lists

Our editorial team customizes life insurance methodologies so that you can make informed decisions based on the product(s) you’re considering.

Best Life Insurance

To find the best life insurance companies, we evaluated term and cash value policies based on the following weights.

• Term life insurance rates: 50% of score
• Financial strength: 10% of score
• Cost competitiveness of cash value policies: 10% of score
• Reliability of policy illustrations: 10% of score
• Historical performance: 10% of score
• Access to cash value: 10% of score

Best Term Life Insurance

To find the best term life insurance companies, we researched term life rates, guaranteed renewability and term life conversion options.

• Cost: 80% of score
• Guaranteed renewability: 10% of score
• Term life conversion: 10% of score

Best Whole Life Insurance

To find the best whole life insurance companies, we used data provided by Veralytic on whole life insurance policies and scored the companies based on the following criteria.

• Cost competitiveness of cash value policies: 30% of score
• Historical performance: 25% of score
• Reliability of policy illustrations: 25% of score
• Financial strength: 10% of score
• Access to cash value: 10% of score

Best Universal Life Insurance

To find the best universal life insurance companies, we reviewed data provided by Veralytic on universal life insurance policies and scored companies based on the following criteria.

Best Life Insurance For Seniors

To find the best senior life insurance, we reviewed term life rates and data provided by Veralytic on cash value policies and then scored the companies based on the following criteria.

• Cost competitiveness of cash value policies: 30% of score
• Reliability of policy illustrations: 30% of score
• Term life insurance rates: 50% of score
• Historical performance: 10% of score
• Financial strength: 10% of score

Why You Can Trust Our Life Insurance Team

As life insurance shoppers ourselves, with various lifestyles, financial planning goals and life insurance needs, we understand the importance of selecting the best life insurance company and policy. Our commitment to a data-driven, consumer-oriented approach ensures that each company evaluated is on a level playing field and the data, not personal opinion, will reveal the top options.

Forbes Advisor Life Insurance Editorial Team

Expert Round-Up: How to Choose the Best Health Insurance for You
Ashlee Valentine Forbes Advisor Editor		Ashlee Valentine is an insurance editor, journalist and business professional with an MBA and more than 17 years of experience in business and personal finance. She is passionate about empowering others to protect life’s most important assets. When Ashlee isn’t spreading insurance knowledge or solving television murder mysteries, she enjoys spending time with her family (including the furry and feathery ones) on their farm in Kentucky.
What inspires Ashlee: Life insurance is primarily about ensuring that your loved ones can thrive after you’re gone. The peace of mind from that alone is enough to make life insurance worth it. But it can be much more than a death benefit if you want it to be. I enjoy helping people understand all of their options and feel empowered that they’re making the best life insurance decisions.
Les Masterson Forbes Advisor Editor		Les Masterson is a deputy editor and insurance analyst at Forbes Advisor. He has been a journalist, reporter, editor and content creator for more than 25 years. He has covered insurance for a decade, including auto, home, life and health. Before covering insurance, Les was a news editor and reporter for Patch and Community Newspaper Company and also covered health care, mortgages, credit cards and personal loans for multiple websites.
What inspires Les: No one likes to think about life insurance but it helps your loved ones when the unthinkable happens. Being able to help people understand the differences in life insurance policies so they can plan ahead is a sobering but important part of what we do.
Penny Gusner Forbes Advisor Senior Writer		Penny Gusner is a senior insurance writer and analyst at Forbes Advisor. For more than 20 years, she has been helping consumers learn how insurance laws, data, trends, and coverages affect them. Penny enjoys translating the complexities of insurance into easy-to-understand advice and tips to help consumers make the best choices for their needs. Her work has been featured in numerous major media outlets.
What inspires Penny: Life insurance can keep a family from going into a financial crisis, so I try to educate everyone on the importance of making sure both parents have coverage. Families may forget that if something happens to a stay-at-home mom, all the tasks she was doing will now have to be covered by others who you will need to pay.
Amy Danise Forbes Advisor Editor		Amy Danise is the managing editor for insurance at Forbes Advisor, which encompasses auto, home, renters, life, pet, travel, health and small business insurance. She is an experienced editor, writer and team leader with an extensive background in the insurance sector. With a career spanning more than three decades, she has focused her work on consumer-oriented publications.
What inspires Amy: Life insurance can be one of the most stressful insurance policies to buy because if you find you’ve made the wrong choice after a few (or many) years, getting a new policy will be more expensive no matter what because you’re older and possibly much more expensive if you have health conditions. I’m inspired by helping people avoid a situation like this.
Michelle Megna Forbes Advisor Editor		Michelle Megna is a lead editor for insurance at Forbes Advisor. She has been a journalist for over 35 years, writing about insurance for consumers for the last decade. Prior to covering insurance, Michelle was: a lifestyle reporter, a magazine editor covering consumer technology; a foreign correspondent; and a local newspaper reporter.
What inspires Michelle: You’re usually required to get insurance if you buy a car or a house. But life insurance is different—it’s your choice whether to buy it or not. But some people don’t realize why it’s vital to financial planning, and may not know there are different types of life insurance. I think it’s important to raise awareness about how life insurance can serve different financial goals, depending on the type of policy you buy.
Jason Metz Forbes Advisor Editor		As a former claims handler and fraud investigator, Jason Metz has worked on a multitude of complex and multifaceted claims. The insurance industry can be seemingly opaque, and Jason enjoys breaking down confusing terms and products to help others make well-informed decisions.
What inspires Jason: Lots of folks may not realize the multitude of reasons why a life insurance policy makes financial sense for them, like covering a mortgage or student loans if you were to pass away. I like to help shine the light on life insurance for people who might otherwise write it off as unnecessary.