How to pick life insurance company

[Anonymous]

I'm currently in the market for term life insurance. I've called around a bit. Quotes were not wildly divergent. One company connected me to a broker who pulled multiple quotes for me. Wondering if there are any considerations besides price to base my decision on. The company with the the lowest quote had good (A+) ratings, but I've never heard of them before. Is there any reason to take a slightly higher quote with a company like Prudential or MetLife just because they are bigger/more well-known? The broker said to look a the rating of the financial stability of the company (all the companies he pulled except AIG were rated A+) and if there's any chance I would want to covert to whole life insurance (not that I know of), policies among companies differ on that. He thought the company that came in with the lowest quote was fine.

[Anonymous]

What was the company with the lowest quote?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the company with the lowest quote?

Lincoln Financial
As I said, quote were not much different.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I'd stick with an A++ insurer. They are much more conservatively run, there is only a handful of them and they are all household names except for one or two (NY Life, Northwestern Mutual, State Farm, Mass Mutual), all have sterling reputations, and all tend to focus on insurance as opposed to investment or commercial banking. You don't have to worry about them being merged into Citibank or ING or investing in mortgage backed securities.

The downside is that they tend to be 10 to 20% more expensive and usually require you to go through a local agent or through a group policy. I used to be an auditor and these were the companies that I thought were run really well and had top management. They did whatever it took to protect their A++ rating by maintaining a low risk profile. A+ insurers were more open to more exotic investments and products.

The difference in price is usually marketing in that Metlife and Prudential requires you to meet with an agent to assess your insurance needs after evaluating your financial and family situation. The agent gets paid a high commission, but supposedly gives you good advice (usually of the buy more insurance variety).

[Anonymous]

You dont want to run the risk of your premiums going for nothing...I would pay a bit more for a very solidly rated company.