Life Insurance : Ratings of Sources

Our AssessmentThe National Association of Insurance Commissioners collects the complaints people file with their state insurance offices into this searchable online database. You can look up a life insurance company you're considering to find out whether it gets a lot of complaints for its size, and you can get the company's financial profile.

Our AssessmentA.M. Best is a ratings agency that assigns insurance companies a letter grade from A++ to D, based on financial strength (although those grades are lenient, according to a May 2009 ConsumerReports.org analysis). This report names 14 life/health insurers that have maintained an A.M. Best rating of A or higher for 75 years and 23 that have done it for 50 years. Of those, nine hold A.M. Best's highest rating, including major carriers State Farm, Northwestern Mutual, Massachusetts Mutual and New York Life.

Our AssessmentAnother ratings agency, Fitch Ratings, comes up with the same results as Moody's: New York Life, Northwestern Mutual and TIAA-CREF all earn Fitch's highest financial stability rating of AAA. This sortable list makes it easy to see which companies rate highest or lowest, but free registration is required first.

Our AssessmentThis trial lawyers' group (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) names America's 10 worst insurance companies based on "thousands of court documents, SEC and FBI records, state insurance department investigations and complaints, news accounts from across the country, and the testimony and depositions of former insurance agents and adjusters." Although the report isn't dated, it cites sources from as late as June 2008. The anecdotes about insurance companies' are compelling, but this report doesn't name any good companies. Eight life insurers make the list of worst companies: Allstate, Unum, AIG, State Farm, Conseco, Farmers, Torchmark and Liberty Mutual. Inclusion in the article is based on all categories of insurance, including life insurance, but it also includes homeowners and auto insurance.

Our AssessmentConsumer complaints are neatly sorted by life insurance company here. Lawyers review the complaints and contact the complainant if they think the case has merit (posters can opt out of this) -- and the site's ties to lawyers have earned it some criticism of its own. Thirteen companies have received complaints, including well-known names like AARP, AIG, Allstate, Amica, Hartford, John Hancock, Met Life, Prudential and Travelers.

Our AssessmentThis website doesn't give a street address or identify who runs it, apart from a statement saying it was formed by a "cross section" of individuals who "have or had legitimate claims that were denied by bad faith insurers." It ranks 50 Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame insurance companies -- based, it says, on state department of insurance complaint ratios, customer surveys, court information and "exclusive and proprietary" information. Two of the site's top-rated companies -- Allianz and Amica -- sell life insurance.