Clue me in on life insurance

[AlleyKat]

What companies are rated the best?

Anything any of you can tell me will be appreciated!

 

[golfgal]

There is a LOT to know about Life Insurance and it is hard to put it all here but the top 3 companies are Northwestern Mutual, New York Life and Massachusetts Mutual. They are mutual companies so they are owned by policy holders, not stock holders. They have all been around for a very long time and will continue to be around for a very long time. We have Northwestern Mutual, some term and some whole life. We couldn't be happier with them!!

 

[CandyMandy]

Golfgal is correct - you can't go wrong with any of the mutuals (which in addition to the companies she mentioned include Guardian, Thrivent, TIAA-CREF, Western-Southern and Mutual of Omaha). New York Life is the biggest and strongest of this group, but again all of these companies are good and have the same foundation: ownership by their policyholders, not stockholders. Consequently they base their investments on long term, conservative growth, not just next quarter.

What you will also find is a tradeoff based on whether you buy term vs. permanent ("whole life") insurance. Term is less expensive but doesn't cover you permanently. Whole life is more expensive but builds up value over time and the price doesn't go up as you age.

 

[LadyZolt]

You should research it -- there's "term" and "whole" life insurance, for example. Term you buy for a set number of years and in my opinion, this is the one that makes the most sense because I think most people only need life insurance for a specific number of years and not necessarily their entire lives. For example, when I was a young mother with three kids, I had a term life insurance policy so that if I died, my DH could use the money to hire a nanny to take care of the kids. Now, the kids are all grown and I don't have any life insurance at all because I no longer need any. (I don't need any because (1) I'm donating my body to science when I die and when they are done with it, they will cremate it and return the ashes to my family, who can then scatter them or whatever; (2) I have an annuity that pays out if I die and the monies from it can pay for my final bills and funeral expenses; (3) I have enough money in my savings accounts to cover any other expenses; (4) I own my home, so no mortgage to pay off.)

When I did have a mortgage, I bought a rider to my mortgage that would pay off the house if I died, so my family wouldn't be stuck having to make the house payment. So, you can look at exactly why you want a life insurance policy and research the different ways to attain what you want for a reasonable cost.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)