6 Best Whole Life Insurance Companies of May 2022
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If you’re looking to treat your life insurance policy as a cash asset, you might be in the market for a whole life insurance policy. Along with providing a guaranteed payout to your loved ones when you die, these policies build cash value over time at a set interest rate.
To create this list of the best whole life insurance companies, our experts focused on financially strong insurers with low levels of customer complaints. We then honed in on important features of whole life insurance policies, such as riders, the potential to earn dividends and the amount of coverage you can buy.
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The best whole life insurance companies in 2022
Company | NerdWallet rating |
|---|---|
NerdWallet rates insurers at the company level, not the policy level. This means our star rating reflects the company as a whole, and not its whole life insurance policies specifically. | |
How we ranked the top life insurers
NerdWallet’s life insurance ratings are based on consumer experience, complaint index scores from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for individual life insurance, and weighted averages of financial strength ratings, which indicate a company’s ability to pay future claims. Within the consumer experience category, we consider ease of communication and website transparency, which looks at the depth of policy details available online. To calculate each insurer’s rating, we adjusted the scores to a curved 5-point scale.
These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare life insurance quotes from several companies to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews.
» MORE: Best life insurance companies
Best whole life insurance policies
Learn more about each company in our list by reading the brief summaries below and checking out the NerdWallet review links.
Jump to:
MassMutual: Best for cash value growth
New York Life: Best for rider options
Northwestern Mutual: Best for generous coverage amounts
State Farm Life: Best for customer satisfaction
MassMutual
5.0
NerdWallet rating“Best for cash value growth: MassMutual’s whole life policies all earn cash value at a set interest rate of 4% (up to age 100).”
Our take: MassMutual has a string of whole life policies to choose from. Depending on your policy, you might be able to customize your coverage with various riders. These include a long-term care rider and a yearly term purchase rider, which allows you to direct your dividend payments toward a term life insurance policy.
As a permanent policyholder, you’re eligible to receive dividends based on the insurer’s profits. MassMutual estimates it will pay out almost $1.85 billion to its permanent policyholders in 2022.
Whole life insurance options: Legacy 100, Legacy 65, Legacy 10/12/15/20 Pay, Legacy HECV.
Eligibility age range: 0 to 90 (varies by policy).
Minimum coverage amount: $25,000, or $100,000 for Legacy HECV — a policy designed for businesses.
Maximum coverage amount: Unlimited.
State availability: All states.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: MassMutual life insurance
Guardian
5.0
NerdWallet rating“Best for applicants with a history of HIV: Along with its standard policy lineup, Guardian offers term and whole life insurance for people living with HIV. ”
Our take: Guardian has a diverse lineup of whole life insurance policies, including a survivorship policy that insures two people — typically spouses. You can choose a policy with level premiums, or a “limited payment” policy that allows you to pay off your policy in 10, 15 or 20 years. After that, there’s no cost to keep your coverage.
The company also offers life insurance for people living with HIV. To qualify, you must prove you’re under a specialist’s care and successfully receiving antiretroviral therapy. Plus, the insurer offers a range of riders, such as a disability waiver of premium, a long-term care, and an index participation feature — or IPF — rider. The IPF rider allows you to link a portion of your cash value to the performance of the S&P 500 Price Return Index, and any profits are paid out in dividends.
While Guardian doesn’t guarantee dividends, it has paid them out to its permanent policyholders every year since 1868, and it will pay $1.13 billion in 2022.
Whole life insurance options: Life Paid Up at 121, Life Paid Up at 99, Life Paid Up at 95, Life Paid Up at 65, 10 Pay Whole Life, 15 Pay Whole Life, 20 Pay Whole Life, EstateGuard.
Eligibility age range: 0 to 80 (varies by policy).
Minimum coverage amount: $25,000.
Maximum coverage amount: Unlimited.
State availability: All states.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: Guardian Life insurance
AARP
5.0
NerdWallet rating“Best for skipping the medical exam: AARP offers two whole life policies, neither of which requires you to undergo a physical.”
Our take: Thanks to its partnership with New York Life, AARP makes it easy for its members and their families to purchase whole life insurance. The company sells a standard whole life policy as well as guaranteed acceptance life insurance, both of which are open to AARP members as well as their spouses. You can purchase a policy worth up to $50,000 online, but you’re free to contact New York Life if you want more coverage. To apply for the basic whole life policy, you’ll need to fill out a questionnaire about your health and lifestyle. The guaranteed acceptance policy skips both the exam and questionnaire.
Whole life insurance options: Whole Life, Guaranteed Acceptance Whole Life.
Eligibility age range: 50 to 80 for AARP members (45 to 80 for spouses), and 50 to 75 for members and their spouses in New York.
Minimum coverage amount: $1,000 for the guaranteed acceptance policy; $1,500 for the standard whole life policy.
Maximum coverage amount: $25,000 for the guaranteed acceptance policy; $50,000 for the standard whole life policy ($5,000 in Washington).
State availability: All states.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: AARP life insurance
New York Life
4.5
NerdWallet rating“Best for rider options: The insurer offers a long list of life insurance riders, including a chronic care rider.”
Our take: New York Life sells three whole life policies, including a custom policy that offers flexibility with premium payments. You can opt to pay off your policy in as little as five years, or schedule the timing and amount of your payments to suit you. There’s also a survivorship policy that covers two people and pays out when the second person dies.
The insurer offers a variety of life insurance riders, such as a chronic care rider and a “premium deposit account” rider. This rider lets you prepay up to 14 years of premiums into a cash account, which then earns interest at a competitive rate.
As a mutual company, New York Life is set to pay out $1.9 billion in dividends to its policyholders in 2022.
Whole life insurance options: Whole Life, Custom Whole Life, Custom Survivorship Whole Life.
Eligibility age range: 0 to 90 (varies by policy).
Minimum coverage amount: $25,000.
Maximum coverage amount: Unlimited.
State availability: All states.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: New York Life insurance
Northwestern Mutual
4.5
NerdWallet rating“Best for generous coverage amounts: This insurer offers flexible coverage starting at $50,000 and going up to $70 million for eligible applicants.”
Our take: Northwestern Mutual sells one whole life policy with various payment options. You can choose to pay premiums for 15, 20 or 25 years, or until you reach age 65 or 100.
To enhance your coverage, you can add riders to your policy, such as an accelerated death benefit that pays out a portion of your payout if you need long-term care. There’s also an additional purchase benefit rider, which lets you increase your coverage at a later date without taking another life insurance medical exam.
Northwestern Mutual is a mutual company, one of the largest individual life insurers in the U.S. and it is set to pay out $6.5 billion in dividends in 2022.
Whole life insurance options: Whole Life Plus.
Eligibility age range: 0 to 85.
Minimum coverage amount: $50,000.
Maximum coverage amount: $70 million.
State availability: All states.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: Northwestern Mutual life insurance
State Farm Life
4.5
NerdWallet rating“Best for customer satisfaction: State Farm regularly tops J.D. Power’s list of life insurers with the most customer satisfaction.”
Our take: For flexible payment options, it’s worth looking into State Farm’s lineup. The company’s standard whole life policy has level premiums, which means you’ll pay the same amount each month. But if you’d like to adjust when and how much you pay, you can buy a single premium or limited payment policy.
Coverage starts at $10,000 for most whole life policies. And if you’re healthy, age 18 to 50 and applying for a policy worth $100,000 to $1 million, State Farm might fast-track your application and issue your policy without the need for a medical exam. If you purely want to cover your own funeral, burial and end-of-life expenses, the insurer offers a final expense policy to applicants ages 50 to 80 (50 to 75 in New York). Policy features aside, State Farm leads J.D. Power’s list of life insurers with the best customer satisfaction.
Whole life insurance options: Whole Life, Limited Pay Whole Life, Single Premium Whole Life, Final Expense.
Eligibility age range: Varies by policy.
Minimum coverage amount: $10,000.
Maximum coverage amount: None for standard whole life policies; $10,000 for the final expense policy.
State availability: All states except Massachusetts.
Potential to earn dividends: Yes.
» Read the full review: State Farm life insurance
Alternatives to the best whole life insurance
Traditional term life insurance is sufficient for most families. Term life, which doesn’t build cash value, is much less expensive than whole life insurance. A term life policy lasts a set number of years, and by the time it expires, you may no longer need life insurance.
If you’re certain you want lifelong coverage, you can also consider other types of permanent life insurance. Some of the options are:
Universal life insurance, which gives you flexibility to adjust your premiums and death benefit.
Indexed universal life insurance, a type of universal life that’s tied to a stock index such as the S&P 500.
Variable life insurance, which lets you choose how to invest your policy’s cash value.
Insurer complaints methodology
NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2018-2020. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.
