Let's talk a little about the term life companies and what to look for when choosing your ideal term insurance plan.  Term life has really become a commodity these days.  The care plan benefits are pretty comparable from carrier to carrier.  It basically becomes a question of the length of time you need the coverage for (term), how much actual life insurance you need (amount) and of course, the price or premium you pay to keep the policy in effect. 

The critical piece outside of 1) term, 2) amount, and 3) price is the strength of the company or insurance carrier, as known in the business.  The company strength really becomes a litmus test.  All things being equal, you go with the strongest carrier but in our view, the carrier really needs to be "strong enough" to cover the term of insurance that you need.  There are now many carriers with decades of experiences, tremendous reserves, and strong ratings.  How do you evaluate the term life companies?  Let's take a quick look.

The great thing about buying term life insurance is that the carrier ratings for the companies are provided for you by us through our instant quote.  When you run your instant quote, each plan will list the rating agencies grade for that carrier.  Let's look more closely at this.  You might see something like this:

AM Best: A++ (1) 
S & P: AA+ (2) 
Moody's: Aa1 (2) 
Fitch: AA+ (2) 

These are the various rating agencies that are highly respected in the industry to establish financial strength and the ability of the carrier to make good on its promise during your selected term.   They are all a bit different so it's important to take them in concert.  They disagree enough so that you need to look at a range of ratings. 

Each has its own rating scale, its own rating standards, its own population of rated companies, and its own distribution of companies across its scale. Some agencies use numbers or plusses and minuses to indicate minor variations in rating from another rating class. Each term insurance rating agency’s code is different. For example, an A+ from A.M. Best is the next-to-top rating of its 15 categories, but an A+ from Fitch or S&P is their 5th-highest rating (out of 24 categories for Fitch, and out of 19 categories for S&P). Moreover, Moody’s doesn’t have an A+ rating. However, the ratings can be classified into “secure” and “vulnerable” mega-categories. Here, as of  2008, are the rating scales for each of the “secure” rating classes, and all the “vulnerable” classes combined (source, except for Weiss: The Insurance Forum, September 2008 issue).
	Rating Agency Category Description # of companies in category % of rated companies in category A.M. Best A++ Superior 37 3.8   A+ Superior 149 15.4   A Excellent 194 20.1   A- Excellent 285 29.5   B++ Very good 128 13.3   B+ Very good 99 10.3   B and lower Vulnerable 63 6.5           Fitch AAA Exceptionally strong 10 3.2   AA+ Very strong 46 14.5   AA Very strong 50 15.8   AA- Very strong 56 17.7   A+ Strong 64 20.2   A Strong 45 14.2   A- Strong 16 5.0   BBB+ Good 17 5.4   BBB Good 5 1.6   BBB- Good 2 1.9   BB+ and lower Vulnerable 2 0.6           Moody's Aaa Exceptional 6 3.2   Aa1 Excellent 11 5.9   Aa2 Excellent 36 19.1   Aa3 Excellent 51 27.1   A1 Good 19 10.1   A2 Good 15 8.0   A3 Good 10 5.3   Baa1 Adequate 12 6.4   Baa2 Adequate 1 0.5   Baa3 Adequate 12 6.4   Ba1 and lower Vulnerable 15 7.9           S & P AAA Extremely strong 21 5.8   AA+ Very strong 23 6.4   AA Very strong 69 19.1   AA- Very strong 49 13.6   A+ Strong 38 10.5   A Strong 77 21.3   A- Strong 29 8.0   BBB+ Good 19 5.3   BBB Good 9 2.5   BBB- Good 10 2.8   BB+ and lower Vulnerable 17 4.8           *2004 figures; updated information not available **As of March 25, 2003
At etermlifeinsurancequote.com, we feel it's important to provide multiple rating agencies next to each plan to give your a one stop location to quote and compare term insurance plans.  Many providers of term life quotes on the web only provide one rating agency but there can be situations where a ranking by one agency is good while another agency deems that same carrier as vulnerable.  Now that that you understand how to rate and compare the carriers, you are ready to run your instant term life insurance quote with confidence!