Are you considering whole life insurance? No matter where you are in life, a permanent life insurance policy can provide much needed protection for your family and coverage of funeral expenses. There are many providers on the market, so it can be hard to choose. To help you out, here is a list of the best whole life insurance companies and the whole life insurance products that they offer.
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| Insurance Company | Whole Life Insurance Policies |
| Mutual Life Insurance Companies | |
| Northwestern Mutual | Participating whole life insurance policies offer potential dividend earnings |
| New York Life | Whole life insurance policies available: – Value Whole Life Insurance – Whole Life Insurance – Customize Whole Life Insurance |
| Mass Mutual | Participating whole life insurance policies offer potential dividend earnings |
| Penn Mutual | Both a single whole life insurance and survivorship whole life insurance plans for couples are available |
| Guardian Life | Whole life insurance policies offer potential dividend earning |
| Ohio National Life Insurance Company | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Limited-Pay Whole Life – Traditional Whole Life Insurance |
| OneAmerica Financial | Traditional whole life and limited-pay whole life insurance policies are available Policies offer potential dividend earnings |
| Stock Life Insurance Companies | |
| State Farm | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Limited Pay Life Insurance – Single Premium Life Insurance – Final Expense Insurance – Traditional Whole Life Insurance |
| Nationwide | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Traditional Whole Life Insurance – Limited-Pay Whole Life – Nationwide YourLife® WL 100 policy is considered paid-up at 100 years old. |
| Whole Life Insurance for Final Expenses | |
| Mutual of Omaha | Whole life insurance policies intended for funeral expenses – Maximum coverage $25,000 – Free funeral planning services included |
| AIG | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Insurance – Quality of Life Insurance – Guaranteed whole life insurance policies intended for funeral expenses – Maximum coverage $25,000 |
| Assurity | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Standard Whole Life Insurance – Single Premium Life Insurance – Simplified Whole Life Insurance Whole life insurance policies offer potential dividend earnings |
| Gerber | Whole Life Policies Available: – Adult Whole Life Insurance – Gerber Life Grow-Up® PlanLife Insurance for Young Adults – Guaranteed Whole Life Insurance Provides life insurance policies for adults and children |
| Transmerica | Whole Life Insurance Policies Available: – Traditional Whole Life Insurance – Final Expense Life Insurance – Immediate Solution10-Pay Solution Easy Solution |
>>MORE: Whole Life Insurance Quotes: How to Get and Compare Multiple Quotes?
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Mutual Life Insurance Companies
If you are looking for a life insurance company that is customer-focused and not driven by stock prices, consider a mutual life insurance provider. These companies are owned mutually by the policyholders, and may offer a quarterly or yearly dividend payout that comes from their annual profits.
Northwestern Mutual
You can easily find whole life insurance with level premiums that never increase through Northwestern Mutual. Policy holders enjoy a guaranteed death benefit and a cash-value that grows with time. Online quotes aren’t available, but the website has a contact form to sign up for a free phone consultation with a financial advisor.
New York Life
Established in 1854, New York Life has paid dividends continuously on their policies ever since. They appear to offer three types of whole life insurance for customers:
- Value Whole Life Insurance: This plan is designed for those nearing retirement and focuses on maximising coverage.
- Whole Life Insurance: A traditional whole life insurance policy that offers a balance of coverage and cash-value growth.
- Custom Whole Life Insurance: New York Life agents can also build a custom whole life insurance policy that allows you to set the premium schedule and potential cash-value based on a budget.
Mass Mutual
Mass Mutual offers whole life insurance policies with a guaranteed death benefit and additional cash-value, as well as, potential annual dividends. While there is a place to sign up for a free phone consultation and a life insurance calculator, it’s not possible to get a quote for whole life insurance online.
Penn Mutual
This long-established life insurance company appears to offer two whole life policies. You can get a standard whole life insurance policy with a guaranteed rate of cash-value growth. Or, you can get the survivorship whole life plan designed to cover a couple. After the second person in the policy dies, the plan will pay a death benefit to a named beneficiary.
Guardian Life
Guardian offers whole life insurance policies that are guaranteed for life, offer an additional cash-value component, and are also available with dividends. They don’t offer online quotes for their permanent life insurance policies, but you can call in to speak with an agent.
Ohio National Life Insurance Company
A Cincinnati-based mutual insurance company, Ohio National offers multiple whole life insurance policy options that fall within two groups, lifetime payment and limited payment schedules:
- Limited-Pay Whole Life: These policies only require premium payments for a set number of years. Their plans are set up with the following schedules:
- Prestige 20 Pay: 20 years of payments
- Prestige 10 Pay II: 10 years of payments
- Prestige Max III: Paid up at 65 years old or within 10 years of purchase.
- Whole Life Insurance: These traditional policies have a level premium for the lifetime of the holder or until they reach an endowment age of 100 years old. They include:
- Prestige Value IV
- Prestige 100 II
OneAmerica Financial
This mutual life insurance organization offers whole life insurance with multiple rider options to customize your policy. For instance, you can obtain a limited pay whole life policy with a 10, 20, or 30 year payment schedule. Some policies also qualify for optional annual dividend payments.
>>MORE: A Guide to the Worst Life Insurance Companies
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Stock Life Insurance Companies
Like the name implies, stock life insurance companies are built on a traditional model with stockholders owning the company. These companies focus more on increasing annual profits, which may mean faster growth of policies.
State Farm
A well-known insurance company, State Farm offers a variety of whole life insurance policies with the option for online quotes on each:
- Limited Pay Life Insurance: You only pay premiums for a set number of years on this policy before it is considered paid up. We found that a 35-year-old man in Ohio can get a whole life insurance policy of $100,000 with a premium of $222.55 per month for 15 years.
- Single Premium Life Insurance: Set up a life insurance policy with one large premium payment and allow the cash-value to grow over time! For the same $100,000 policy on a 35-year-old man in Ohio, the single premium payment is $30,862.
- Final Expense: If you live in New York and are between 50 – 80 years old, you can apply for $10,000 of whole life insurance to cover final expenses. A 55-year-old man living in New York would pay about $43.73 per month for this policy.
- Whole Life Insurance: This is a traditional whole life insurance with level premiums that never increase for life. That means an Ohio man who is 35 years old would have a level premium of $134.07 per month for $100,000 of coverage.
Nationwide
This insurer offers multiple types of insurance, including the Nationwide YourLife® WL policy which is available with two payment options:
- WL 100: Make premium payments until 100 years old.
- 20-pay WL: Only pay premiums for 20 years.
It also offers additional riders to customize these plans. Some options include an accidental death benefit rider, a spouse rider that covers your partner, and a premium waiver rider in the event that you are disabled.
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Best Whole Life Insurance for Final Expenses
You can also find whole life insurance plans designed to cover final expenses. These policies are usually only available to older people who want the peace of mind of knowing necessary after life care is covered.
Mutual of Omaha
Mutual of Omaha offers a Guaranteed Plus Whole Life Insurance plan with coverage of $2,000 – $25,000 for final expenses for those aged 45 – 85 years old. You also receive free 24/7 funeral planning services from Everest Funeral Concierge. There are no medical exams or health questions required for approval. The policy does have a graded death benefit that limits payments to 110% of the premiums if you pass within two years of signing up.
You can request a free quote online for their whole life insurance policy. We found that a 55-year-old man in Ohio can get $25,000 of coverage for about $111 per month.
AIG
AIG also offers Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Insurance for people between the ages of 50 – 85. Coverage ranges from $5,000 – $25,000 and requires no medical exam. There is a graded death benefit that only pays back 110% of the premiums if you die within the first two years of policy ownership. You can fill out an online quote request to have an agent call you about a policy.
Assurity
Assurity offers standard whole life, single premium life, and simplified whole life insurance. The simplified plan may be the best bet for final expense insurance. Approval is only based on your medical history and doesn’t require an exam. Unfortunately they don’t offer online quotes, so you will need to call to speak with an agent.
Gerber
Known as a baby food and supplies brand, Gerber also offers a range of insurance. Their Guaranteed Life Insurance Plan provides between $5,000 – $25,000 for final expenses. Available only to adults between the ages of 50 – 80 years old, the plan offers easy online quotes. For instance, a 55-year-old man in Ohio can get a maximum $25,000 policy for about $143.46 per month.
Transmerica
This company offers a slew of life insurance plans, including three types of final expense insurance:
- Immediate Solution: Provides immediate coverage with no waiting period. This plan is available to those up to 85 years old with graded coverage depending on your age when buying a policy. A 55-year old man can get a maximum of $50,000 in death benefits, while an 85-year-old man can get up to $25,000 in death benefits.
- 10-Pay Solution: A limited pay whole life insurance plan, 10-Pay has a 10-year payment schedule. It also offers full coverage from day one with the same graded coverage options depending on the policy buyer’s age.
- Easy Solution: This traditional whole life insurance policy is available up to 80 years old for most people. It may offer more affordable premiums, but does have graded death benefits for the first two years of the policy. The maximum coverage for every policyholder is $25,000.
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The Benefits of Whole Life Insurance
Whole life insurance is a permanent life insurance product. It provides coverage for life as long as you pay premiums. Its biggest benefit is that it is the only life insurance product that guarantees both death coverage and cash value. When you buy a whole life insurance policy, your agent should be able to tell you how much cash value you’ll have exactly in your policy by the 10th, 15th, or 20th, etc. year of the policy. And you should know how much exactly your beneficiary will receive when you pass away.
If your main goal is for your family to have enough money to take care of your burial services and final expenses, whole life is the only product available for you, especially if you are not in good health and in your 70s or 80s. Learn more how to get life insurance when you are in 70s or 80s and/or without medical exam.
Whole life insurance has been around for a long time so many people are familiar with it.
The Drawbacks of Whole Life Insurance
Since whole life insurance product was invented in 1940s, is an old product with lots of drawbacks, and might not be the best product for you anymore:
- It is the most expensive product in the market and might not be worth it.
- For the same permanent death coverage, you can get another policy with almost half of the price like guaranteed universal life insurance.
- If you want to invest in a cash value life insurance policy as part of your retirement planning to benefit from its tax advantages, ie. no income tax on investment gains, either indexed universal or variable universal life insurance policy will provide you with a much more significant cash value growth
- It is very inflexible in its design.
- To withdraw money from the cash value account, there is no other way than borrowing against the policy with a relatively high interest rate, usually at 8%. In other universal life insurance policies, you can withdraw with no interests at all or borrow with a much lower interest rate, usually at 4% or less.
- There is no flexibility in paying premiums. Regardless whatever happens in your life, you have to keep paying premiums. If you skip a month or a year, it automatically borrows money from the cash value account to pay for premiums. When the cash value account runs out of money, the policy will lapse
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Final Notes:
- Those who are interested in whole life insurance can find coverage through dozens of companies.
- Whole life insurance policies are designed to meet the needs of guaranteed death coverage and guaranteed cash value.
- Whole life insurance is the only product available for burial services and final expenses with relatively small policy, from $5,000 to $25,000, especially if you are in your 70s or 80 and may not be in good health condition.
- Some life insurance companies are traditional stockholder-owned enterprises, while others are mutually owned by the policyholders.
