Finding the right life insurance takes time and energy—two things in pretty short supply. No matter how busy your schedule, though, there’s no excuse for leaving your family unprotected. The good news is, we’ve already done a lot of the work for you.

Using industry numbers from A.M. Best and our friends at Zander Insurance, we identified the best life insurance companies on the market in 2024.

We’ll talk more about the best way to get life insurance from these top life insurance companies, but first, let’s look at the winners for best life insurance companies this year!

The Best Life Insurance Companies of 2024

*A.M. Best  is an agency that rates insurance companies on their ability to pay claims over the long haul. An A+ rating means this company has a “Superior” ability to pay out claims.

**All you have to do is answer a few questions to determine eligibility. Depending on your responses, you may still need a medical exam to get a policy.

All of these top life insurance companies provide you with awesome coverage that’s also super affordable. Even better, they all work with RamseyTrusted partner Zander Insurance. It’s Zander’s job to gather term life options and quotes from each insurance company for you, and using their decades of insurance expertise, help you find coverage that’s just right.

How to Choose the Best Life Insurance Company for You

To choose the best life insurance company for your needs, start by looking for one that’ll get you the right kind of life insurance—and the only kind anyone should buy is term life insurance (as opposed to a whole life policy). That’s because term life does the one and only job life insurance is supposed to do, which is replace your income for your beneficiaries (aka your family) if you die. (You can read more here about why term life always beats whole life.)

As you can tell from our list above, there are plenty of companies that sell term life. And that’s great news for you! But which one is the best?

That depends on a few factors. Maybe you really want to skip any needles or medical exams when you apply. If so, look for a company that offers coverage without a medical exam. (Yep, that’s become a very popular option lately.)

Or maybe you care most about cost. As we mentioned already, Zander is a great resource for you, because they’ll be able to offer you a range of quotes from several of the best insurance companies out there.

Then there’s an insurance company’s history of being able to pay out claims over the long haul. You sure don’t want to buy a policy without feeling confident that they’ll be able to keep up their end of the bargain if the worst should happen. Thankfully, each company on our list of best life insurance companies above has a great rating for consistency in paying claims.

How does the relationship work between a broker like Zander and life insurance companies?

We’ve mentioned Zander a couple of times already. But they aren’t on the list of top life insurance companies. What’s up with that? Zander is a broker. That means they have relationships with many different insurance companies, allowing them to serve you a wide range of quotes and coverage options from those companies. As a broker, Zander has also been in business for decades—including 25+ years serving Ramsey customers. All that experience gives them a deep working knowledge of which companies can give you and those you love trustworthy coverage.

Who would your family work with if they filed a claim on your life insurance—the company or the broker?

The answer is either. Think of Zander as your personal shopper as you look for the best life insurance company for your needs. Once they’ve helped you decide which insurance company to work with, they remain your point of contact with the carrier for the life of the policy. And they'll continue to help you with things like processing policy changes, updating beneficiaries and adding new bank information. Plus Zander can help you get your policy reinstated or provide a death claim packet when the unthinkable happens. (We hope not anytime soon.) They'll even help you out with any problems you might run into with the policy itself. Zander walks with you from the day you sign until the policy is done. Talk about great customer service.

Compare Term Life Insurance Quotes 

How to Buy Life Insurance

There are a couple of things to think about as you search the list of best life insurance companies for your ideal term life policy. Let’s talk through the steps of how to buy life insurance.

(Sidebar: Before you even begin, check with your employer to see if they offer a group life insurance policy. Even though that type of employee benefit doesn’t usually cover all your needs, it can get you started—for free!)

These are the main steps for getting term life insurance:

1. Pick your life insurance policy term length. We’ll unpack this in more detail below, but most people will want a term that provides coverage for 15–20 years.
2. Choose your term life insurance payout amount. The rule of thumb is 10–12 times your annual income. (We’ll dive deep on the why later.)
3. Submit your application. After you’ve gotten your quotes and picked the company you want to use, the next step is to apply. (Duh!) Depending on your situation, the insurance carrier will decide how risky you are to insure through a little process known as underwriting. Your health and age are the primary factors.
4. Name your beneficiaries. This is lawyer talk for the people who’ll receive the money from your policy if you die. (And while you’re at it, don’t forget to name a contingent beneficiary too. They’d receive the insurance payout if something ever happened to you and the primary beneficiary.)

Average Cost of Life Insurance

Term life insurance rates are mainly based on two factors—your health and your age. So, it really does pay to get it now instead of later! In fact, age plays such a big role in setting your rate that estimating how much you’ll pay for coverage is pretty easy based on that alone. Our term life estimator can give you a solid idea of how much it’ll cost you if you get it now versus later.

Do I Need Life Insurance?

Most people do need life insurance. If you have dependents or debt (and most people have at least one, if not both), life insurance protects them from the risk of your unexpected death.

That’s because (as we mentioned before) life insurance has one job: to replace your income for your dependents if you die. If any of these describe your current life situation, getting life insurance is essential:

• You’re married. Your spouse deserves the peace of mind that comes from knowing that if they ever lost you, they’d be financially okay. (And you deserve the same, so be sure you each have a policy.)
• You’ve got young’uns. If you have dependent children under 18, you need life insurance in place until they’re on their own. It’s the only way to be sure they’d be taken care of if the unthinkable happened.
• You’re an empty nester. Are your kids grown and gone? You might still need life insurance. For example, maybe you still have a mortgage or you’re not where you want to be with retirement savings. In that situation, your spouse could sure use a life insurance payout if you died.

Life insurance isn’t as necessary when you’re already self-insured. (That means you’re debt-free and have enough in investments to replace your income for your family if you die. At that point, you no longer need life insurance at all.) Is that you? Awesome!

And, life insurance may not make sense if you’re older (depending on debt and investments), since it can be pretty expensive for seniors. On the other hand, a smaller policy can be a smart way to hedge against debt for seniors. Be sure to use our estimator above to gauge the cost for your own situation.

How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?

As we touched on above, there are two metrics here: How long? And how much? Let’s talk about both.

How Long Should Your Term Life Insurance Last?

We recommend buying a term policy that lasts 15–20 years. Here’s why. If you’re raising little kids right now (and Lord have mercy if you are), they’ll be done with school and living large by the time the policy ends. That means you’ll only need coverage during those 15–20 years in between—when they’re living at home and depending on your income.

But maybe you don’t have kids, or they’re all grown up! For you, that same 15–20-year term gives you all the time you need to become self-insured and protect the future for your spouse in case something happens to you.

How Much Life Insurance Coverage Should You Buy?

Your coverage amount, aka the death benefit, needs to be 10–12 times your annual income. How does that work? Just take your annual income and multiply it by 10–12 to see how much cash your family would need if you died. Or check out this handy term life insurance calculator. It does the math for you!

If something were to happen to you, you’d want your family to be able to invest their payout in good growth stock mutual funds with an average of 10–12% growth each year. That way, your family can live on the growth of that investment to replace your income while preserving the original payout amount.

So, for example, if you make $80,000 a year, multiply that by 10. You’d want a death benefit of at least $800,000.

Get the Right Life Insurance in Place Today

Enjoying time with the ones you love matters the most—and protecting their future shouldn’t feel like a burden! You know how important life insurance is for their well-being, but getting it taken care of doesn’t have to be a slog.

To give you a clear path to getting the best coverage, take a look at the next steps below.