Best Whole Life Insurance Companies for October 2025

Why Trust Us

Investopedia product reviews are based on weeks of research and analysis by staff researchers and editors. For our list of the best whole life insurance companies, we gathered data from 45 companies on criteria our experts deem most important when choosing a life insurance company: financial stability, customer satisfaction, coverage options, cost, and other features. From this data, we create comprehensive, objective reviews to help you choose the best company for your needs. 

Investopedia has been providing trustworthy financial information to readers since 1999, and we’ve been reviewing life insurance companies since 2020. 

How Does Whole Life Insurance Work?

Whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance policy, which provides lifetime coverage. When a policyholder passes away, their designated beneficiaries will receive a guaranteed, typically income-tax-free death benefit. 

Like other types of permanent life insurance, whole life insurance includes cash value: a savings component that enables policyholders to accumulate money that they can use to pay premiums, borrow from, and even withdraw. 

Whole life insurance premiums are typically fixed, meaning they won’t go up after you sign up. Insurance companies will determine a policyholder’s initial premium by evaluating factors like health status, medical history, gender, age, and more.

When policyholders pay premiums, a portion of it goes towards covering the cost-of-insurance—or the death benefit and other administrative expenses—while some of it goes towards the cash value. Insurance companies typically offer a fixed rate on cash value for whole insurance policies, so it grows at a steady rate, regardless of market conditions. Some companies even pay dividends on cash value, returning a share of annual profits to policyholders. 

If you decide to terminate your whole life insurance policy before you die, your cash value balance will be returned to you, but it may not be the full amount. Your policy could deduct surrender fees for canceling the property early, though this is less common with whole life versus other types. You also will owe income tax on any amount received over what you paid in premiums.

Whole Life Insurance vs. Term Life Insurance

Unlike whole life insurance, term life insurance only offers coverage for a fixed period of time—typically between 10 and 30 years. If a policyholder outlives the term, they may be able to renew but at a much higher premium because they are renewing at an older age. If the policyholder does not renew, the coverage ends. Their beneficiaries will no longer receive the policy death benefit. 

Term life insurance is usually much more affordable than whole life insurance because most term life insurance policyholders tend to outlive their policies, so they’re less of a risk for insurance companies. Term life insurance also doesn’t offer cash value.

Pros & Cons of Whole Life Insurance 

Pros Explained

• Lifetime coverage: With whole life insurance, your beneficiaries are guaranteed to receive the death benefit as long as you pay your premiums.
• Guaranteed return on cash value: There is no investment risk with whole life insurance. Your cash value grows by a steady, fixed return with no risk of losses. 
• Fixed premiums: Whole life insurance policies generally offer fixed premiums, so you won’t have to worry about the cost of your premiums increasing as you age.
  

Cons Explained

• Expensive premiums: Since it’s a permanent life insurance policy, whole life typically charges much higher premiums than term life insurance. Whole life is also more expensive than universal life, another type of permanent coverage.
• Lack of flexibility: Since whole life insurance policies generally charge fixed premiums and provide a level death benefit, policyholders who want the ability to adjust their premiums or their death benefit should consider a universal life insurance policy instead.
• Low rate of return on cash value: Whole life insurance pays a safe but low return on your savings. You could potentially earn more investing in the stock market or even using other types of permanent life insurance, such as variable universal life.
  

How We Chose the Best Whole Life Insurance Companies

Investopedia’s list of the best whole life insurance companies is based on rigorous research of 45 companies.

Investopedia commissioned a consumer survey about life insurance, and consulted information about industry market share and popularity to come up with a preliminary list of companies to consider. We then eliminated insurers that failed to meet Investopedia’s standards for online transparency, financial strength, and customer complaint ratings. 

For the 45 remaining companies, we gathered 3,150 data points related to 70 criteria. The data came from company webpages, media representatives, rating agencies (AM Best, NAIC, and J.D. Power), and customer service calls. We conducted the research between May 20 and July 3, 2024. 

Then, staff editors and research analysts created a quantitative model that scores each company based on six major categories. For whole life insurance, we weighted the categories as follows:

• Policy Features: 50%
• Riders: 18%
• Financial Stability: 10%
• Customer Satisfaction: 10%
• Policy Types: 8%
• Application and Online Service Features: 4%

For more information, read our full methodology explanation.