A.M. Best Ratings for Insurance Companies

After getting your free quotation, you will also notice a letter grade associated with each life insurance company.

What does the letter grade mean when choosing highly-rated life insurance companies from A.M. Best?

Here is a summary of the standard AM Best rating definitions, further defined with the AM Best rating scale.

A.M. Best Insurance Ratings Scale

While there is no single best company, assessing an insurer’s quality can be accessible by looking up their AM Best Ratings.

Like the grades you get in school, AM Best utilizes a letter grading system for assessing insurers, which has proven to be an easy-to-understand practice used by all rating services.  

Understanding what these ratings mean can help guide you in your decision-making process to ensure that any policy you buy will be reliable in paying out claims.

How the A.M. Best insurance ratings scale works

Secure Best’s Ratings

A.M. Best ratings of insurance companies include a letter grade (A++ to F)  to carriers that subscribe to their interactive rating service.

Insurance A.M. Best ratings also feature an opinion based on a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a company’s balance sheet strength, operating performance, and business profile.

• A++ and A+ (Superior) These grades are assigned to companies with superior ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders.
• A and A- (Excellent) These grades are assigned to companies that have an excellent ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders.
• B++ and B+ (Very Good)  These grades are assigned to companies that have a good ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders.

The rating scale also includes six “Vulnerable” rating grades. You most likely do not want to consider a policy from an insurance company that has been graded with a vulnerable rating.

Vulnerable Best’s Ratings

• B and B- (Fair) These grades are assigned to companies that have a fair ability to meet their current obligations to policyholders but are financially vulnerable to adverse changes in underwriting and economic conditions.
• C++ and C+ (Marginal) These grades are assigned to companies that have a marginal ability to meet their current obligations to policyholders but are financially vulnerable to adverse changes in underwriting and economic conditions.
• C and C- (Weak) These grades are assigned to companies that have a weak ability to meet their current obligations to policyholders but are financially very vulnerable to adverse changes in underwriting and economic conditions.
• D (Poor) These grades are assigned to companies that may not have the ability to meet their current obligations to policyholders and are financially highly vulnerable to adverse changes in underwriting and economic conditions.
• E (Under Regulatory Supervision) These grades are assigned to companies (and possibly their subsidiaries/affiliates) that have been placed by an insurance regulatory authority under a form of supervision, control, or restraint, whereby they are no longer allowed to conduct normal ongoing insurance operations. This would include conservatorship or rehabilitation but does not include liquidation. It may also be assigned to companies issued cease and desist orders by regulators outside their home state or country.
• F (In Liquidation) These grades are assigned to companies that have been placed under an order of liquidation by a court of law or whose owners have voluntarily agreed to liquidate the company. Note: Companies that voluntarily liquidate or dissolve their charters are generally not insolvent.
• S (Rating Suspended) These grades are assigned to rated companies that have experienced sudden and significant events affecting their balance sheet strength or operating performance and whose rating implications cannot be evaluated due to a lack of timely or adequate information.

Independent Insurance Rating Companies

You can also evaluate other impartial rating companies like Standard and Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s. Stay with companies with the highest overall ratings from all these great independent sources.

To take an aggregate of all rating agencies and put them all on a level playing field, a more accessible option is a Comdex Score.

A Comdex Score is a composite score of all the evaluations a life insurance company has available and puts each company into one single, 1-100 point scale in relation to other companies that the rating services have rated.

Get Quotes with a Superior AM Best Rating

Getting affordable quotes for your family from the highest-rated life insurance companies is a great place to start.

We realize that you are searching for life insurance quotes online because you want to quickly compare life insurance policies in the comfort of your home.

This is the sole reason for granting you free access to our calculator. You will instantly get free life insurance quotes online without entering personal information, financial information, or medical history.

Upon receiving your request, we will always provide you with a more detailed insurance company ratings list. We recommend only selecting A+ rated carriers on the A.M. Best Rating Scale.

Our comprehensive report will include other independent financial rating companies like S&P, Fitch, Moody’s, and a composite Comdex Score.

For your easy reference, we have also provided you with an insurance company rating list from AM Best, currently holding an A + superior rating in 2022.

AM Best Ratings for Insurance Companies