Best Term Life Insurance Companies of February 2023

Protective is our pick for best term life insurance thanks to its cheap coverage, no-exam policies (no agent contact required), strong financials, and stellar online features. It's also our top pick for best life insurance companies for young adults.

Protective tied with our number two choice, Banner, for the cheapest term life insurance, based on the sample applicants we gathered quotes for. On top of that, Protective and Banner are the only two companies we found that offer a 40-year term. That’s one the longest terms we’ve found. And while both companies boast a range of great features like no-exam life insurance and online life insurance quotes and applications, Protective wins by offering something Banner doesn’t: credit card payments.

But if customer satisfaction is more important to you than cost and convenience, note that J.D. Power ranked Protective below average in its 2021 study of customer satisfaction with U.S. life insurers. It ranked 16th out of 21 companies in the survey.

Banner, which is owned by Legal & General America, was a close second to Protective for our pick for best term life insurance company. It tied for the lowest premiums and, like Protective, offers 40-year term policies (most companies cap coverage at 30 years). Plus, Banner received very few customer complaints over the last three years relative to its size (fewer than Protective), according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Banner makes getting coverage easy with online life insurance quotes and an online application, and it lets you “stack” your policy with term riders. Stacking is a way to temporarily increase the coverage on your base policy while reducing long-term costs. Our only complaint about the company: If you want to pay premiums with a credit card, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Haven makes our list as a great term life insurance company that offers an easy same-day approval process for qualified applicants with excellent pricing. When researching Haven Life, we were impressed with its user-friendly website, and the online quote and application process is a breeze. Informative popups guide you and you can submit an application online without an agent in just a few minutes. You can also use Haven Life’s live chat feature to connect with an agent, but you don’t have to speak with a company rep in order to apply. And healthy applicants up to 55 years old looking for up to $500,000 in coverage may be able to get a decision in minutes for coverage that begins immediately. 

When you get a policy from Haven, it’s issued by parent company MassMutual, which means it’s backed by the company we named best for financial stability (below). But unlike every other company on this list, Haven’s term policies don’t let you convert to permanent life insurance. And if you’re over 64 or looking for no-medical-exam coverage above $500,000, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

If you want more than just death benefit protection on a term policy, Mutual of Omaha is hard to beat. Out of our top picks, it provides the widest range of living benefits included at no additional cost on its term policies. Non-ROP policies include three accelerated death benefit riders free of charge: terminal illness, chronic illness, and critical illness. (ROP policies include a terminal illness rider). These riders let you access the death benefit before death if you’re diagnosed with a qualifying illness. 

Mutual of Omaha is also the only one of our top-rated carriers that offers an optional disability income rider and ROP term policies. The former provides supplementary income if you become disabled and are unable to work. Return-of-premium policies refund your premiums if you outlive the term. They cost more, but amount to a forced savings vehicle that may be right if you struggle to save and are uncomfortable with the idea of paying for coverage you might not use.

One potential downside of Mutual of Omaha is that it has the worst customer complaint score of all our top picks. NAIC data shows that over three years, it received the amount of complaints that is expected for a company of its size. Not bad, but its competitors received fewer complaints than expected. Other things to consider: While Mutual of Omaha does offer a live chat tool for online convenience, you can’t apply without contacting an agent.

Founded in 1851 MassMutual has earned a rating of A++ (Superior) from AM Best (the highest rating available), winning our award for the most financially stable of the top term insurers. We also like that the company gets very few complaints relative to its size. And it offers convertible term life insurance that you can convert into any type of permanent policy it offers—most companies give you fewer choices. To top it all off, MassMutual makes policies available to a wide range of applicants for a respectable amount of coverage. Applicants up to age 64 who are applying for up to $1 million in coverage may be able to skip a medical exam by answering a series of health questions instead.  

However, we found that MassMutual offers fewer free term life riders than some other companies on our top pick list. Although every term life policy from MassMutual includes a terminal illness rider at no added cost, rivals Mutual of Omaha and Nationwide also provide free critical and chronic illness riders with term policies.

Learn more in our MassMutual life insurance review.