The right life insurance for you will meet your needs at a price you're willing to pay. If the term life insurance isn't covering you adequately, you may want to consider a whole life policy, often referred to as permanent life insurance.
You'll have to jump through more hoops to qualify for whole life insurance, such as medical exams and premium payments. However, your policy will never expire and may come with additional benefits such as cash value.
The best whole life insurance is not only provides money to your loved ones when you pass away, but also plays a major part in your financial life. As such, to determine our top picks for whole life insurance policies, we looked at how well these policies can support you during your life and your loved ones after you pass away.
Here are the best whole life insurance companies of 2025.
Best whole life insurance for customer satisfaction: State Farm Life Insurance
State Farm Life Insurance continues to lead the way in customer satisfaction. Customers typically hold auto, home, and other insurance policies with multi-policy discounts. Life insurance agents with State Farm can only quote its company policies. But they have the training to apply all available discounts to be as aggressive as possible with policy premiums.
Like many other companies, State Farm now offers "living benefits" in the event of illness or injury. Whole life options include a single premium, premiums payable to age 100, and premiums payable to an agreed-upon point. Buyers can discuss options with a licensed life insurance agent.
- State Farm agents can quote with all applicable discounts and customized benefits
- Single premium plans and premiums payable for a set time are available
- Life insurance customers can take out loans from their policy, and State Farm offers living benefits
Read our State Farm life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for seniors: Prudential Life Insurance
Prudential Life Insurance is known for its superior financial stability (and that extends to the company's other insurance products, as well). The Prudential VUL Protector (and the Pruco Life of New Jersey VUL Protector plan) offers specialized life insurance planning for seniors.
Premiums are fixed, and Prudential provides a lower risk profile on this plan to minimize potential losses. With less aggressive investments, buyers won't see the significant gains associated with higher-risk investment vehicles.
- Coverage is specialized for senior applicants with a high likelihood of acceptance
- Low-risk investment vehicles to minimize losses
- Fixed premiums over the entirety of your life insurance policy
Read our Prudential life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for accelerated death benefits: Columbus Life Insurance
Columbus Life Insurance remains a top competitor in life insurance overall. More companies now offer accelerated death benefits, sometimes called living benefits. Columbus remains on the cutting edge.
Buyers can pull money for immediate medical bills, long-term care, and end-of-life expenses before they pass away. Competitors frequently use a discounted death benefit, which offers confusing data for the average consumer. So it's hard to know what impact an early withdrawal would have on your death benefit. Columbus simplifies the process with the lien method. It makes it easier for the average life insurance investor to understand the impact of withdrawals on long-term financial planning.
Columbus Life customers enjoy various life insurance plans supplemented with plenty of riders. Base premiums are highly affordable, and riders allow policy customization to find each buyer's best life insurance products. Some customers choose whole life products up front, but Columbus Life enables qualified applicants to apply to convert term life insurance policies to whole policies up to initial expiration date.
- Accelerated life insurance benefits available for long-term disability or extreme illness
- Columbus uses the lien method instead of the discounted death benefit
- Plenty of riders available to customize policies
Read our Columbus life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for dividends: MassMutual Life Insurance
MassMutual Life Insurance offers a variety of life insurance options, including term life, univeral, and whole life insurance.
The cash value that builds up in a whole life policy can be borrowed against later on to pay for college, supplement retirement income, or accomplish other financial goals. Policyholders may receive dividends for their policy each year it's in effect. While dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid policyholders annually since 1869 and expects to pay $2.2 billion in dividends to its policyholders in 2024, one of the highest payouts in the industry. .
- One of the highest dividend payouts in the life insurance industry
- High-value life insurance plans available for financial planning
- Loan options to preserve higher death benefits while using existing funds as needed
Read our MassMutual life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for military members: USAA Life Insurance
USAA Life Insurance offers $400,000 in coverage with the servicemember's group life insurance (SGLI) policy, available to eligible military members in the major branches and reserves. Due to deployment, traditional life insurance companies may not offer policy options for military members. USAA specializes in serving active duty military members, and it provides additional life insurance options for veterans.
USAA underwriters consider factors like age, health, and lifestyle, and medical exams are involved. However, it takes away many of the common barriers military members face, even when being deployed.
- Active-duty service members can use it to supplement SGLI
- Available for a diverse range of military members and veterans
- Applicants may still be required to undergo medical exams
Read our USAA life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for no medical exam: Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance
Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance is known, above all else, for its financial stability. It offers various plans and riders, including no-exam life insurance plans. Some policies are as small as $2,000 for applicants between 50 and 75. Life insurance policies max out at $25,000 for healthy applicants looking to avoid a medical exam.
Once approved, there is a two-year waiting period for no medical exam life insurance policies with Mutual of Omaha. If policyholders die during those two years, Mutual of Omaha will pay out 110% of the premiums paid to date. The company closes most claims on the same business day for qualifying claims.
- No medical exam policies are available, with payouts up to $25,000
- Available for applicants up to 85 except in New York, where the age limit is 75
- Two-year waiting period for full benefits
Read our Mutual of Omaha life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for investing: Allianz Life Insurance
Allianz Life Insurance offers high-value plans for tax-free payouts and aggressive investments. Many applicants use Allianz life insurance policies to supplement 401(k)s and other retirement investment vehicles. Some estimates suggest qualified applicants could increase their income by up to 20%. In addition, buyers can add riders to customize life insurance plans.
Allianz is among a few companies offering life insurance policies for foreign nationals with H-1B visas.
- Million-dollar policy limits for qualified applicants
- Strong growth and investment options
- Plans available for foreign nationals with H-1B visas
Read our Allianz life insurance review.
Best whole life insurance for people with HIV: Guardian Life Insurance
Guardian Life Insurance offers unique policies for high-risk groups, including HIV patients. Due to medical innovations, undetectable cases of HIV are on the rise. The long-term health issues and early deaths of patients with HIV are lower than ever before, but many insurers are still hesitant to issue life insurance policies to HIV patients.
Applicants should be between 20 and 60 years old and in good health. Guardian Life also requires accepted applicants to be on antiretroviral therapy for a minimum of two years with promising lab results. While an HIV diagnosis is acceptable for Guardian Life insurance policies, applicants cannot have any AIDS-defining illnesses. Because of its thorough underwriting process, Guardian offers generous policies with reasonable premiums for qualified applicants.
- Specialized plans available for patients with HIV
- Applicants must be under the care of an HIV doctor and on retroviral therapy for at least two years
- Applicants cannot have AIDS-defining illnesses
Read our Guardian life insurance review.
Types of Whole Life Insurance
Non-Participating Whole Life
Non-participating whole life insurance is what you may normally envision of when you think about whole life insurance. It has fixed premiums and death benefits with a predictable cash value growth trajectory. It's the most straightforward option as a kind of "set it and forget it" life insurance policy.
Participating Whole Life
In contrast with non-participating whole life insurance, this type of policy requires more involvement from the policyholder. Policyholders can use the accumulated cash value for a number of purposes, such as earning dividends to increase your death benefit or offsetting premiums. These policies are often more expensive and complicated. You may want to look elsewhere if you don't want to spend a lot of time managing your life insurance policy.
Limited-Pay Whole Life
While traditional whole life insurance has you pay premiums to maintain your policy until you pass away, limited-pay whole life has you make payments for a specific period, usually 10, 20, or 30 years. Once the period has ended, you no longer have to pay premiums, but your policy still remains active. However, you'll have to pay higher premiums during this period than you would for a traditional whole life policy.
How to Choose a Whole Life Insurance Policy
With many riders and options available, life insurance options are better than ever. Buyers enjoy more types of life insurance, competitive life insurance rates, and much more.
Policy options
You'll need to find a company that offers the type of whole life policy you need, be it participating, non-participating, or limited-pay. This will depend on your goals and your needs from your policy. You'll also want to keep any desired riders in mind, as some companies may not offer exactly what you're looking for.
Cash value growth
Similar to policy type, you should also look at how your cash value accumulates and what you're allowed to do with it. You may be able to use the cash value to pay off your premium, take out a loan, or even simply withdraw it.
Dividend payouts
Depending on the provider, whole life policyholders can receive dividends from their insurance company depending on how well the company does in that year. While dividends are not guaranteed, most of the large providers that pay dividends have reliably paid out since their foundings.
Obtain quotes
The best way to find life insurance is to collect quotes from as many life insurance companies as you can to understand what you'll pay with each policy.
Unfortunately, many life insurance companies don't offer online quotes for permanent life insurance companies. You'll need to call or talk to an agent to obtain quotes for whole life insurance.
You should be prepared to answer an extensive list of questions related to your current health status, your medical history, and your family's medical history. You may also have to answer questions related to your financial health and driving history.
Customer service
The last thing you want is your family having to fight with an insurance company after your death. You can review customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau to see how responsive a company's customer service team is and how easy it is to receive payouts.
You can also look at ratings from third-party organizations, like JD Power's customer satisfaction survey and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' customer complaint index.
Work with an expert
Working with a trusted life insurance agent can help you make the right decision for. Insurance professionals can help you set parameters that make sense for your search and compare prices with benefits. As a result, qualified insurance agents can get consumers affordable pricing and ensure greater customer satisfaction.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed the Best Whole Life Insurance
Life insurance comes in many shapes and forms, and whole life isn't always the right option. It depends on your goals, your current finances, and other factors. We base our reviews on crucial factors to help consumers determine which life insurance plan is right for them.
- Price: The insurance premium often overshadows other factors when deciding what life insurance you need. Cheap life insurance has appeal now, but it doesn't always get you the coverage you need. We look at affordability as part of a cost and benefit analysis.
- Coverage: How much coverage can you qualify for? Will it cover the death benefits you want for family or other beneficiaries? Will it meet your investment goals? Applicants seeking death benefits to cover funeral costs have different expectations than those looking to live comfortably in retirement. We also look at unique products like those for HIV patients, seniors, foreign nationals, and more.
- Performance: What kind of gains can you expect? We look at the risk profile and average financial gains over the policy's lifespan.
- Payouts: A whole life policy will pay out upon death or earlier based on what's written in the policy documents. We examine the claims process, average processing time, and payment rate.
Read Business Insider's life insurance rating methodology for all the details on how we rate insurance companies and build these guides.
Best Whole Life Insurance FAQ
You can cash out your life insurance if you have a policy that comes with cash value, like permanent life insurance. To do so, you would borrow or take funds from your policy. You can also completely surrender the policy and cash out, but that would mean giving up your life insurance coverage so it's generally not advisable.
The best whole life insurance policies are available from companies including State Farm, Prudential, and New York Life. The best option for you may depend on what features you're looking for, such as an accelerated death benefit or the option to bypass a medical exam.
When it comes to buying insurance, generally the earlier you purchase a policy the less you'll pay. If you're looking at a whole life insurance policy specifically, you should buy a new policy or convert an existing term policy before age 60 to avoid the biggest rate increases and policy limitations.
If you have a whole life insurance policy that includes cash value, you can borrow against it once you reach a certain threshold of accrued value in your policy. This generally takes several years, and will depend on your specific policy's terms.
The average cost of whole life insurance is $52 monthly, though prices will vary based on your specific needs.
