What Do AM Best Financial Strength Ratings Mean? When comparing life insurance policies, one factor worth considering is the financial strength of each insurer. After all, you want to purchase a policy from an insurance company that will be able to pay your beneficiaries in the future. Assessing a company’s financial strength on your own is impossible. Fortunately, financial rating agencies like AM Best have done the heavy lifting. Since its beginnings in 1899, AM Best has assessed and analyzed the creditworthiness of insurance companies across the globe. Today, it reports on over 16,000 insurers’ ability to pay their claims, debts and other financial obligations. What Is a Financial...
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. Insurance might be one of the more serious purchases of your life, but buying it isn’t much more different than buying a car or choosing which restaurant to eat at (even if it’s less glamorous). That means doing some research before signing on the dotted line, of course. While comparing insurance companies, you’re likely going to ask yourself which company: An insurance company rating should always be a major part of the insurance buying process. A high rating is a good indicator that you’re making a smart financial decision, after all. What is an Insurance Company Rating? An insurance company rating, also called a credit rating, is typically...
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Insurance Company Rating Agencies Below are the five main rating agencies that assign insurance companies financial ratings. When you look at an insurance company rating chart you will see the financial rating assigned by one or all of these rating agencies. Each of these rating agencies is a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO). The SEC allows NRSROs to offer ratings to insurers that demonstrate the strength of the various insurance companies’ reserves. These rating agencies have a high standard to live up to, which should give you some peace of mind about your final decision. If you have been evaluating an insurance company’s financial strength you have...
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When shopping for insurance, you want to buy protection from a company financially strong enough to pay the claims of its customers even when a big disaster hits. An easy way to check on an insurance company’s financial strength is to find out how they’re rated by experts. The following are agencies with experise in rating insurance companies’ financial condition. There are five major agencies that rate insurance companies on a regular basis and offer their ratings and analysis online free of charge; although, most require registering with them before you can read their ratings. These agencies look at financial leverage, management stability, recent performance, and the...
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A.M. Best affirms credit ratings for SSQ, Life Insurance Company Inc. For a second consecutive year, international credit rating agency A.M. Best Co., specialized in the insurance sector, has given SSQ, Life Insurance Company Inc. a financial strength rating of “A (excellent)” and issuer credit rating of “a”. The outlook for both ratings is stable. The rating agency raised the company’s ratings in September 2019 and reconfirmed them in January 2020 following the announcement of the merger of equals of SSQ Insurance and La Capitale. “Further to a rigorous analysis, A.M. Best has maintained the excellent credit ratings attributed to SSQ, Life Insurance Company Inc. We welcome this decision...
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When you choose a life insurance company the first consideration should be the life insurance company rating – the financial strength of that company, even before competitiveness and pricing. Obviously, if the company is unable to pay the benefits promised in the life insurance policy, then every other consideration was unimportant. So, choose your company by price, benefits and design but always do a life insurance comparison of the company’s financial strength before you buy. You can do this by checking the financial strength rating online. Life insurance companies are ranked by independent services according to the financial strength of the company. This is done by a rating system. These...
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Is “adequate” adequate? This is not an existential question, but one every insurance analyst asks all the time. “Adequate” is the rating level of an insurance company that is considered investment grade. Being labeled as investment grade means that the company has a relatively low risk of defaulting on its obligations. In terms of bonds, an investment-grade rating is B++ (or higher) according to A.M. Best or Baa3 or higher according to Moody’s Investors Service or BBB- or higher according to S&P, Kroll, or Fitch Ratings. These credit ratings represent the opinion from each rating agency that the company will be able to pay back its obligations (also known as its debt) in a timely manner...
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Insurance companies are subject to financial ratings that attempt to describe how financially stable they are. The most prominent financial ratings agency for insurance companies is A.M. Best, though the big credit agencies all look at insurers, too. You should consider an insurance carrier's financial rating before purchasing coverage, as it indicates its ability to pay claims, especially in times of financial strain—like a natural disaster. What Are Insurance Company Ratings? Why Do They Matter? Insurance company ratings are holistic scores created by ratings agencies to succinctly describe the financial strength of an insurance company. Financial ratings companies consider a wide variety...
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AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Ratings (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of "a-" of Sagicor Life Inc. (St. Michael, Barbados) and Sagicor Life Insurance Company (Austin, TX). Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term ICR of "bbb+" of Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited (Kingston, Jamaica). In addition, AM Best has affirmed the Long Term ICR of "bbb-" of the ultimate parent, Sagicor Financial Company Ltd. (Bermuda) and the Long-Term Issue Credit Rating of "bbb" on the USD 320 million, 8.875% senior unsecured bonds that mature in 2022 of Sagicor Finance (2015) Limited (Cayman Islands). The outlook of these...
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Submitted by San Juan Island Fire & Rescue San Juan Island Fire and Rescue announced receiving notification by the Washington State Rating Bureau of a significant change to their evaluation of San Juan Island’s property underwriting and rating information for the insurance industry following its re-rating review that occurs approximately every 5 years. WSRB issued the updated rating: The WSRB rating for San Juan Island (outside of Friday Harbor) has been reduced from a Fire Protection Classification 7 to a Fire Protection Classification 6. The WSRB rating for the Town of Friday Harbor remains at a Fire Protection Classification of 6. As a private, for-profit company, WSRB does not...
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