Insurance Company Ratings Chart (2026): AM Best, S&P, Fitch

Ratings for well-known annuity and life insurance carriers

Hundreds of active life and annuity carriers hold a current grade from at least one of the four major agencies. Rather than try to mirror a live feed of every one of them, the table below shows AM Best, S&P, Moody's and Fitch grades for carriers you are likely to run into while shopping, listed alphabetically. Grades change during the year, so treat this as a starting point and pull the current number from the agency itself before you buy (the last section on this page shows you how).

The highest-rated life insurance companies

A small group of carriers holds AM Best's top grade, A++ (Superior). Based on public agency data, that group currently includes:

• New York Life
• Northwestern Mutual
• Guardian Life
• TIAA
• Thrivent
• Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska

Each of these is a mutual or mutual-owned insurer built around long-term policyholder obligations rather than shareholder returns, which is part of why they cluster at the top of the scale. Holding the top grade does not automatically make a company's annuity the best fit for you; it means the company clears the highest bar for financial strength that AM Best sets.

The strongest annuity carriers by rating

Widening the lens to carriers that sell a meaningful amount of annuities, and rank near the top across every agency that grades them:

A rating tells you how likely a company is to be able to pay a claim decades from now. It does not tell you whether a specific contract's rate, fees or rider fits your plan.

Not sure which of these fits your income goals? A licensed strategist can compare a short list of top-rated carriers against your numbers at no cost to you; get a free quote to see where you land.

The A.M. Best rating scale

AM Best runs its own 15-grade scale, from A++ at the top to F at the bottom, and it is the agency almost every U.S. annuity carrier is rated by, which is why most people start there.

We suggest treating A- as the practical floor for a contract you plan to hold for its full term. Below that line, a carrier can still be solvent and can still pay claims, but it carries more risk than most retirement dollars need to take on. See our full breakdown of what counts as a good AM Best rating for more on where to draw that line for your own situation.

AM Best vs. S&P vs. Moody's vs. Fitch: how the scales line up

Each agency uses its own letters and numbers for roughly the same underlying strength tiers, which makes comparing a Moody's grade to an AM Best grade confusing at first glance. Use this crosswalk to translate between them:

An AM Best A+ and an S&P AA- describe the same strength tier in two different alphabets. When a carrier's grades from different agencies do not line up this cleanly, that gap is worth asking your strategist about before you buy.

What a Comdex score is (and is not)

You will sometimes see a carrier's ratings summarized into one number, often called a Comdex score, running from 1 to 100. It is not issued by AM Best, S&P, Moody's or Fitch. An outside data provider builds it after the fact by converting each agency grade a carrier holds into a percentile and averaging them, so only a carrier rated by two or more agencies gets one at all.

As a rough guide, a score in the 90s is generally read as excellent, and 80 or higher is considered strong, though there is no official cutoff and different producers use different thresholds. Because it is a licensed composite rather than a rating in its own right, we treat it as a convenience for comparing carriers on different scales, not a substitute for reading the four agency grades underneath it. For a deeper look at how the number is built, see our guide to what a Comdex score is.

Look up any single carrier's rating

If you already know which company issued (or would issue) your contract, these reviews cover current ratings and product details for some of the largest life insurance and annuity carriers:

• New York Life
• MetLife
• Prudential
• Allianz
• Global Atlantic
• Guardian Life
• Securian Financial
• Corebridge Financial
• Lincoln Financial
• USAA Life

Our full company review directory covers dozens more carriers, and you can also type a carrier's name into any of the official lookup tools further down this page.

What to look for in annuity company ratings

An annuity company rating and a life insurance company rating measure the same thing: the issuer's ability to make good on what it owes. That matters more for an annuity than for most other products, because a multi-year guaranteed annuity locks you into that one carrier for the full surrender period, so financial strength carries more weight here than it would on something you could exit next month.

Three things matter most when you compare carriers:

• The AM Best rating. It is the insurance-specific grade almost every carrier is judged on. We suggest B++ or better as a floor, and A- or better for money you plan to hold to the end of the term.
• Confirmation from a second agency. A grade from S&P, Moody's or Fitch that lines up with the AM Best grade adds confidence. Missing a second grade is not disqualifying on its own, since smaller carriers often pay for only one review.
• How many agencies actually cover the company. A carrier graded by all four is a more complete picture than one leaning on a single agency's opinion.

Financial strength is the floor for the decision, not the whole decision. Once a carrier clears your bar, the rate, surrender schedule and any income rider decide whether the contract itself is a good fit. Our best fixed annuity companies guide covers carriers that clear both bars at once.

How life insurance companies get rated

Independent credit rating agencies review an insurer's financial statements, investment holdings and management decisions, then assign a grade. In the United States, the four agencies that matter most for annuity buyers are AM Best, S&P Global, Moody's and Fitch.

Each agency typically publishes a pair of opinions on every carrier it covers: a Financial Strength Rating, focused narrowly on whether the insurer can pay what its contracts promise, and a broader Issuer Credit Rating that looks at the company as a borrower generally. If you are buying an annuity, the Financial Strength Rating is the number worth remembering.

The rating process

Analysts usually meet with a carrier's management at least once a year, review audited financial statements, run the company's capital position through stress scenarios, and weigh its position against competitors. A downgrade almost always reflects a decline in capital, earnings or market standing that built up over time, not a sudden event.

Two other rating services show up occasionally:

• Weiss Ratings uses its own model, generally more conservative than AM Best's; a Weiss grade of B- often lines up with roughly an AM Best A-.
• KBRA (Kroll Bond Rating Agency) is a newer entrant that smaller and regional carriers increasingly use.

How to choose a carrier based on its ratings

Four things are worth checking, in this order, when you are weighing carrier strength for a life insurance or annuity purchase.

1. Start with AM Best. It is the one agency nearly every carrier is rated by. Confirm the grade is at least A- for money you plan to hold for the full term.
2. Check for a second agency's grade. When S&P, Moody's or Fitch also rates the company, a matching grade there adds confidence. If those grades disagree with AM Best by more than a notch or two, ask why before you commit.
3. Look past financial strength to service quality. A strong rating tells you the company can likely pay a claim, not whether it pays promptly or treats you well along the way. The NAIC's Complaint Index weighs a carrier's complaint volume against its slice of the market, and a reading under 1.00 puts that company below the industry norm. J.D. Power also publishes an annual customer satisfaction study covering price, communication and the claims experience, which is worth cross-referencing.
4. Know your state's guaranty association limit. Even a top-rated carrier gets a second layer of protection from your state's life and health guaranty association if it ever fails. Most states cover annuity values up to $250,000 per contract, though some go higher. If you are placing more than that limit with one company, splitting the purchase between two carriers is worth considering. Our state guaranty association guide lists coverage by state.

For a buyer in their early 60s placing a meaningful sum into a five-year multi-year guaranteed annuity, we typically point toward carriers rated A or better by AM Best with a second agency confirming a similar grade. That combination rules out most of the meaningfully weaker carriers while still leaving a wide field of competitive options. See our MYGA guide for how rates and terms compare once you have narrowed the list on strength, or get a quote to see current numbers for your state.

Where to verify a rating yourself

Do not rely on any single source, including this page, as your only check. Each agency and consumer resource below offers a free way to confirm a current grade.