Taking out a life insurance policy is one of the very important, even essential aspects of long-term financial planning. Life insurance cover offers you protection against risks posed by unforeseen accidents and even death so that one’s family or dependents are not suddenly deprived of a source of income.

In choosing the life insurance policy that works best for your specific needs, you would have to take life insurance quotes from a number of insurance agents. It is now also possible to obtain online life insurance quotes.

Here are a few tips to identify the best life insurance policy and company for your specific requirement.

While it would be hard to clearly identify anyone specific life insurance firm as the best, there are factors that you must weigh in order to arrive at your decision. Take into account the exact life insurance product that the company is offering, whether this product matched your current health status and long-term needs, what are the financials involved in you taking out the life insurance policy. Health rate categories depend on each individual, his/her lifestyle and health status. Life insurance policies come under two heads – mutual insurance and stock insurance. The former is owned by the policyholders while the latter is owned by the stockholders.

It is possible to apply online to get life insurance quotes for both exam and no exam life insurance. However, you are likely to receive the quite only if you fulfill all the necessary qualifying criteria.

Look at the financial standing of the insurance company based on credit rating issued by well-known credit rating agencies such as AM Best, Fitch and Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and so on. Do not select an insurance company with a financial rating below a ‘B.’

Based on these criteria, some of the well known American insurance companies include AIG, Assure, Banner, MetLife, Prudential, Protective and Transamerica. These have a consistently high credit rating and level of security is high.