Key takeaways
- Banner Life, Symetra and Penn Mutual are among the best options for family life insurance in our analysis.
- We evaluated term life insurance, which can be an ideal option for families.
- Term life is low-cost life insurance, and the level-term length can be tailored to specific financial obligations.
Term life insurance is a great option for families looking for the most affordable coverage. We examined 19 sellers of term life insurance to identify the best family life insurance options based on cost, conversion rules, complaints and no-exam applications.
The best family life insurance companies
Advantages of term life insurance for families
For life insurance buyers looking to protect family finances, term life insurance can meet several goals.
Simplicity
Term life insurance is a good policy type for family life insurance because it is straightforward, easy-to-understand insurance. You choose a coverage amount and a time period during which you’ll have fixed premiums, known as the level-term period, such as 20 or 30 years.
Cost efficient
Term life insurance costs are low compared to other policy types because it is pure life insurance protection without cash value. This allows families to better fit life insurance costs into the budget.
Easy to compare quotes
Comparing quotes for term life insurance is easy. An independent life insurance agent can gather multiple quotes for you, and an experienced agent will know the best term life insurance companies for any medical conditions you might have.
Riders for children’s life insurance
Most of the companies that are top-rated in our analysis offer life insurance riders for adding children’s term life insurance, if that’s important to you. Children’s life insurance riders generally allow you to convert the rider to a permanent policy before the child reaches a certain age, such as 23 or 25, without evidence of insurability. While this is a convenient way to cover more members of your family, it might not be worth the cost.
Disadvantages of term life for family coverage
While term life insurance is often ideal for families looking for life insurance, other types of life insurance are better suited for some financial goals. Consider that term life insurance:
- Does not build cash value. One of the reasons term life has a low cost is that it has no cash-value account within it. In some cases, you might want a policy to build life insurance cash value that you can access for future needs, such as college tuition or supplemental retirement income.
- Does not provide lifelong coverage. While you can generally renew a term life policy every year after the level-term period, rates can rise significantly every renewal year. If you need lifelong coverage, term life insurance is generally not the right choice. A permanent life insurance policy is better for longer-range planning.
- Not right for funding a trust. Term life insurance isn’t the right policy type for funding a trust because after the level-term period ends, renewal rates each year are often very high. Permanent life insurance, such as universal life insurance, is more appropriate for funding a trust.
- Not suited for estate planning. For families with large estates, a survivorship life insurance policy can make more sense when using life insurance for estate planning. This joint life insurance insures two people under one policy, such as two spouses. It pays out when both spouses have died. It’s often used to provide money for beneficiaries to pay estate taxes when they inherit very large estates.
How to calculate your family’s life insurance needs
The most straight-forward way to calculate how much life insurance you need is to:
- Add up the financial concerns you want to cover with life insurance, such as replacement of your income, funeral costs, a mortgage balance and children’s education expenses.
- Subtract funds your family has that would be used toward these expenses, such as existing life insurance or savings.
- The total is your approximate life insurance need.
There are many free online life insurance calculators to help.
When family life insurance makes sense
Term life insurance can make sense for families because you can choose a level-term period that most closely matches your family’s financial concerns, such as:
- The years until you plan to retire, so that a life insurance payout could be used to replace your income if you die.
- The years you’ll have large debts, such as a mortgage, so that your family can use funds to pay off the house.
- The years until children graduate from college, so that you have peace of mind knowing there will be funds for college tuition even if you die.
Comparing life insurance types for families
An experienced life insurance agent or broker can help you choose the right policy for your family’s needs. In some cases, a permanent life insurance policy, such as universal life, is a better choice than term life insurance.
Methodology
We evaluated 19 large sellers of term life insurance to find the best term life insurance options. We looked at term life rates for buyers in good health at ages 30, 40 and 50; complaints for the last three years about each company’s individual life insurance; whether complaints have consistently gone down in recent years; the windows for term life conversion; and how much coverage is available through accelerated underwriting with no exam. Term life insurance rates are current as of July 2025 and might have changed since then.
We use a curved-rating system: Scores are assigned relative to the top-performing product or company; providers that score the most points are assigned 5 stars and other star ratings are assigned based on performance relative to the top performer. The lowest-scoring companies received 1 star.
