Below is roughly how I use them. This is my own practice rather than a ranking: the right carrier depends on your age, your health history, the amount, and the state you live in, and the same person can get materially different offers from two companies in the same week.
Term and permanent coverage for healthy applicants
Where the underwriting is competitive and the pricing is sharpest, particularly for larger face amounts and longer terms.
Whole life and cash-value building
Guaranteed permanent coverage with predictable cash value — the backbone of most legacy plans.
Final expense and more forgiving underwriting
Where I look first when there's a health history and the goal is full day-one coverage rather than a waiting period.
Coverage on children and grandchildren
Small permanent policies written young, locking in insurability decades before anyone knows what their health will look like at forty.
Annuities and retirement income
Tax-deferred growth and income you can't outlive. More on how annuities work.
Supplemental and worksite coverage
Accident, hospital indemnity and critical illness cover that pays you directly, alongside whatever health plan you already have.
Why the number matters more than any one name
Carriers disagree with each other constantly. Look-back periods after a cancer diagnosis differ by years between companies. One will overlook a controlled condition another rates up. Build charts, medication lists and driving records are all weighted differently. None of this is visible from the outside.
So a decline is a data point, not a verdict. If you've been turned down, quoted something eye-watering, or placed on a two-year wait, that was one company's opinion. My job is knowing which door to knock on first for your particular history, and to keep knocking after that.
What you end up with should be the best available terms at a company that will still be there and still pay promptly in thirty years — because your protection, your legacy and your family's peace of mind are the entire point of the exercise.
Medicare, separately
For Medicare I'm appointed with a wide range of national and Florida regional carriers — the large names you'd expect, plus regional and special-needs plans that only operate in certain counties. I'm certified annually with each one I represent, and I offer Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription plans.
Which carriers are genuinely available to you depends entirely on your ZIP code, so rather than list names here I'll show you side by side what actually exists where you live. More on Medicare Supplement plans.
Company names above are the property of their respective owners and appear here to identify the carriers I hold appointments with. Appointments and product availability vary by state and change over time. Nothing here is an endorsement by any carrier, and the terms of your issued contract govern.