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Northwestern Mutual life insurance review and ratings 2025

Northwestern Mutual is the overall best life insurance company for 2025 based on our survey results, NAIC consumer complaint rating, and AM Best rating.
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Our take

Northwestern Mutual is No. 1 on our 2025 Best Life Insurance Companies ranking and received a 4.67 star rating out of 5. The insurer scored an A++ (Superior) from the credit rating agency AM Best, which measures the financial strength of a company. This is an important factor to consider because an insurer’s financial health indicates its likelihood and ability to make claim payments. 

In addition, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recorded a low number of consumer complaints about Northwestern Mutual. This means that relatively few customers reported complaints about Northwestern Mutual to their state insurance departments or similar agencies. 

Northwestern Mutual also scored well for ease of service. All of the customers surveyed plan to renew their policies, with 94% saying they’d recommend the insurer. It’s also our highest-ranked company for trustworthiness, with a survey score of 100%. 

Below is our review of the full company and its line of life insurance products. It’s based on third-party metrics and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.

Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual Ratings
Overall Rating: 4.67
Ease of service: 4.06
NAIC: 0.08
Customer Satisfaction: 3.94
AM Best Rating: A++
Effective date:

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Superior financial strength rating from AM Best
  • Low level of complaints, according to the NAIC
  • All customers surveyed plan to renew their policy
Cons:
  • Lower score for customer satisfaction compared to other top companies
  • Slightly lower score for ease of service compared to our other best life insurance companies

How Northwestern Mutual scores on customer satisfaction

Several competitors scored better than Northwestern Mutual in our customer satisfaction survey – with Guardian leading the category in our ranking. However, in a separate customer satisfaction study by J.D. Power, Northwestern Mutual came in fourth place, with State Farm, Guardian, and MassMutual taking the top three spots.

Company Percent of customers that are satisfiedJ.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000)
Northwestern Mutual72%670
MassMutual76%673
New York Life79%639
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How Northwestern Mutual scores on ease of service

Policyholders don’t want a hassle when dealing with their insurance company, so ease of service is key. Around 72% of customers surveyed are satisfied with Northwestern Mutual’s ease of service. Other companies, like Guardian and AIG, scored higher. 

CompanyPercent of respondents that are satisfied with ease of service
Northwestern Mutual72%
Guardian90%
AIG90%

How Northwestern Mutual scores on policy offerings

Many policyholders expect a wide range of policy offerings from their insurance company. The percentage of those satisfied with Northwestern Mutual’s policy offerings is 78%. Among insurers that made our best life insurance companies ranking, Guardian scored the highest with a rating of 97%.

CompanyPercent of respondents satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Northwestern Mutual78%
AAA85%
John Hancock87%

How trustworthy is Northwestern Mutual?

Trust is essential to a good relationship between an insurer and its policyholders. Surveyed customers gave Northwestern Mutual a 100% on trustworthiness — the highest score out of all the companies we analyzed.

CompanyPercent of survey respondents who find the company trustworthy
Northwestern Mutual100%
Prudential99%
MassMutual95%

Do Northwestern Mutual customers plan to renew? 

Customer loyalty keeps policyholders with their insurance company. In all, 100% of customers plan to stick with Northwestern Mutual. 

CompanyPercent of survey respondents who plan to renew
Northwestern Mutual100%
Prudential100%
AAA93%

Northwestern Mutual life product details

Other services offered

  • Disability insurance
  • Long-term care insurance
  • Investment services
  • Annuities

States where Northwestern Mutual offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Northwestern Mutual offers coverage
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
Available
Not available

Note: Northwestern Mutual is licensed in all 50 states. However, products and riders available can vary by location.

Company background

Northwestern Mutual

Ranked highly on the Fortune 500 list, Northwestern Mutual provides financial services and is a mutual company. While the company offers life insurance services, it also provides estate planning, retirement and investment products.

Northwestern Mutual has been around for more than 160 years. Today, it is headquartered in Milwaukee. The company has paid dividends every year since 1872.

The company is also known for its network of more than 6,400 financial advisors and professionals throughout the country, who help clients with insurance protection, investments, and business and estate planning.

Resources and Methodology

Sources:

J.D. Power. “Individual Life Insurance Study.” Accessed March 2025.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2024 surveyed more than 1,750 insurance consumers (973 people with life insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR.

Respondents were asked to name their life insurer and then grade it in the following categories: 

  • Customer satisfaction
  • Ease of service 
  • Policy offerings
  • Billing process
  • Adding policy riders
  • Seniors/older adults
  • Middle-aged adults
  • Young people
  • Term life policies
  • Whole life policies
  • People with pre-existing conditions
  • People who are overweight
  • People who don’t want to take a medical exam

The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.

We then asked respondents to provide a yes or no response to indicate their agreement with the following statements:

  1. I plan to keep my coverage with my current life insurance company
  2. I would recommend my life insurance company to others
  3. I trust my life insurance company

The percentage of respondents who said yes is presented in the results.

The editors compiled the survey results and then selected – based on the number of survey responses – the top companies for further evaluation.

They then collected AM Best data, which measure financial strength, and National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives. The Insure.com team identified the NAIC codes of each underwriting company for each carrier and calculated a weighted average complaint index, weighted by the annual written premium. The associated NAIC complaint index score was used in the calculations.They also collected insurance rate data from Compulife.

With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., Managing Director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For life insurers, we took the following and gave each a weight.

  • Survey: 60% of the total score (10% customer satisfaction, 10% ease of service, 10% policy offerings, 10% recommended, 10% policy retention and 10% trust)
  • AM Best: 25% of total score
  • NAIC: 15% of total score

Each insurer was awarded between half a star and 5 stars. No company in the ranking received less than half a star in any category, and 5 stars was the most any insurer could receive.

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Kara McGinley

 
  

Kara McGinley has over 6 years of experience writing, editing, and reporting on insurance and the insurance industry. She's been a licensed property and casualty expert in New York since 2021. Kara has been featured in several national publications, including USA TODAY, MSN, LifeHacker, Kiplinger, PropertyCasualty360, Policygenius, Rental Housing Journal, and WRAL.

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