Lincoln Financial received 4.24 out of 5 stars and tied with Amica for tenth place on our list of the Best Life Insurance Companies for 2025. The customers we surveyed gave the company high marks for trustworthiness.
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.
Nupur Gambhir is an insurance expert and managing editor of Insure.com. She specializes in life and health insurance content, and has experience as a marketing consultant.
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Lincoln Financial scored 4.24 stars out of 5 in our Best Life Insurance Companies list, ranking in 10th place. Lincoln Financial scored slightly above average in J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction study, receiving 652 out of 1,000 points.
All of the customers we surveyed said they plan to renew with the company, and 91% gave Lincoln Financial high marks for trustworthiness. The company received an A (Excellent) grade for financial strength from ratings agency AM Best. About 60% of customers reported being satisfied with the insurer’s customer service.
Below is our review of the company and its full 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.
AM Best's Financial Strength Rating is an independent opinion of an insurer's financial strength and ability to meet its ongoing insurance policy and contract obligations.
Around 61% of surveyed customers said they were satisfied with Lincoln Financial. This is the lowest score out of all the companies we evaluated. However, Lincoln Financial received an above-average score in J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction study.
Lincoln Financial’s term life rates closely match the national average of $377 per year, averaging $378 annually, which is only a dollar more. That’s for a 20-year term policy for a 35-year-old non-smoker with a $500,000 death benefit.
A solid insurance company offers easy-to-use services to simplify policyholders’ billing or claims process. Of the customers we surveyed, 61% said they were satisfied with Lincoln Financial’s ease of service.
Lincoln Financial did not score well for its policy offerings compared to competitors. About 57% of surveyed customers said they were satisfied with Lincoln Financial’s policy and coverage offerings. Guardian scored the highest in this category.
Lincoln Financial fared better in the trustworthiness category, with 91% of surveyed customers saying they trust the insurer. Northwestern Mutual led this category with a score of 100%.
Lincoln Financial did great in this category, with 100% of surveyed customers saying they plan to renew their life insurance policy with the company. Prudential, Northwestern Mutual, and Mutual of Omaha also scored 100%.
Note: Lincoln Financial is licensed to sell insurance in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The products and policy offerings that are available may vary by location.
Lincoln Financial, also known as Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., has been in business since 1905. It’s headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania and has grown throughout the decades to serve over 16 million customers. Newsweek named Lincoln Financial one of America’s Most Responsible Companies of 2024.
Sources:
J.D. Power. “Individual Life Insurance Study.” Accessed March 2025.
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:
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:
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.
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.