Financial Rating Companies
Selecting
the right insurance company for you involves taking into consideration
several
factors. Some factors to consider are obvious, such as
price and
levels of coverage. However, many customers fail to consider one
of the
most important factors, which is the financial strength or financial
rating of
the company.
Financial
ratings are indicators of an insurer's ability to pay present and
future claims
and benefits. If an insurance company's financial strength is
poor and it
is not able to pay you the claim or benefit amounts it has promised to
you, all
of the other factors become irrelevant. Therefore, take the time
to check
the financial ratings of the insurance company/ies you are thinking of
doing
business with before you start your policy.
For
your convenience, we
have provided links below to the 5 independent agencies that rate the
financial
strength of insurance companies. The are not listed in any
particular order.
A.M.
Best Company
Standard
& Poor's
Moody's
Investors Service
Fitch
Ratings
Weiss
Ratings
NOTE:
It is always best to check the financial strength of your
insurance company with several of the rating agencies, because
insurance
companies tend to highlight only the highest ratings they receive from
one or
two of the agencies and conveniently disregard the lower ratings they
may have
received from the other agencies, or they may only emphasize the
positive parts
of an agency's rating.
Generally
speaking,
all of the larger insurance companies have sufficient financial
strength that
you will probably never have to worry about them being able to pay your
claims
or benefits in a timely manner. However, the financial ratings of
companies generally become more important when you are considering
starting a
policy with a lesser-known or smaller insurance company. Smaller
or
lesser-known companies may have very high financial ratings as well,
but it
would probably serve you well to check them more closely.
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