Is American Family a Good Insurance Company?

American Family Life Insurance Company (AFLIC) is a Madison, Wisconsin insurer founded in 1957 as the life insurance subsidiary of American Family Insurance Group — one of the largest mutual property and casualty insurance organizations in the United States and a Fortune 500 company. The AM Best Financial Strength Rating is A (Excellent) with a stable outlook, affirmed September 24, 2025, for the 23rd consecutive year at that designation. AM Best assesses AFLIC’s balance sheet strength as “strongest” — the highest possible balance sheet classification — and notes consistent profitability at both operating and net income levels. Ward’s has named American Family Life Insurance Company to its Top 50 list of insurance companies for 18 consecutive years. These are genuinely impressive credentials. The evaluation requires equal honesty about the limitations: American Family Life Insurance distributes exclusively through its own exclusive independent contractor agents in 19 states, which means consumers cannot access American Family life insurance through an independent broker or comparison shop it on the open market. The company stopped writing annuities in 2014, so the annuity channel is not a consideration. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, evaluates American Family Life Insurance in the context that matters most for consumers: understanding what it offers, where it excels, and when independent-channel comparison across 100+ carriers is the more appropriate path.

Company Snapshot

The AM Best A Rating: 23 Consecutive Years

Maintaining an AM Best A (Excellent) rating for 23 consecutive years is not a routine accomplishment. AM Best applies its rating through recessions, low interest rate environments, catastrophe loss years, and market dislocations that stress insurance company balance sheets in ways that cause rating actions at many carriers. American Family has held A through all of those cycles. The “Standing the Test of Time” designation — awarded to carriers that maintain an A or better for at least 75 years across the broader group — reflects institutional consistency at the parent level. For AFLIC specifically, AM Best notes the balance sheet strength is assessed at the “strongest” level — a classification that goes beyond the A FSR headline to confirm that risk-adjusted capitalization is at the top of the AM Best scale. The Ward’s Top 50 designation for 18 consecutive years is an independent operational quality recognition — Ward’s evaluates life and health insurers on financial performance metrics including return on equity, loss ratios, and efficiency, not just balance sheet size. These combined credentials mean American Family Life Insurance Company is a financially strong, operationally well-run carrier that genuinely earns the trust of clients who work with it. For clients comparing carrier ratings across the life insurance market, our resources on Is Banner Life a Good Company, Is Cincinnati Life a Good Company, and Is Aflac a Good Insurance Company cover other carriers in the A-rated life insurance space for comparison context.

The DreamSecure Life Insurance Lineup

American Family Life Insurance Company markets its life insurance under the DreamSecure brand — a product family that covers the primary individual life insurance needs across term, whole life, and adjustable permanent coverage. The DreamSecure Simple Term is a simplified issue product available without a medical exam in 10, 15, 20, and 30-year terms, with coverage from $50,000 to $750,000 (coverage above $250,000 requires an existing eligible American Family property or casualty policy). For clients evaluating term life options across the full market, our resources on 10-year term, 15-year term, 20-year term, 25-year term, and 30-year term cover the full term length spectrum with independent carrier comparisons across our 100+ carrier platform. The DreamSecure Choice Term adds riders and broader customization alongside full underwriting. The DreamSecure Senior Whole Life is specifically designed for the senior final expense and legacy market, requiring no medical exam — a competitive position in the simplified issue senior life space. The DreamSecure Flexible Life is an adjustable life insurance product that functions similarly to universal life, allowing premium and coverage adjustments over time and building cash value — it includes a paid-up insurance option for clients who want to reduce or eliminate premium payments while maintaining coverage at a lower face amount. For clients evaluating permanent life insurance including adjustable and cash value designs, our resources on life insurance for smokers, life insurance for diabetics with complications, life insurance for heart disease, and life insurance for heart attack survivors cover the impaired-risk underwriting context that is relevant for clients who need life insurance and are evaluating whether simplified issue or fully underwritten coverage is the right approach. For clients earlier in the life insurance evaluation process, our resource on whether you’re too young for life insurance covers the planning context that leads most people to their first policy evaluation.

The Exclusive Agent Distribution Model: What It Means for You

American Family Life Insurance does not distribute through independent brokers. The only way to purchase American Family life insurance is through one of the company’s exclusive independent contractor agents — agents who represent American Family products and only American Family products. This is a meaningful structural distinction from carriers that sell through independent brokers like Diversified Insurance Brokers. An exclusive agent cannot run your application against 50 carriers to find the best rate for your age, health profile, and coverage need — they can only offer the American Family product line. For clients who already have an American Family agent relationship and value the bundled service experience (home, auto, and life through one agent), the convenience argument is real. For clients who want a market comparison — understanding how American Family’s rates and underwriting stack against Banner Life, Cincinnati Life, Protective, or 40 other A-rated life insurers — that comparison requires working with an independent broker. Our multi-carrier term life quoter above runs real-time comparisons across carriers we have access to. For clients building a complete protection plan that includes group health alongside individual life insurance, our resources on the best independent group health broker, group health for 50 employees, group health for accounting firms, why group level funding, and how to get the best group health rates cover the employer benefit planning that independent brokers handle across multiple carriers — a parallel to the individual life insurance comparison question.

No Annuities: What That Means for Retirement Planning

American Family Life Insurance Company stopped writing new annuity contracts in 2014 — both deferred and immediate. Variable products were stopped in 2009 and transferred to Kansas City Life in 2013. For clients who are evaluating American Family as part of a broader retirement planning conversation — combining life insurance with guaranteed income products — the annuity conversation must happen elsewhere. The life insurance products AmFam offers complement retirement planning through death benefit protection and, in the case of the Flexible Life product, cash value accumulation — but guaranteed income annuities, MYGAs, and FIAs are not available through American Family. For retirement income planning alongside the life insurance evaluation, our resources on guaranteed income at age 60, guaranteed income at age 65, and guaranteed income at age 70 cover the annuity-based income planning that American Family cannot provide. For clients with deferred compensation or 457(b) plans evaluating rollover options at retirement, our resource on how long a deferred compensation plan lasts in retirement and how long a 457(b) lasts in retirement cover the income longevity analysis that motivates the guaranteed annuity search. For Social Security optimization alongside life insurance and retirement planning, our resources on whether working past 65 affects Social Security, how remarriage affects Social Security spousal benefits, Social Security survivor benefits for children, and delayed retirement credits and Social Security payout increases cover the claiming strategy context most relevant to the life insurance buyer who is also planning retirement income. For long-term care planning alongside the life insurance evaluation — a common combined need in the 50-to-65 bracket — our resources on how to buy long-term care insurance, how to choose the right LTC policy, how to get the best LTC rates, how to qualify for long-term care insurance, and group long-term care insurance cover the LTC planning dimension that American Family also does not currently offer. For Medicare planning alongside life insurance and LTC decisions, our resources on the best independent Medicare broker, how to avoid Medicare late enrollment penalties, how to switch Medicare plans, Medicare Part B explained, and Social Security spousal benefits after divorce cover the healthcare and income planning that runs parallel to life insurance decisions at this planning stage.