Is Columbus Life a Good Insurance Company?

Columbus Life Insurance Company is a Cincinnati, Ohio insurer founded in 1906 that has been a member of Western & Southern Financial Group since 1989. Western & Southern is one of the most financially formidable mutual insurance holding companies in the United States — $75 billion in total assets, founded in 1888, rated AA (Very Strong) by Fitch and Aa3 (Excellent) by Moody’s at the group level, and operating continuously for over 135 years. Columbus Life itself holds an AM Best A+ (Superior) rating — the second-highest of AM Best’s 15 rating categories — reaffirmed consistently for more than a decade. The company distributes products through more than 7,000 independent financial professionals across 49 states and the District of Columbia, with New York the only state where it does not operate. The product lineup covers term life, universal life, indexed universal life, survivorship IUL, fixed indexed annuities, fixed annuities, and market value adjusted annuities. Columbus Life’s strongest competitive positioning is in the indexed universal life and permanent life insurance space — it is one of the more competitive IUL carriers available through the independent channel. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, evaluates Columbus Life as a legitimate and well-capitalized option for clients whose retirement and protection plan calls for permanent life insurance or annuity accumulation — with the full multi-carrier context that ensures clients are seeing the best the market offers.

Company Snapshot

The Western & Southern Connection: What It Adds

Western & Southern Financial Group is one of the most financially robust mutual insurance holding companies in the United States — founded in Cincinnati in 1888, operating for over 135 years, and carrying a Fitch AA (Very Strong) and Moody’s Aa3 (Excellent) rating at the group level. The group manages $75 billion in total assets across a family of subsidiaries that includes Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life, Lafayette Life, Integrity Life Insurance Company, Gerber Life Insurance Company, and others. The mutual holding company structure means there are no external shareholders — Western & Southern operates for the benefit of its policyholders rather than for stock market performance. This ownership structure is a genuine financial strength signal, as it aligns the organization’s incentives with long-duration policyholder obligations rather than quarterly earnings optimization. For Columbus Life policyholders, the Western & Southern group membership means the financial resources behind Columbus Life’s obligations extend well beyond Columbus Life’s own balance sheet — AM Best’s A+ on Columbus Life reflects both the carrier’s own financial strength and the group context it operates within. For clients comparing the Western & Southern group’s financial standing against comparable mutual holding company alternatives, our resources on Is Prudential a Good Company and Is Principal a Good Company cover other major carriers at comparable or adjacent financial strength levels for context.

Indexed Universal Life: Columbus Life’s Primary Competitive Strength

Columbus Life’s most widely recognized competitive positioning in the independent channel is indexed universal life insurance. IUL is a permanent life insurance structure that combines a death benefit with a cash value component that earns interest credits linked to an external market index — typically the S&P 500 — with a guaranteed minimum credit rate (typically 0% or slightly above) that protects the cash value from negative index performance. The combination of market-linked upside potential and principal protection on the cash value component makes IUL attractive for clients who want permanent life insurance with accumulation growth potential beyond what traditional whole life cash value provides, without the full market exposure risk of variable universal life. Columbus Life has historically maintained competitive participation rates, caps, and floor rates on its IUL products, positioning it as a genuine consideration in multi-carrier IUL comparisons conducted through independent brokers. The Expedition SIUL — a survivorship IUL designed for joint coverage on two lives — is specifically relevant for married couples with estate planning objectives where the death benefit triggers on the second death. For clients evaluating IUL in the broader context of permanent life insurance alternatives, our resource on permanent life insurance and whole life insurance with cash value covers the full spectrum of cash value accumulation designs. For business owners evaluating IUL for business continuation planning, our resources on buy-sell life insurance, business overhead disability insurance, and buy-sell disability insurance cover the full suite of business protection planning that often surrounds IUL recommendations for business owners.

Annuity Products: Fixed, FIA, and MVA

Columbus Life offers a meaningful annuity lineup alongside its life insurance products — fixed annuities, fixed indexed annuities, and a market value adjusted annuity. The FIA product provides principal protection with indexed upside potential, and the MVA annuity structure is relevant for clients who want a competitive guaranteed rate during defined terms and understand the market value adjustment mechanics that apply to early surrenders. For clients evaluating Columbus Life annuities alongside the broader competitive market, the FIA and fixed annuity comparison should always run on the same day across multiple carriers — MYGA and FIA rates move continuously. Our resource on the best fixed indexed annuity covers the full competitive FIA landscape. Our resource on fixed annuity with long-term care benefits covers the hybrid annuity-LTC structure that some clients evaluate as an alternative to purchasing separate annuity and LTC products. Our resource on annuity with long-term care benefits provides the broader framework for this planning intersection. For clients considering fixed annuities versus CDs as competing fixed-income accumulation vehicles, our resource on fixed annuities versus CDs covers the comparison in full. For clients with non-qualified money evaluating tax treatment of annuity distributions, our resource on non-qualified annuity taxation covers the exclusion ratio and tax mechanics relevant to Columbus Life annuity contracts held in non-qualified accounts. For clients evaluating whether an annuity serves better than a pension as a retirement income floor, our resource on the pension alternative covers the income design context that Columbus Life’s annuity lineup can address.

Term Life: Available but Not the Primary Competitive Differentiator

Columbus Life offers term life insurance in 10, 15, 20, and 30-year terms, including a term with return-of-premium option that refunds paid premiums if the insured outlives the policy term. For clients seeking straightforward term life coverage at the most competitive possible rates, Columbus Life is a legitimate option — but it is not consistently the market’s lowest-priced term carrier for most age and health profiles. The independent channel term life market is highly competitive, and carriers like Banner Life, Protective, Pacific Life, and others frequently lead on price for standard health classes. Columbus Life’s primary competitive advantage is in permanent life insurance products, where the IUL design and Western & Southern backing provide a genuine differentiator. For clients whose primary need is term life at the most competitive rate, the right process is running a multi-carrier comparison across all independent-channel carriers on the same day — our term life quoter above provides that comparison in real time. For clients in specific health categories where underwriting matters as much as base rate, our resources on high-risk life insurance and accelerated death benefit riders cover the underwriting and rider contexts relevant to health-impaired buyers evaluating multiple carriers. Our resource on converting term to permanent life insurance covers the conversion option that Columbus Life includes on its term policies — a relevant feature for clients who purchase term today with the intent to convert to IUL or UL later.

Business Planning and Living Benefits

Columbus Life has a meaningful presence in the business life insurance market — key person coverage, business continuation planning, deferred compensation funding, and executive benefit designs. The company’s IUL products are commonly used in informal supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) structures where employers use cash value accumulation to fund future benefit obligations. For clients with disability income planning needs alongside their life insurance evaluation, our resources on the best disability insurance rates, disability insurance for the self-employed, and disability income insurance for attorneys cover the income protection planning that most commonly runs alongside IUL business planning. The living benefits and accelerated death benefit riders on Columbus Life’s life insurance products — providing access to a portion of the death benefit upon terminal, chronic, or critical illness diagnosis — are increasingly a differentiating feature for clients who want life insurance that also provides living support. For clients planning for long-term care alongside life insurance, our resources on whether you can get LTC insurance after 60, self-insured long-term care, and whether you can use LTC insurance overseas cover the LTC planning dimensions that interact with life insurance decisions. For Medicare planning alongside life insurance and retirement income, our resources on how Medicare works, the best Medicare supplement plans, enrolling in Medicare at 65, whether Medicare covers nursing home care, and whether Medicare is expensive cover the healthcare planning that runs alongside permanent life insurance decisions. For Social Security optimization alongside retirement income planning, our resources on the Social Security filing checklist, Social Security income limits, Social Security for the self-employed, and strategies for widows claiming Social Security cover the claiming decisions that interact with IUL cash value and annuity income timing. For employer group health planning, our resources on group health for 80 employees, group health for 150 employees, and group health for 250 employees cover the employer benefit context that runs parallel to business owner life insurance planning. For burial and final expense planning alongside life insurance evaluation, our resources on the burial insurance calculator, the best-rated burial insurance companies, affordable burial insurance for low-income seniors, and best burial insurance with immediate coverage cover the final expense market where Columbus Life’s living benefits design intersects with senior life insurance needs. For retirement income projections, our resource on how a pension works covers the income design context that Columbus Life’s annuity products serve as a private-market alternative to.