Shopper's Guide to Policies

IN "A Shopper's Guide to Life Insurance," Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Herbert Denenberg lists what he finds to be the ten best and ten worst buys among the 166 largest insurance companies doing business in Pennsylvania. As Denenberg cautions, there are other factors to use in weighing insurance plans, including the quality of the company's service and its financial stability. But he believes that cost is one of the most important criteria.

His comparison is based not on the size of premiums but on what insurance men call the "interest-adjusted cost," which Denenberg insists is the best way to measure a true price tag. To arrive at that figure, he went through a complex series of calculations. First he took the annual premiums on a $10,000 straight-life policy, which ranged from $110 to $417, depending on the buyer's age and sex and the company's price structure. Then he added 4% to the premiums to reflect what a policyholder would have earned on his money if he had invested it "conservatively" in something other than life insurance. From the resulting figure he subtracted dividends and cash value, and got the interest-adjusted cost.

Denenberg's latest list was compiled by averaging out the costs for policies bought by people in three separate age brackets--early 20s, mid-30s and early 50s. His cost comparisons, arranged in order of most (and least) desirable:

Best Buys Average Annual Cost

1 . The Bankers Life (Iowa) $61.97

2. Home Life 64.03

3. National Life (Vt.) 66.80

4. Connecticut Mutual Life 67.27

5. Phoenix Mutual Life 67.63

6. The Northwestern Mutual Life 67.87

7. Central Life (Iowa) 68.33

8. State Mutual Life (Mass.) 70.17

9. Modern Woodmen of America 70.40

10. Lutheran Mutual Life 70.60

Worst Buys

1 . Georgia International Life $119.30

2. The State Life (Ind.) 114.67

3. Valley Forge Life 113.77

4. Old Republic Life 113.07

5. Pennsylvania Life 112.77

6. Puritan Life 111.13

7. Security Life 110.80

8. The Travelers 110.73

9. Monumental Life 110.53

10. Government Personnel Mutual Life 110.20

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.