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This best whole life insurance review page was last updated 3/2020.
Disclaimer: Which dividend-paying Whole Life policy may be best for you will vary depending on your particular age, occupation, hobbies, and health situation. We are NOT one-trick-ponies. Our main value proposition is that we perform extensive analysis and anonymous shopping among the best mutual life insurances companies to find our clients the best whole life insurance policy.
All that said…
In the vast majority of situations, we are finding that Penn Mutual’s newly released “Guaranteed® Whole Life” product is greatly outperforming every other mutual insurance company’s dividend-paying whole life policy.
Here’s why:
The base policy of Penn Mutual’s Guaranteed® Whole Life policy is one of the leanest and meanest around.
- Your age
- Your health rating
- How much coverage you want
- Which dividend paying whole life insurance company is offering the policy

Penn Mutual not only beats but often CRUSHES the competition when looking at comparable over-funded whole life insurance policy examples.

- Actual results will vary for each company depending on your particular age, health, and premium structure, but we’ve found Penn to consistently illustrate much better than their competitors in most cases.
- This example below assumes ten maximum-funded premium payments (we can often create further efficiency by designing a 7-pay or 8-pay policy).
- This whole life cash value chart is assuming today’s low dividend rate for perpetuity (watch an example of an actual historical dividend paying whole life policy from 1980 as rates rise and fall over the years).

Penn Mutual has one of the most flexible, comprehensive, and robust (PUA) Paid Up Additions Rider around, especially when used in conjunction with their term insurance rider.



Penn Mutual’s unique “Overloan Protection Rider,” can keep excessive whole life loans from imploding your policy.

- You are at least 75 years old when the policy is set to lapse from excessive loans
- Your Penn Mutual Guaranteed® Whole Life policy has been in-force for at least 15 years
- Your total policy loan equals 99% of your whole life cash value


Penn Mutual’s chronic illness rider is one of the most generous among other dividend paying whole life policies.


- 24% of your death benefit (including your base whole life policy, any term insurance riders, and paid up additions)
- $240,000
- The current year IRS per diem amount for long term care ($380/day or $138,700/year as of 2020)
- Inability to complete at least 2 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs are bathing, dressing, eating, transferring, toileting, and continence)
- The insured has a severe cognitive impairment that requires substantial supervision by another person to protect the insured from threats to health and safety for a period of at least 90 consecutive days.

5 Compelling Facts about Penn Mutual as a Company

- Established in 1847, Penn Mutual is the second oldest American mutual life insurance company behind New York Life.
- Just because Penn is one of the oldest dividend-paying whole life company, they are an industry leader in technology with their new ACE-underwriting software. Most people can apply for up to $5,000,000 of whole life insurance and even term life insurance (fully convertible to their best whole life policy). Although Penn Mutual reserves the right to resort to traditional underwriting, oftentimes we are seeing EXAMs waived and policies issued within a week by this new ACE system which leverages technology to get necessary underwriting data.
- Penn Mutual has a significantly higher 5-year average yield on their investment yield. Unlike other whole life companies, Penn Mutual has no mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet. Penn instead has made some very savvy investments into tech venture capital having profited handsomely in the company “Ring” as well as turning a $100,000 early investment in Snapchat into a $40,000,000 windfall for their balance sheet.
- Penn Mutual maintains one the biggest percentage of surplus assets on their balance sheet compared to other dividend paying whole life companies (Surplus was 14.7% of General Account Assets as of January 2019). A healthy surplus is incredibly important during low-yield environments so they can continue providing healthy dividends to whole life policyholders without disrupting fluid operations. Penn Mutual has paid a dividend to whole life policyholders for 173 years straight since its inception in 1847.
- Because of Penn Mutual’s superior yield on its portfolio and healthy surplus, they were able to maintain their dividend scale for 10 straight years after 2008 where all other dividend paying whole life insurance companies lowered theirs. Only recently in 2019 did Penn lower their dividend scale from the continuing pressure of low-interest rates, but they’re still leaps and bounds ahead of other whole life insurance companies as you can see in this dividend history chart:


Now What???
If you’re looking for the absolute best whole life insurance policy on the market, built lean and mean the very first time with the optimal blend of riders for maximum cash value performance, then look no further. Penn Mutual’s long-term commitment to policyholder value is obvious, and we’ll show you how to make the most of it with policy design and how to seamlessly integrate the best dividend paying whole life insurance policy into your other wealth-building efforts.
- Whether you send us over a competitor’s illustration you’re looking at to compare the exact same numbers through Penn’s cash value calculator,
- Or we jump on a web-conference together and build you the best dividend paying whole life policy from scratch while answering any questions and filling in any gaps in your learning.
We assure you a worthwhile experience with no pressure, no hard pitches, and no games. You’ll see the absolute best from the very start. We don’t have time for games either.
Click here or the image below to access our calendar and set an appointment to go over your numbers.
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