Different Types of Life Insurance Companies

There are more than 700 life insurance companies in the U.S.  The largest are MetLife/Brighthouse Finance, Northwestern Mutual, New York Life and Prudential.  Most are publicly traded companies owned by stockholders.  Some are mutual companies and are, in fact, owned by the policy holders.
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Two of the largest mutual companies are New York Life (established in 1845) and Northwestern Mutual (established in 1850).  Both companies market their products by what are called “captive agents”.  Their products generally can only be sold by “their” agents who are hired and contracted to sell their products and have limited ability to sell products of other companies.