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• Carrier Rating Information

Carrier Rating Information

Ratings

There are several firms that provide ratings for life and health insurance companies, including A.M. Best Company, Standard & Poor’s Corporation, Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch IBCA and TheStreet.com Ratings.

A.M. Best provides a financial and operating performance rating on virtually all life and health insurance companies.

Standard & Poor's provides financial strength ratings for those insurers who request a rating. S&P also provides financial strenth ratings from public information for other insurers.

Moody's and Fitch provide ratings for those insurers who request a rating. Therefore, ratings from these two services are not available for all insurance companies.

TheStreet.com Ratings provides safety ratings on more than 1,700 insurance companies.

The Comdex is a composite index based on the ratings received by a company from the ratings services.

Watch List identifiers follow the ratings if the company in on the rating service's watch list. The identifier is a possible upgrade (w+), downgrade (w-) or unknown change (w).

The Numerical Equivalence is the number which is shown in parentheses next to each rating indicating where that particular rating falls in the rating scale. For example, an S&P rating of "AA-" has a numberical equivalence of "(4)", meaning "AA-" is S&P's fourth highest rating.

Rank	A.M. Best	Standard & Poor's	Moody's	Fitch	TheStreet.com
1	A++	AAA	Aaa	AAA	A+
2	A+	AA+	Aa1	AA+	A
3	A	AA	Aa2	AA	A-
4	A-	AA	Aa3	AA-	B+
5	B++	A+	A1	A+	B
6	B+	A	A2	A	B-
7	B	A-	A3	A-	C+
8	B-	BBB+	Baa1	BBB+	C
9	C++	BBB	Baa2	BBB	C-
10	C+	BBB-	Baa3	BBB-	D+
11	C	BB+	Ba1	BB+	D
12	C-	BB	Ba2	BB	D-
13	D	BB-	Ba3	BB-	E+
14	E	B+	B1	B+	E
15	F	B	B2	B	E-
16		B-	B3	B-	F
17		CCC+	Caa1	CCC+

BUA is committed to providing only the finest carriers with solid financial ratings. If you have any questions regarding any of our carrier's ratings, please contact us at 1-800-792-6795.

Tools

• VitalSigns Carrier Ratings Report