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Ranking of Structured Settlement Annuity Issuers in the Insurance subsection of the the 2026 Newsweel/Statista America’s most trustworthy companies poll
3. Mutual of Omaha (United of Omaha Life Insurance Company)
12. MetLife (Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company)
15. American National (American NationalInsurance Company)
16. New York Life (New York Insurance Company)
24. Prudential (The Prudential Insurance Company of America)
39. Pacific Life (Pacific Life Insurance Company; Pacific Life & Annuity Company (New York cases)
Note that Newsweek abbreviated the names/brand as consumers often do. I’ve added the names of the structured settlement annuity underwriting companies within those names for accuracy
Newsweek partnered with market reasearch firm Statista to identify America’s Most Trustworthy Companies 2025 edition
This year’s ranking includes 700 companies in 23 industries ranging from aerospace and health care to retail and consumer goods. Rankings were determined through an independent survey of 25,000 U.S. respondents, resulting in over 100,000 evaluations that reflected the perspectives of consumers, employees and investors. The analysis also considered online media sentiment, and any company facing significant scandals or lawsuits was excluded.
Further detail about the methodology used in the market research by Newsweek/Statista
1. Market definition: All companies headquartered in the US with a revenue over $500 million were considered in the study. Public as well as private companies were eligible.
2. Extensive survey: The core of the analysis was an independent survey of approximately 25,000 U.S. residents, who rated companies they are familiar with across the three dimensions of trust. In total, 102,000 evaluations of companies were submitted. The field period ran from CW 43 to CW 45 2024.
3. Social Listening: For each company that received a sufficient number of evaluations, a Social Listening analysis was conducted. This involved researching what was said about a company, across various media segments to determine whether the public sentiment towards a company was positive, neutral or negative. In total, over 304,000 mentions were gathered. Additionally, all companies that were involved in any recent scandals or lawsuits relevant to trust were excluded from the analysis.
The overall score was composed of, 80% from the survey results, and 20% from social listening analysis. The 700 companies with the highest score have been awarded as Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2025. The final list is categorized by industries.
I then broke out the insurers that include structured settlement annuity issuers.
The Newsweek/Statista survey is one of several surveys that consumers can use to help evaluate insurers prior to making decisons about structured settlements, or insurance purchases
Rating Agencies such as A.M. Best, Moodys, Standard & Poors, Weiss Ratings. Fitch and other Tier One rating agencies.
Ethisphere, which annually rates the World’s Most Ethical Companies.
Wards Top 50 Life & Health Insurers
Fortune Magazine Corporate Reputations Life & Health Insurers
Comdex ratings.
Some insurers appear in multiple surveys, while other highly reputable insurers appear in only one or two
Some insurance companies that appear in the Newsweek/Statista survey do not issue structured settlement annuities.