How do I find if Insurance Co. is legit to buy

[VO126]

I have just recently purchased Life Insurance for my mother threw Conseco Direct Life Insurance, has anyone heard of any problems with this company and how do I find out this is a decent company, I don't want to pay to much into policy and then find out something that I should of questioned, but I was having hard time finding insurance due to her age and they offer me through mail with a Birthday package deal with only $2,500 coverage now after three months I just bought another $500, they said I didn't need a new policy just the letter they sent me stating I just added to the first policy, does this sound ok for them to do, any advice I would appreciate, how do I check there creditials,

 

[ALawyer]

Conseco is a publicly held holding company based in Carmel, IN, just north of Indianapolis. It has had a slew of financial problems and its former CEO, a real "operator", was forced out and an ex-GE Capital CEO has taken over.

You can check the financial strength of an insurance company using such insurance rating services as Bests Insurance Reports (available at large libraries), Moody's, Standard & Poors, and Weiss Reports.

It's not well known, but each state has a state insurance guarantee fund that operates a bit like the FDIC and should protect small policy holders in the event of insolvency.


However on any small policy the costs of administration are so high in relation to the benefit that they rarely offer "good value", thus the letter saying you have more is probably alright.