Each company determines its own rating class. What Company A may find Table B may be regarded as Standard by another. They do not necessarily act in lockstep.
Each company has classes of risk that it is more comfortable with than others -- for example, for many years one company liked heavy people and did not regard weight as critical as others, nor penalize the obese nearly as much as most others. (It's CEO was "big", perhaps coincidentally.) Smart brokers knew that and sent the heavy to it.
However, one of the questions on most companies applications is "were you ever declined or rated by another life insurance company" and once Company A has rated you, you have to answer truthfully to Company X (or your policy is "contestable" for 2 years), and Company X's underwriteriters are human. It takes courage to rate someone standard who another professional has rated B. It happens all the time BUT it is far better to have applied to Company X first. And good brokers know what companies are lenient on and recommend you do not apply to A if you're likely to be a case that only X will underwrite. Others try to submit "trial applications" that can give them a preliminary indication of rating. Of course even if you get a "likely standard" reply back, when the company does the thorough underwriting and finds that the detailed medical records reflected you saw a doctor you did not disclose, and he was an ALS specialist and he said you had ALS......
