*Ratings are for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company, as of the most recent review and report by each rating agency. Northwestern Mutual's ratings: Moody's - Aaa, 12/2007; Standard & Poor's - AAA, 11/2007; Fitch Ratings - AAA, 7/2007; and A.M. Best Company - A++, 5/2007.
Standard & Poor's
Ratings Report — 11/7/2007
"Northwestern is one of the leading providers of individual life insurance in the U.S. The group is widely admired for its professional and productive sales force and its high-quality products, including its flagship dividend-paying permanent life insurance products."
"Northwestern focuses on being a premier provider of financial security products and expert guidance to its clients. It maintains a strong and defensible competitive advantage due to its brand name, quality field force, highly competitive policyholder dividends, and continued focus on providing customers with value-added products and services. An experienced and stable management team facilitates consistent strategy and execution."
"Northwestern's conservative financial management is reflected in the company's extremely strong capitalization and strong liquidity. In addition, the company has avoided the pitfalls of many peers who have entered into other lines of business with limited success. By adding LTC and investment businesses gradually and using reinsurance to limit risk, the company has protected policyholder surplus and preserved extremely strong long-term dividend paybacks to its policyholders."
Moody's
Ratings Report — 12/10/2007
"Northwestern Mutual is the 11th largest life insurance group ranked on assets as of December 31, 2006. It is in the top 5 companies in sales of life insurance and is by far and away the leader in sales of participating whole life insurance, which is the product Moody's deems most creditworthy in the industry. The Northwestern Mutual brand is extremely well respected in the industry. The company has been selected as the most admired company in the U.S. life/health insurance industry 24 consecutive times by Fortune magazine. Northwestern Mutual has a leading market position in individual disability insurance. We have consequently adjusted upward this factor to Aaa from Aa."
"The company has a very strong commitment to serving its mutual policyowners, and writes primarily business that provides risk sharing with its customers. It's branding and consumer marketing is tightly linked with its mutual ownership and commitment to policyowner value and financial strength."
Fitch Ratings
Press Release — issued on 7/3/2007
"Fitch's ratings assigned to Northwestern Mutual reflect the company's very strong competitive position in the U.S. life insurance market and extremely strong balance sheet fundamentals. Fitch considers Northwestern Mutual's key competitive advantages to include its career distribution network, significant scale and focus on expense control."
A.M. Best
Ratings Report — 7/2007
"Northwestern Mutual's rating is a reflection of its sizable and mature individual life insurance franchise, conservative operating profile, excellent earnings performance and superior risk-adjusted capitalization."
"These advantages allow the company to consistently provide policyowners with dividend rates that are among the industry's highest, contributing to the company's excellent persistency and leadership position in the individual life insurance market."