Lafayette Life Insurance Company

Who Lafayette is and who owns it

Lafayette says it has been in business for over 120 years, sells life and annuity products through independent agents, and is a member of Western and Southern Financial Group, headquartered in Cincinnati^[1]. Its ownership is where the published descriptions disagree.

• Insurance & Estates' Lafayette review calls it "This 121-year-old mutual company"^[2].
• The same publisher's mutual vs stock guide calls it a stock insurance subsidiary under Western and Southern, which is a mutual holding company^[3].
• bankingtruths lists Lafayette Life among mutual holding company insurers, with the year 2005^[4].
• Lafayette itself says that because its parent is a mutual holding company, it has no stockholders^[1].

Read together, the second, third and fourth agree. Lafayette is not a stand-alone mutual. It is an insurer inside a group whose top company is a mutual holding company, so no outside shareholders sit above it. What that means for a dividend, and how it differs from a true mutual, is on mutual, stock and holding companies.

Legal name

The Lafayette Life Insurance Company^[1]

NAIC company code

65242, per its own page^[1]

Headquarters

Cincinnati, Ohio^[1]

Group

Western and Southern Financial Group^[1]

Joined the group

2005, per bankingtruths^[4]. Not stated on the company page we opened

Where it is licensed

The District of Columbia and all states other than New York^[1]

Sold through

Independent agents^[1]

Financial strength rating

A.M. Best A+ (Superior), as Lafayette states it, correct as of April 1, 2026^[1]. Insurance & Estates says it has held A+ since June 2009^[2]

Dividend interest rate

Not stated by the company on the pages we opened

Loan recognition

Non-direct, per two third parties^[2][5]

Dividend rate history, and where each number comes from

The Insurance Pro Blog prints Lafayette's dividend interest rate every year from 2016 to 2026, under a table footer that reads "carrier disclosures and industry practitioner data"^[6]. That label covers the whole table, not Lafayette's row in particular. The same post says Lafayette publishes less publicly than the larger mutuals. Insurance & Estates gives the same three recent years, 5.3%, 5.75% and 5.9%, without saying where they come from^[2].

Checked November 10, 2026. Third-party figures, not confirmed by Lafayette. The 2024 figure is for policies issued after June 15, 2005. Dividends are not guaranteed and are declared each year.

One detail matters for older owners. The Insurance Pro Blog says Lafayette declared three different rates in 2024 depending on issue date, and that the 5.30% applies to policies issued after June 15, 2005^[6]. A policy issued before that date may sit on another scale. Eight flat years at 5.20% then gave way to three increases in a row. The same post describes the rise as Lafayette drawing level with competitors, not pulling ahead. How Lafayette's row compares with the larger mutuals is on the dividend ledger.

Loans and recognition

BetterWealth, writing on August 25, 2026, describes Lafayette as non-direct recognition with a variable loan rate of 6.75% at the time of writing, the highest of the four companies it compared, and says no dividend adjustment applies to borrowed values^[5]. Non-direct means the dividend is figured as if the loaned money were still in the policy. It does not make the loan cheap. At 6.75%, the loan charges more than the 5.90% dividend interest rate reported for 2026.

Lafayette's product page says loans, withdrawals and advances reduce the death benefit and cash surrender value and may cause the policy to lapse^[8]. A lapse with a loan can also bring a tax bill, because the IRS treats it like a full surrender and taxes the gain even though the gain went to repay the loan^[9]. Tax points are general information. Ask a tax professional about your own case. To run a loan against your own figures, use the policy loan cost calculator, and compare rates at other companies on policy loan rates.

The whole life lineup

Lafayette's whole life page lists eight policies. The descriptions below are condensed from that page^[8]. It gives no issue ages, minimum face amounts or premium periods for most of them.

From Lafayette's whole life page, last updated August 11, 2025, opened November 10, 2026. Riders are mentioned but not named, and adding one may need more premium.

The page lists the uses of a dividend as buying paid-up insurance, lowering the premium, leaving it to accumulate or taking cash^[8]. A large single or limited premium can push a policy past the modified endowment contract (MEC) limit, and a policy over it has loans and withdrawals taxed differently. Ask Lafayette in writing whether a design is a MEC before you fund it.

What we could not confirm

• A company-published dividend rate. Neither Lafayette page we opened states one. Every rate here is a third party's.
• A rating from A.M. Best itself. The A+ is as Lafayette states it. We did not open an A.M. Best release.
• The loan rate schedule. 6.75% is a dated third-party figure. The rate in your contract and on your statement wins.
• The year Lafayette joined the group. 2005 is bankingtruths' figure.

Questions people ask

Last updated November 11, 2026. Found an error? Tell us and it goes in the corrections log.