The core tenant of this series is that a Whole Life product cannot be separated from the company that writes it. As a result, it's worthwhile to take a broad-brush look at the companies writing the Whole Life products that I'll discuss in this series. Excusing the fact that it's the brunt of many jokes about Kool-Aid, Northwestern Mutual's impeccable financials and conservative, consistent pricing make it the industry benchmark for Whole Life.