Northwestern Mutual Expects Record-Breaking $9.2B Dividend Payout in 2026
After a decade of unprecedented market volatility, ongoing inflation, and other economic pressures on financial institutions, Northwestern Mutual is proud to share that we expect a record-setting dividend payout of $9.2 billion in 2026.
Our philosophy has always been to share our success with policyowners by paying the highest possible dividends over time while maintaining our financial strength. In fact, 2026 will be the 155th consecutive year of returning dividends to policyowners and will be the 35th consecutive year that Northwestern Mutual has earned the highest financial strength ratings awarded to any U.S. life insurance or financial services company from each of the four major agencies—Fitch Ratings, Moody’s, Standard & Poor and A.M. Best.
What are dividends?
For each insurance product, we make certain assumptions when we establish our policy guarantees (e.g., how many claims we will pay, cost to run our business, investment return). If our actual experience is better than we assumed (i.e., better than the assumptions underlying our policy guarantees), we may choose to pay a portion of those extra funds back to our policyowners in the form of a dividend. And this is exactly what we have done for 155 consecutive years.
How you can use your dividend
As a Northwestern Mutual life insurance policyowner, there are four ways to use your dividend:
- Purchase additional coverage in your whole life insurance policy to enable the death benefit and accumulated value of your policy to grow faster.
- Pay a portion or even all of your insurance premium (if your dividend is large enough to do so).
- Accumulate dividends inside the policy (thereby increasing the cash value) with interest credited at a rate set by the company, but not less than the minimum rate specified in the policy.
- Take it as a cash payout, in which case we will send you a check to use however you’d like.
Read more about today’s announcement.
Connect with your advisor to learn more
Your other Northwestern Mutual products—like disability insurance—may also pay dividends. Connect with your advisor to learn more about your Northwestern Mutual policies and how they benefit you.
The dividend scale and the underlying dividend interest rates is reviewed annually and is subject to change. Future dividends are not guaranteed. Northwestern Mutual continues to have the highest financial strength ratings awarded to any U.S. life insurer by all four of the major rating agencies: A.M. Best Company, A++ (highest), October 2024; Fitch Ratings, AAA (highest), July 2025; Moody’s Ratings, Aa1 (second highest), June 2025; S&P Global Ratings, AA+ (second highest), April 2024. Third-party ratings are subject to change and are a measure of the company’s relative financial strength and security but are not a reflection of the performance or stability of funds invested in a company’s separate accounts. Ratings are for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company.
