re: need direction on a life insurance plan. who has the best coverage?

Best to go with is hard to answer.

Are you just looking for the cheapest policy to gain the most death benefit? If that is the case, zander or any of those type sites will be able to run some preliminary quotes of the really cheap term policies, however they may not be with the best companies. Not that they are bad, per say, they just may have solvency issues, less benefits, etc. I would gladly pay some extra premium for a term policy if it has the disability waiver of premium benefit that would convert my term policy to permanent if I become disabled, and I wouldn't have to pay the premium.

Ell linked a good thread that goes into some pro's and con's of WL vs Term. As I always say, death benefit number is most important.

ETA: Here is another thread that goes into i more. LINK