American Life At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Today’s Best American Life Annuity Rates

Term	Product	AM Best Rating	Rate
3 Years	American Classic	B++	5.20 %
5 Years	American Classic	B++	5.05 %

Compare American Life Annuity Rates

Additional Products Offered by American Life

American Life currently advertises three different annuities, each with its own benefits and features that appeal to different types of customers.

The first of these options is the American Classic, which is a fixed deferred MYGA. The American Classic offers a straightforward way to help save for retirement and includes some of the typical features offered with annuities such as up to 10% free withdrawals after the first year of the contract.

The American Classic also advertises the ability to withdraw the full value of the account without facing surrender charges if the policyholder dies.

Additionally, you can receive a loyalty bonus at the end of the annuity’s term as a reward if you did not make any withdrawals over the course of the contract.

This is a significant advantage to other fixed annuities on the market if you are wanting to maximize your overall compounded returns.

American Life also sells a fixed index annuity called the American Select. This product gives customers access to a wide range of indexes to base their annuity on while remaining insulated from potential downturns in the market.

Available Indexes for the American Select Annuity

• S&P 500® ESG
• Goldman Sachs Xenith
• Janus SG Guidance Index: Value Lock
• S&P 500® Index
• MARC 5% Index
• Fixed interest account

The American Select also offers two different potential bonus options. The first — American Select Bonus — is a bonus earned when your contract is issued. The second option is American Select Bonus Plus, which provides a larger bonus to help your upfront earning potential but comes at the cost of an annual policy fee.

The final annuity offered by American Life is by far the most unique: the American Fusion.

This product — which was launched in August 2023 — is a multi-year guaranteed fixed index annuity, merging some of the features of a MYGA and a FIA into one contract.

American Fusion essentially operates as a MYGA with a guaranteed interest rate of five years. But you can earn a sizable bonus interest credit if the S&P 500 index exceeds a certain performance threshold over the term of the contract.

It should be noted that customers are only eligible for the bonus interest credit if they did not make any withdrawals other than RMDs over the course of the contract.

This is a great addition to a person’s portfolio if they are looking for safety of principal, guaranteed growth and access to higher returns if the market performs well.

American Life has a unique set of products led by its American Fusion product that offers consumers a potential blend of fixed and growth opportunities. However, with lower ratings and less state availability, makes these products ones that should be investigated carefully to ensure they align with your financial goals and the balances are covered under your state guaranty associations.  

Stephen Kates, CFP®Principal Financial Analyst for Annuity.org

Stephen Kates, CFP® is a personal finance expert specializing in financial planning and education. He serves as the Principal Financial Analyst for Annuity.org, where he delves into industry trends to support consumers and financial advisors on wealth management, annuities, retirement planning, and investing.

About American Life

American Life, which is based in Nebraska, was originally founded in 1960. The company underwent a technology-focused shift in 2018 when it partnered with digital platform FAST to become the first fully cloud-based insurance company.

The carrier was owned by Midwest Holding, which was then acquired by Antarctica Capital in 2023.

Credit Ratings

Credit ratings for annuity providers can help determine a company’s financial strength and stability — an indication that it will be around to guarantee payments to you in the future. Different rating companies use different scales.

American Life Credit Ratings

Rating Company	Credit Rating
AM Best	B++
Fitch	Not Rated
S&P	Not Rated

What Customers Are Saying About American Life

Due to how few states the company is licensed in and its narrow product offerings, there is not much customer satisfaction information readily available for American Life.

The carrier is absent from both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the J.D. Power Overall Customer Satisfaction Index for annuity providers. It should be noted that this simply means the company was not considered by J.D. Power, not that it received a poor rating.

American Life did eclipse $700 million in direct annuity premiums sold in 2022, which is well behind the major and legacy providers of the industry but not insignificant.

The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) tracks consumer complaints each state’s insurance commission receives each year. These are used to compile a company’s NAIC Complaint IndexNAIC Complaint IndexDetermined by dividing the company’s share of complaints in the U.S. market by the company’s share of premiums in the U.S. market. The National Complaint Index is always 1.00, so a score of 2.00, for example, is twice as high as expected in the market..

NAIC Complaint Index for American Life

All Policy Types	0
Individual Annuities Only	0

American Life Pros & Cons

There are pros and cons to choosing an American Life annuity. Whether any annuity product makes sense for you will depend on your personal needs or circumstances.

These are not “one-size-fits-all” products.

Pros

• While the company doesn’t offer a high number of products, the offerings it has are solid and unique.
• The American Fusion is a very unusual product and one of the few in the entire annuity marketplace that offer the full benefits of a MYGA while giving you a chance to earn an index-based bonus as well.

Cons

• Ratings are something that many customers take into account when selecting an annuity provider, and American Life does not particularly excel in this area. The company holds a B++ rating from AM Best, which isn’t bad but below that of the strongest companies in the industry.
• The lack of availability for American Life is also a concern, with the company only being licensed in 18 states. This includes the omission of major states like Florida and California.

Provider Rating Methodology

Annuity.org created a fact-based methodology to analyze the strength, security and reach of different annuity providers. We assessed companies based on their availability, the amount of direct premiums sold, their AM Best Financial Strength Rating and their NAIC Complaint Index score.

Providers received a rating on a five-star scale for each of these categories, with the complaint index and financial strength ratings weighed as the heaviest variables. Then, using a weighted average, each company was assigned an overall star rating.

Annuity.org’s Top-Ranked Providers

Provider	Annuity.org Star Rating
Mass Mutual
New York Life
Pacific Life
Midland National
North American
Western Southern

Our Rating Panel

The Annuity.org editorial team spoke with several different annuity experts to learn more about what is important to customers when searching for a provider and what factors make a company reliable. While Annuity.org designed the methodology, these experts provided feedback during the process and consulted on what factors we should leverage to best help prospective buyers compare providers.