Brighthouse Financial At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Today’s Best Brighthouse Financial Annuity Rates

Term	Product	AM Best Rating	Rate
5 Years	Brighthouse Fixed Rate Annuity with MVA	A	4.95 %
7 Years	Brighthouse Fixed Rate Annuity with MVA	A	5.00 %
7 Years	Brighthouse Fixed Rate Annuity	A	4.85 %

Compare Brighthouse Financial Annuity Rates

Additional Products Offered by Brighthouse Financial

Brighthouse offers three main types of annuities — registered index-linked annuities, variable annuities and fixed index annuities. 

Annuity agent Ryan Cicchelli has two decades of experience in the annuity industry. He finds that Brighthouse has its own niche in the annuity space. 

“Brighthouse is very large in the variable annuity space. And they’ll have you in these great [variable] products for a very, very long time,” Cicchelli told Annuity.org. 

For that reason, those considering a variable annuity may find Brighthouse particularly appealing. Many of Brighthouse’s annuities also exclude an annual maintenance fee. 

Registered Index-Linked Annuities 

Brighthouse offers two registered index-linked annuities, which are also known as RILAs. 

These products have no annual maintenance fees, offers protection from volatile markets and presents market growth opportunities. 

They allow you to track popular indices, like S&P 500® Index, Russell 2000® Index and Nasdaq-100®.

If flexibility and affordability are important to you, Brighthouse’s RILA could be a good fit. You can customize your term, index, shield rate and rate crediting type. 

The Shield Level Pay Plus® RILA offers an additional benefit: an income rider for guaranteed income for life. If you opt for this RILA, you still won’t have annual contract fees, but you will face a 1.50% rider fee rate.

Variable Annuities

Brighthouse’s variable annuities offer guaranteed income for life, flexible investment options and spousal income. If your contract value is under $50,000, you’ll face a $30 annual contract fee. If your contract value is above $50,000, you will not pay an annual contract fee. 

This option is likely best suited for investment-savvy retirees looking for lifetime income and spousal protection. 

To determine your lifetime income, Brighthouse uses a benefit base, which is determined by your initial investment, and compounds at a 5% rate for the first 10 contract years with no withdrawals. 

Withdrawal rates are flexible with Brighthouse’s variable annuities. You can choose steady withdrawals throughout your life or expedite a higher withdrawal rate early in retirement. And, if your spouse outlives you, they’ll receive your remaining income payments.

Fixed Index Annuity

Brighthouse offers the SecureAdvantage 6-Year Fixed Index annuity. There are no annual fees, 100% protection against market downturns and a death benefit for your beneficiaries. 

There’s also a free withdrawal amount available during each contract year, and you can secure an index value once during each index term. 

The minimum purchase limit is $50,000, and the maximum issue age is 80 years old. Brighthouse’s fixed index annuity is likely to work best for high net worth individuals looking to make large gains and give a death benefit to their beneficiaries.

About Brighthouse Financial

Brighthouse Financial, originally established as Travelers Insurance Company, was founded back in 1863. 

The small company grew steadily until being acquired by MetLife in 2005. MetLife separated a part of its U.S. business in 2017, creating Brighthouse Financial. 

Brighthouse Financial is now licensed to sell annuity products in all 50 states. In 2022, Brighthouse sold over $9 billion in annual direct annuity premiums.

Credit Ratings

Brighthouse has high financial strength ratings from the three credit rating agencies below. A company’s financial strength rating provides an assessment of the company’s ability to pay its policies and contracts. 

Each credit rating agency uses a different rating system. 

Brighthouse Financial Strength Ratings

AM Best	A
Fitch	A
S&P Global	A+

It’s also important to look at an issuer’s financial strength history. Ratings that shift drastically each year could indicate the company’s lack of financial stability.

Brighthouse has maintained an “A” financial strength rating from AM Best since 2020.

MetLife Annuities

There can be some confusion surrounding Brighthouse’s relationship to MetLife, in part since Brighthouse’s predecessor was previously owned by the insurance giant following an acquisition in 2005.

But Brighthouse was spun off into its own separate company in 2017 and has operated as such since then.

MetLife currently does not advertise any annuity products. Its website states that it no longer sells new annuities to individuals through agents.

What Customers Are Saying About Brighthouse Financial

Brighthouse Financial has a high number of complaints with their annuity policies. Customer complaint information is available through the NAIC database. 

The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) tracks consumer complaints for each state’s insurance commission each year. These are used to compile a company’s NAIC Complaint Index.NAIC 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.

When looking only at annuity policies, the complaint level is above average at 1.80. This index is based on 29 complaints.

NAIC Complaint Index for Brighthouse Financial

All Policy Types	0.27
Individual Annuities Only	1.80

These numbers indicate that Brighthouse Financial has received significantly more complaints than the industry average.

Brighthouse Financial Pros & Cons

Brighthouse Financial’s primary pros are its high financial strength ratings, a wide range of product availability and a selection of fee-free annuities. But it’s important to note its above-average complaints and lower ranking in the J.D. Power study.

Brighthouse ranked 14 in the J.D. Power study, scoring 612. The study’s average rating was 645. Issuers are rank based on communication, interaction, price, product offerings and statements. 

Cicchelli also noted a concerning sales tactic Brighthouse uses. “What Brighthouse does that I don’t see other carriers doing as aggressively is Brighthouse will contact that client to try to buy them out of their annuity and benefits.”

They’re trying to get people to buy out of this product with the benefits they sold them on to keep their profits high and not have people activate their income. I’ve seen hundreds of these letters, they’re getting them every quarter.” 

Cicchelli’s first-hand experience emphasizes the importance of fully understanding how annuities work. 

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 number 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.

Top-Ranked Annuity 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.