GBU Life At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Today’s Best GBU Life Annuity Rates

Term	Product	AM Best Rating	Rate
1 Year	Future Flex 8	A-	5.70 %
1 Year	Future Flex 8	A-	5.50 %
1 Year	Future Flex 5	A-	5.25 %

Compare GBU Life Annuity Rates

Additional Products Offered by GBU Life

GBU Life advertises annuities that span three categories: MYGAs, immediate annuities and flexible premium deferred annuities.

With one MYGA and immediate option each, the deferred annuities are where GBU shines and offers a handful of variations.

Flexible Premium Deferred Annuities 

GBU Life keeps its annuity options pretty straightforward, with three versions of its flexible premium deferred annuities.

The first of these products is Future Flex Preferred 5. It’s a very straightforward product, with a minimum initial deposit of $10,000 and a maximum of $3 million, which is notably higher than a lot of competitors.

Customers can withdraw up to 10% of their account after the first year with no penalty, and multiple waivers are attached that allow you to access your entire account during certain emergencies.

Future Flex Preferred Waivers

• Critical illness
• Cognitive impairment
• Nursing home confinement
• Home health care

GBU Life also sells the Future Flex Preferred 8, which is an identical product but with a longer surrender period.

The final flexible premium product offered is the Future Flex Classic, which is designed to cater specifically to high net worth individuals.

It is a two-year annuity that uses an excess interest rate for withdrawals in place of a surrender charge. All of your money is accessible after two years.

This annuity is a hefty product, with a minimum initial deposit of $500,000 and a maximum of $5 million.

MYGAs

GBU Life sells one multi-year guaranteed annuity, which is known as Asset Guard. 

It is a straightforward product that can help you easily make use of the benefits of opting for a MYGA. 

Asset Guard Available Periods

• Two years
• Three years
• Four years
• Five years

There are multiple payout options to choose from along with different benefit and rider options, making it a product that can be extensively customized to fit your needs.

There is a $25,000 minimum initial premium and a $2 million maximum.

Immediate Annuities

If you’re just looking for the simple purchase and transaction of an immediate annuity, then GBU Life can help.

The company’s Future Flex Single Premium Annuity is fully customizable, allowing you to set up your payments however you choose.

GBU Life offers five payout options, including the ability for your beneficiaries to receive any principal that has not been paid when you die or the option to add a period certain to your payouts.

The annuity can be crafted to fit whatever you are looking for.

About GBU Life

GBU Life, which is based in Pittsburgh, was initially founded in 1892. This makes it one of the oldest companies to participate in the annuity space.

And it has carved out a sizable chunk for itself, selling more than $500 million in direct premiums in 2022.

Many annuity providers are owned by larger financial conglomerates, but GBU Life remains an independent and member-owned company.

The company’s financial strength rating was in a somewhat worrying spot in years past but has improved. AM Best upgraded GBU Life from B++ to A- in 2017 and it has held that rating since.

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.

GBU Life’s Credit Ratings

Rating Company	Credit Rating
AM Best	A-
Fitch	Not Rated
S&P	Not Rated

What Customers Are Saying About GBU Life

It can be difficult to get a read on what customers think of GBU Life’s services. 

Not all companies are forthcoming on customer satisfaction, and GBU Life was notably absent from both the 2023 and 2022 additions of the J.D. Power Overall Customer Satisfaction Index for annuity providers.

It should be noted that its absence does not signal a poor customer satisfaction score from J.D Power, but simply that it wasn’t considered as part of the study.

One encouraging area is the company’s NAIC Complaint Index Score of 0. Despite GBU Life’s considerable size, this means no customer complaints have been levied against them.

If you are working with an agent to find the right annuity, they can give you information on their past experiences with GBU Life.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) 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 GBU Life 

All Policy Types	0
Individual Annuities Only	0

GBU Pros & Cons

If you’re a high net worth individual, then GBU Life can be a strong option for you. One place where the company truly shines is its options for those looking to commit a lot of money to an annuity.

Its maximum initial deposits on its flexible premium deferred products are much higher than many competitors, and one product was designed specifically to cater to the needs of high net worth customers.

The company’s AM Best financial strength rating has also been steady and positive for years now, making up for a lower rating before 2017.

All of the cons surrounding GBU Life come down to access. According to the NAIC, GBU Life’s annuities are only available in 33 states.

The company also does not sell annuities in some of the most popular categories available. Many companies make fixed index annuities a priority, but these are not available through GBU Life.

Variable annuities are also not offered.

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.