Liberty Bankers At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Products Offered by Liberty Bankers

Liberty Bankers offers six annuity fixed annuity products spread across three series — Bankers, Bankers Premier and Bankers Elite. They also offer single premium immediate annuities, otherwise known as SPIAs.

Bankers and Bankers Premier Series

The Bankers series and the Bankers Premier series are available with three-, five- and seven-year terms. The minimum initial premium is $10,000. Surrender charges for early withdrawals typically end the year after the term is up. The Bankers 7 has a two-tiered surrender charge schedule with lower charges for people 56 and older.

There are no up-front sales charges or annual administrative fees.

Payout options include life only, life with 10 years certain, fixed period payments and other customizable options.

Bankers Elite Series

The Bankers Elite series is a flexible single premium deferred annuity designed for diverse retirement goals. There are four products with terms of three, five, seven and nine years. 

Each has a minimum initial premium of $10,000. The maximum age for purchasing a Bankers Elite annuity varies by term:

• Bankers Elite 3 and 5: 90 years
• Bankers Elite 7: 85 years
• Bankers Elite 9: 80 years 

The Bankers Elite series is a flexible investment option with no up-front sales charges or annual administrative fees. The annuities allow you to defer taxes until the term ends and offer 100% liquidity at the end of the term. There are no automatic renewals of surrender charges. These annuities can also serve as an IRA, making them an appealing alternative to certificates of deposit (CDs) and suitable for people planning for a secure retirement.

Liberty Bankers’ SPIAs

Liberty Bankers also sells single premium immediate annuities or SPIAs. This type of annuity converts a single premium payment into an income stream that begins within 12 months of purchasing the annuity.

Liberty Bankers’ immediate annuities have a minimum premium of $25,000. Owners can choose guaranteed lifetime payouts or term certain payouts, in which the total value of the annuity pays out over a set period of time, in this case between five and 30 years.

This SPIA also has the option of a life payout with term certain, meaning the annuity will continue paying out for the annuitant’s life or until the end of a set period, whichever comes last. Liberty Bankers’ life with term certain payouts can be guaranteed for five, 10, 15 or 20 years.

About Liberty Bankers

Liberty Bankers Insurance Group was created in 1958 and consists of companies dating back over a century. Based in Dallas, Texas, the group comprises Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company, Capitol Life Insurance Company and American Benefit Life Insurance Company. 

The company had $2.4 billion in assets and reported $307,044,894 in capital and surplus in 2022, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Liberty Bankers sold $443,559,996 in annual direct annuity premiums in 2022 and had 0.156% of the U.S. annuity market. The company is licensed to sell annuities in 46 states and the District of Columbia, but not all products may be available in all locations.

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 in the future. Different rating companies use different scales.

Liberty Bankers Credit Ratings

Rating Company	Credit Rating
AM Best	A-
Fitch	N/A
S&P	N/A

What Customers Are Saying About Liberty Bankers

The NAIC reports that state insurance departments received a total of three annuity-related complaints from consumers about Liberty Bankers in 2022. 

The NAIC tracks the consumer complaints that each state’s insurance commission receives 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.

NAIC Complaint Index for Liberty Bankers

All Policy Types	0.56
Individual Annuities Only	0.0

Liberty Bankers Pros & Cons

Liberty Bankers annuities are all deferred, fixed annuities with a selection of terms. However, you are limited to one type of annuity — fixed deferred — regardless of which of the six products you choose.

Pros of Liberty Bankers Annuities

• Fixed deferred and immediate annuities featuring diverse term options.
• People up to age 90 qualify for at least one type of annuity offered.
• No front-end sales charges or administrative fees.
• The company has an Excellent rating from AM Best.
• Liberty Bankers is licensed to do business in 46 states and DC.

Cons of Liberty Bankers Annuities

• Does not offer variable or indexed annuities.

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.