ManhattanLife At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Products Offered by ManhattanLife

ManhattanLife sells three different types of annuities: multi-year guaranteed annuities, indexed annuities and single premium immediate annuities.

ManhattanLife’s MYGAs

ManhattanLife offers multi-year guaranteed annuities or MYGAs, a type of fixed annuity. When you purchase a MYGA, your premium grows at a guaranteed rate for a set number of years before converting into a stream of income.

ManhattanLife allows MYGA customers to choose guarantee periods ranging from three to seven years. The annuity has no administrative fees or charges, and MYGA owners can withdraw up to 15% of the annuity’s value without penalty. The 15% free withdrawal rate offered by ManhattanLife is much higher than the normal 10% that is offered by many other carriers. Consider ManhattanLife if you are looking for a much higher free withdrawal limit.

ManhattanLife’s Indexed Annuities

ManhattanLife’s indexed annuities, which the company refers to as fixed index annuities, are issued by Western United Life Assurance Company. These annuities have three crediting strategies to allocate funds within the contract: two based on the performance of the S&P 500 and one that credits a fixed interest rate.

• The Western United Life New Horizon has slightly lower crediting rates but a more generous free withdrawal amount, allowing withdrawals of up to 10% of the annuity’s value without penalty.
• Western United Life New Horizon Plus credits at a higher rate than the other indexed annuity, but owners can only withdraw 5% of the premium amount less any previous withdrawals.

ManhattanLife’s SPIAs

ManhattanLife sells a single premium immediate annuity (SPIA) issued by their subsidiary Western United. These products are only available in 15 states, though ManhattanLife is licensed to sell annuities in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

The Western United SPIA has no set-up fees, administrative fees or premium tax charges. SPIA owners can choose from a variety of payout options, including period certain, life with period certain or life installment refund.

About ManhattanLife

ManhattanLife was founded in 1850, first providing insurance protection for widows and orphans impacted by the cholera epidemic. Over the years, the company has expanded its reach and now encompasses several subsidiaries, including Western United Life Assurance Company, Standard Life and Casualty, Western Skies and Family Life Insurance Company.

In 2023, ManhattanLife sold over $47 million in direct annuity premiums, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). These sales make up a market share of just 0.01% of the U.S. annuity market. The provider is licensed to sell annuities and insurance products in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Credit Ratings

If you’re thinking of buying an annuity, it’s important to know about credit ratings for annuity providers. These ratings show how financially stable the provider is. Just keep in mind that different rating companies may use different scales to rate them.

ManhattanLife Credit Ratings

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

What Customers Are Saying About ManhattanLife

ManhattanLife has not had any consumer complaints in its annuity department in the last two years, according to the NAIC. However, the company has an extremely small footprint in the annuity industry, so it can be difficult to compare it to other providers who might have more customer complaints, but also have sold many more annuities.

The 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 ManhattanLife

All Policy Types	2.95
Individual Annuities Only	0.00

These numbers indicate that ManhattanLife has relatively few complaints for its annuity customers, but significantly higher levels of complaints compared to the insurance industry as a whole.

ManhattanLife did not appear in the 2022 or 2023 editions of the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index Ranking, which measures the overall customer satisfaction of annuity providers.

ManhattanLife Pros & Cons

ManhattanLife has advantages and disadvantages just like any other annuity provider.  Before purchasing an annuity from any issuer, consider the pros and cons of the company and its products.

Pros

• Wide availability: ManhattanLife sells annuities in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
• Generous free withdrawal policy: ManhattanLife’s MYGAs have a 15% free withdrawal provision, more generous than the industry standard of 10%.
• Low NAIC rating for annuities: The provider has not had any annuity customers register complaints with the NAIC in the last two years.

Cons

• Some products are not available in all states: ManhattanLife’s SPIAs are only available in 15 states.
• High NAIC rating for the insurance industry: Though the company has no annuity customer complaints, ManhattanLife had a total of 14 consumer complaints across all policy types registered with the NAIC in 2023.

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.