Symetra At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Today’s Best Symetra Annuity Rates

Term	Product	AM Best Rating	Rate
Select Max	5 Years	A	4.85%
Select Max	7 Years	A	4.85%
Select Pro	5 Years	A	4.60%

Compare Symetra Annuity Rates

Get the most up-to-date rates for Symetra’s fixed annuity products.

Additional Products Offered by Symetra

The products Symetra offers represent four types of annuities: fixed annuities, indexed annuities, registered index-linked annuities and income annuities.

Symetra’s Fixed Annuities

Symetra sells four fixed annuities, most of which have guaranteed interest rate periods of three years, five years or seven years. Symetra’s fixed annuities are modified single-premium annuities, meaning that owners can make additional payments after their initial premium for the first contract year.

• The Select Pro^SM fixed annuity features an optional return of premium guarantee, which ensures that owners will receive their initial purchase payment, less any withdrawals, if they surrender their annuity prematurely. This annuity has a $10,000 minimum initial premium. 
• The Select Max^SM has a market value adjustment (MVA) feature that applies when more than the accumulated interest in the contract is taken out during the contract year. The MVA may increase or decrease the amount withdrawn depending on changes in interest rates. This product has a $10,000 minimum initial premium.
• The Select 3/5/7 fixed annuity allows immediate free withdrawals of up to 10% of the contract value each year. This annuity also includes an optional return of premium guarantee, but owners can access a higher interest rate if they do not opt for this guaranteed return. The three-year and five-year terms of this annuity have a $25,000 minimum initial premium, while the seven-year term has a $10,000 minimum.
• The Custom 5/7 annuity has two interest guarantee periods. The five-year guarantee period of this annuity has a minimum initial premium of $25,000, while the seven-year term has a $10,000 minimum. Owners can withdraw up to 10% of the contract value each year without surrender charges. Like the Select 3/5/7, the Custom 5/7 has an optional return of premium guarantee, but the interest rate that owners earn is higher if they do not select this option.

Symetra’s Indexed Annuities

Symetra’s indexed annuities, also referred to as fixed indexed annuities, are protected from market losses by having an interest rate floor of 0%. These annuities have no downside risk and cannot lose the principal investment.

• The Income Edge annuity comes with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit that allows owners to make withdrawals up to a maximum amount each year for the rest of their life. This annuity has a seven-year surrender charge schedule and a $10,000 minimum premium.
• The Edge Elite^SM annuity is highly customizable, with 13 indexed account options to choose from. Owners can make free withdrawals of up to 10% of the contract value each year. This product has two surrender charge schedules – five years and seven years – and a minimum premium of $25,000.

Symetra’s Registered Index-Linked Annuity

The Symetra Trek^® Plus is a registered index-linked annuity (RILA). These products are tied to the growth of an index, but unlike indexed annuities, RILAs do carry some risk of loss of principal.

Trek^® Plus customers can choose from five different indexes to influence their interest crediting. The annuity also has a Return Lock feature allowing owners to lock in the index value during the interest term, potentially preserving interest earned.

The Trek^® Plus annuity has a six-year surrender charge schedule and a $25,000 minimum premium.

Symetra’s Income Annuities

Symetra offers two income annuities: Advantage Income and Freedom Income.

• Advantage Income is a single premium immediate annuity (SPIA) with a $10,000 minimum premium. This product includes an Advance Access feature that allows owners to withdraw up to 30% of their future payments as often as every 36 months following the first three years of the contract.
• Freedom Income is a deferred income annuity with a $10,000 minimum premium. Freedom Income owners can choose to defer payments for up to 45 years or until they turn 90, whichever comes first. Annuity owners can also opt for annual payment increases of up to 6.5% to reduce the effects of inflation.

About Symetra

Symetra Life Insurance Company was established in 1957. In 2016, the company was acquired by Sumitomo Life, one of the largest life insurance companies in Japan.

Today, Symetra sells insurance and annuity products in every state except New York, plus the District of Columbia. Symetra sold over $5.2 billion in individual annuity premiums in 2022, making up 1.85% of the U.S. annuity market, according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Credit Ratings

An annuity provider’s credit rating represents the company’s financial strength and stability. These ratings are issued by independent credit rating agencies like AM Best. Annuity customers should consider the financial stability of any provider, as these ratings can also point to how likely the provider is to meet their end of an annuity contract.

Symetra’s Credit Ratings

Rating Company	Credit Rating
AM Best	A
Fitch	Rating Withdrawn
S&P	A

What Customers Are Saying About Symetra

Symetra has a relatively positive reputation for customer satisfaction. The company has only had a few annuity customers lodge complaints with state insurance commissions in recent years. 

According to the NAIC, Symetra had four complaints from annuity customers in 2022, no complaints in 2021 and only one in 2020.

The NAIC tracks consumer complaints 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 Symetra

All Policy Types	0.06
Individual Annuities Only	0.56

These numbers indicate that Symetra received fewer complaints than the industry average.

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

Symetra Pros & Cons

Purchasing an annuity from Symetra has advantages and disadvantages, just like any other annuity provider. Consider the pros and cons before choosing an annuity company.

Pros

• Enhanced liquidity options: Several of Symetra’s annuities come with optional withdrawal benefits, enhancing the liquidity of these products.
• Variety of products: Symetra carries four different fixed annuity products, as well as indexed annuities, RILAs and income annuities.
• Wide availability: Symetra sells annuities in 49 states and D.C.
• Strong financial stability and customer satisfaction ratings: Symetra scored well on industry metrics for financial strength and customer satisfaction.

Cons:

• High minimum premiums for some products: A few of Symetra’s products have minimum premiums as high as $25,000, limiting their accessibility for customers who don’t have as much to invest.

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.