TruStage At a Glance: Rates, Products and Reviews

Products Offered by TruStage

TruStage advertises six annuity products, broken into various categories. The company’s annuities are not necessarily unique products but stack up well against what is currently in the marketplace.

TruStage offers one basic fixed option with its MaxProtect fixed annuity. It’s a straightforward product, offering the ability to take advantage of the benefits of an annuity without an overly complicated contract and major fees.

It’s available in terms of three, five or seven years.

Also offered is the ZoneChoice market index annuity, which is available in one-year or six-year terms. It has no overt contract or administrative fees and offers 12 allocation options. Industry-standard benefits like nursing home and terminal illness riders are included.

TruStage sells a RILA as well, known as Zone Income Annuity. It offers a decent number of allocation choices, paired with nursing home and terminal illness riders, the ability to withdraw up to 10% of the contract value without facing penalty and a GLWB rider for lifetime income.

Zone Income Allocation Options

• S&P 500
• Russell 2000
• MSCI EAFE
• Declared Rate

Also available is a customizable variable annuity in the Horizon II. This product allows clients to invest in Risk Control (like the S&P 500 where you set a limit to your losses) and full exposure to the market simultaneously. You can choose how you want your money balanced between these two options, setting the level of risk you are most comfortable with.

TruStage also sells two income annuities in the MEMBERS Single Premium Immediate Annuity and MEMBERS Future Income Annuity.

The SPIA option, similar to most companies, is simple, offering the ability to pick between several different payout formats and options.

The Future Income Annuity has useful features such as adding COLA adjustments of 1% to 3%. This is an advantage to many competitors who will not or cannot offer this adjustment each year.

Some clients may choose annuities when they are concerned about outliving their savings, particularly if they do not have children or prefer not to burden them financially. The guaranteed income provided by annuities can offer them alternatives for elder care, nursing or retirement homes that can provide necessary care and attention. This can become a family strategy where all members contribute for the benefit of a parent, especially when the children may not have the time to be the sole caregivers.

Elaine King, MBA, CFP®, CDFA™, CFBA, ACCFounder of Family and Money Matters™

Elaine King, CFP®, founder of Family and Money Matters™, empowers families’ financial and human capital for wellbeing. She’s crafted actionable plans for 1,200+ families and 100+ enterprises. A recognized financial education advocate, creator of LATAM’s first family financial program and winner of the Best Latin Book Award. Featured in top publications and honored by Investopedia and People Magazine.

About TruStage

TruStage was founded in its original form in 1934 as the Credit Union National Association. It may still be better known as CUNA, given the recent rebrand and that it operated under that name for years.

Some of its products used to go by the TruStage name before the affiliate rebrand.

The company is underwritten by CMFG Life Insurance Company, which holds an A rating from AM Best.

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.

TruStage’s Credit Ratings

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

What Customers Are Saying About TruStage

Very little public information is available from customers about their experiences with TruStage. It’s important to note that this isn’t necessarily a concern and could be due to the recent rebrand or some customer confusion given the different subsidiaries involved in some of its product sales.

TruStage also does not appear in the 2022 or 2023 editions of the J.D. Power Overall Customer Satisfaction Index, simply meaning it was not considered in the study.

The company does have a perfect 0 score in the NAIC Complaint Index, which can be considered impressive for a company with nearly $1 billion in annual direct premiums sold.

The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) tracks the consumer complaints that each state’s insurance commission receives yearly. 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 TruStage

All Policy Types	0.03
Individual Annuities Only	0

These numbers indicate that TruStage receives significantly fewer customer complaints than the industry average.

TruStage Pros & Cons

As with any annuity company, there are both pros and cons to working with TruStage. Whether a TruStage annuity makes sense for you will depend on your personal interests and circumstances.

Pros

The biggest pro for TruStage is simple: it tends to have solid annuity options. Its products stack up decently well in comparison to some other larger competitors, and they tend to include benefits that are considered industry standard like emergency riders for terminal illness or nursing home confinement.

The company’s products are also diverse, covering different types of annuities. Some companies focus on just one or two types of products or present only a few offerings.

Cons

The main con for TruStage is the lack of information available about the company online. While its products are clear, its recent rebrand makes it harder to get a read on the company than other annuity providers. 

TruStage also has little information readily available on customers’ experiences.

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.