EquiTrust Annuity Review (2026)

How strong is EquiTrust financially?

AM Best puts EquiTrust Life Insurance Company at B++, its Good tier, short of the Excellent grade some buyers require. The other two agencies that rate the company disagree with that read: both S&P and Fitch score it A-, Strong, a full step higher than AM Best's number. That split is worth sitting with for a second. AM Best weighs a wider set of factors, so a lower AM Best grade next to two higher grades from other agencies is not unusual, but it does mean you should not judge EquiTrust from a single rating alone.

The company is domiciled in Iowa, where regulators hold carriers to some of the tightest reserve requirements in the country. EquiTrust manages more than $23 billion in assets against its policy obligations, which puts it in the middle of the pack among annuity carriers by size, not among the giants, but not a small player either.

What EquiTrust's complaint record looks like

Regulators track a NAIC complaint index for every carrier, a ratio of complaints received to complaints expected for a company of that size. A score of 1.00 is average. EquiTrust's individual annuity complaint index sits at roughly 0.21, meaning it draws close to one-fifth the complaint volume you would expect. The Better Business Bureau grades the company A+, though EquiTrust is not BBB-accredited. Put together with the split ratings above, EquiTrust looks like a carrier whose day-to-day service record outpaces its headline AM Best grade.

If you need a firm A- or better specifically from AM Best, EquiTrust will not meet that bar and carriers like Athene or North American are worth comparing instead. Read our guide to what counts as a good AM Best rating if you are still deciding where to set your own cutoff.

What annuities does EquiTrust sell?

EquiTrust's lineup splits into two families: multi-year guaranteed annuities under the Certainty Select name, and fixed index annuities built around an upfront premium bonus.

The MYGA line, Certainty Select, works the way any MYGA does: you deposit a lump sum, the company locks a fixed rate for the whole term, and there is no exposure to the market either way. The two fixed index annuities, MarketTwelve Bonus Index and MarketPower Bonus Index, both add a bonus to your contract value at the moment you fund it, then credit growth tied to an index like the S&P 500. Both also include a floor, so a bad index year cannot pull your principal down.

MarketTwelve Bonus Index

MarketTwelve carries a 12-year surrender schedule and credits growth against the S&P 500 alongside other benchmark options. You can withdraw up to 10% of your contract value each year, starting in year two, without triggering a surrender charge, and the death benefit passes your full contract value to your beneficiary.

MarketPower Bonus Index

MarketPower pairs the largest bonus in EquiTrust's lineup, 15% at issue, with the longest commitment attached to any EquiTrust product: a 14-year surrender schedule in most states, though it runs 10 years in a handful of states including Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. The same 10% annual free withdrawal and full-value death benefit apply. Four extra years of lockup for a bigger bonus is a real trade, so confirm your state's schedule with a licensed strategist before you commit to either version. Compare it head to head with Athene's Performance Elite 7 if you want a side-by-side look at a competing bonus FIA.

Do the guaranteed math before you get to index performance. A $100,000 deposit into MarketPower with its 15% bonus starts your contract value at $115,000 the day it is funded, before any index credit is added. That figure is locked regardless of how the index performs, which is the appeal of a bonus product. What is not locked is the cap or participation rate that governs future index credits, and bonus contracts often set those lower than a comparable non-bonus contract to help pay for the day-one bump. Our fixed index annuity guide walks through how caps and participation rates work together.

How to buy an EquiTrust annuity

EquiTrust sells exclusively through independent agents, so there is no direct-to-consumer path to a contract. A licensed strategist can walk you through the Certainty Select rate sheet or the two bonus FIAs, confirm what is filed in your state, and set the application in motion once you pick a term and a deposit amount. Because rates move, we quote EquiTrust against other top-rated carriers at the same time so you are comparing live numbers rather than a printed rate you saw last month.

How liquid are EquiTrust's MYGAs?

Certainty Select contracts build in a standard free withdrawal: once you pass your first contract anniversary, you can pull up to 10% of your contract value in a given year without a surrender charge. It will not replace an emergency fund, but it covers most one-off needs, an unexpected repair or a medical bill, without breaking the contract. Rates on Certainty Select change often, so use the quote box on this page for today's numbers by term and state rather than relying on a printed figure.

Who fits an EquiTrust annuity?

EquiTrust tends to suit three kinds of buyers. The first wants a bonus fixed index annuity and is comfortable trading a longer surrender period, up to 14 years on MarketPower, for a larger day-one bump to contract value. The second is shopping MYGAs purely on rate and has already decided a B++ AM Best grade, offset by A- from S&P and Fitch, clears their bar. The third simply wants a clean death benefit: every EquiTrust product pays contract value straight to a named beneficiary, which keeps the money out of probate.

If your priority is the single highest AM Best grade in the market and you are not willing to weigh the split ratings against each other, EquiTrust probably is not your first stop. Buyers should also go in expecting the standard bonus-annuity trade-off: a bigger bonus at issue is frequently paid for with a lower cap or participation rate down the road, so run the full-term numbers rather than judging the product by the bonus alone.

Other annuity companies to consider

If you are comparing EquiTrust, these carriers are worth putting side by side with it:

• Athene: larger asset base, competes in the same bonus FIA space
• North American: higher AM Best grade, broad MYGA and FIA lineup
• F&G: another Des Moines carrier with a stronger AM Best grade and a fast-growing MYGA book