Delaware Life Momentum Growth Annuity Review (2026)

Is the Delaware Life Momentum Growth worth it in 2026?

This 10-year fixed index annuity from Delaware Life gets marketed around a single standout piece: VersaGain, a toggle letting you decide at each anniversary how much of the year's index gain to lock in versus leave exposed for a shot at a stronger crediting rate. That is the headline. Strip away the branding, though, and what is underneath is a fairly ordinary 10-year FIA, with a front-loaded surrender schedule, no premium bonus on the standard setup, and a crediting menu built around two volatility-controlled indexes, one of which layers in a bitcoin allocation with very little real-world history behind it.

The honest read: this contract can work well for the right buyer, but only if you go in clear-eyed about what VersaGain can and cannot do, and about how new some of the crediting strategies actually are.

What Momentum Growth actually is

This is Delaware Life's growth-focused fixed index annuity. It does not carry a built-in guaranteed income rider, and the standard version does not attach an optional lifetime withdrawal benefit either. Anyone who wants guaranteed lifetime income from this carrier should be looking at Delaware Life's separate income-focused product, not this one.

So who fits here? Someone in their late 50s through early 70s who wants principal protection paired with a real shot at market-linked upside over a full decade, who will not need to pull more than the annual free withdrawal, and who does not need a contractual income guarantee attached to this money. Because the surrender schedule runs the full 10 years, this is a buy-and-hold contract by design. If there is a real chance you will need the money sooner, this is not the product for that dollar.

Inside Delaware Life's own product shelf, Momentum Growth is the growth-focused sibling to its income-focused contract, and it competes against other accumulation FIAs on the strength of its current crediting menu rather than a bonus. See our Delaware Life company review for the carrier's full history and financial strength.

Index options and crediting methods

The strategies most commonly illustrated on this contract split a deposit between two one-year, annually resetting index options, both of which use a participation rate rather than a cap or a spread.

One is a proprietary, volatility-controlled index that targets a set level of market swings and blends U.S. equity exposure with a small bitcoin allocation. It is new enough that only a matter of months of live trading exist behind it at launch; everything before that point is a backtested estimate, not lived performance. Volatility-controlled indexes generally need a higher participation rate to compensate for how they smooth returns by shifting between equities and cash, and adding a bitcoin sleeve is more of a marketing choice than a structural one, since the allocation is kept small enough that it is unlikely to move the needle much on its own.

The second option is an intraday-rebalanced, volatility-controlled version of the S&P 500 with a longer trading history behind it, roughly two and a half years at launch. This is also the index tied to the VersaGain feature described below.

What is worth asking about: whether a standard, capped S&P 500 point-to-point strategy is available alongside these two. A vanilla capped option gives you a transparent benchmark you can actually track over time, and if Delaware Life does not spotlight one on your illustration, ask your strategist to pull it up anyway. For more on how cap, participation and spread strategies differ across the FIA category, see our FIA crediting methods guide.

VersaGain: how the lock-in feature actually works

VersaGain is the one feature on this contract that genuinely sets it apart. At each contract anniversary, you choose a "Protected Auto-Credit Percentage" of 0%, 50% or 100%, which controls how much of any gain building up during the year gets locked in automatically. You can also step in mid-year and lock in a gain on an individual index option yourself, whenever you want to.

That mid-year lock-in is the valuable part. Say an index is running well ahead by midyear and you would rather bank that number than risk giving it back before the anniversary date; VersaGain lets you do exactly that. The three-tier election (0%, 50% or 100%) is more of a background setting most buyers pick once and leave alone, while the manual mid-year lock is the tool an engaged buyer will actually use.

One important detail: locking in a gain mid-year ends that index term early and starts a fresh one at the next anniversary. Lock in a strong gain in the middle of the year, and that gain is yours, but you stop earning anything further on that strategy until the next contract year begins. It is a fair trade, but it is not free upside, so think it through before you use it.

How to read Momentum Growth's growth projections

Sales materials for contracts like this one tend to run current crediting rates against a favorable stretch of historical index data, then repeat that same window multiple times to model a longer horizon. That approach can make a 30-year projection look far smoother and stronger than any real 30 years is likely to be, since it leans on whichever historical window happened to perform well and treats it as if it will repeat indefinitely.

We are not printing any of those projected figures here, for the same reason we skip today's caps and participation rates: they move, they depend on index behavior nobody can predict, and a backtested index with limited live history is an especially shaky foundation for a long-run promise. What you can rely on is the guaranteed floor described above, plus the free tools on this site. Use our fixed annuity calculator to model your own assumptions instead of leaning on a carrier's own hypothetical exhibit.

Income: why this isn't the income-focused contract

This configuration does not include an income rider of any kind. Delaware Life sells a separate, income-focused fixed index annuity for buyers who want a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit; if that is your goal, ask about that contract specifically and get its own illustration rather than assuming this one can be retrofitted into an income plan.

Treating Momentum Growth as a flexible accumulation vehicle and later drawing systematic withdrawals beyond the 10% free amount is possible, but it comes with none of the guarantees an actual income rider provides. If a guaranteed number for life matters to you, price the income-focused version before you decide.

Surrender schedule and liquidity

The surrender schedule steps down from 10% in year 1 to 1% by year 10, a standard glide path for a 10-year FIA with no bonus attached. It is not an aggressive schedule compared with bonus contracts that run even longer, but it is not generous either: someone who needs to exit entirely in year 1 gives up a real chunk of the deposit before any market value adjustment is even applied.

That market value adjustment sits on top of the surrender charge for anything withdrawn beyond the free amount, and it is not detailed in full at the illustration stage, so ask Delaware Life directly for the exact formula. Adjustments tied to interest rate movement can swing a meaningful amount in either direction depending on where rates sit when you make a withdrawal.

The free withdrawal itself, 10% a year after the first contract year, sits right in the middle of what the broader FIA market offers; some carriers are a bit more generous in early years, others less so. At death, your beneficiary gets the greater of the account value or the cash surrender value with no surrender charge or market value adjustment applied, which is the standard, fair answer across this category. Nursing home and terminal illness waivers typically apply as well, though ask your strategist to confirm the exact waiting period, usually about a year from issue, and your state's availability.

Weighing the no-bonus design

Momentum Growth does not offer a premium bonus in its standard form, and we think that is a point in its favor. Bonus-heavy FIAs frequently pair an attractive upfront number with a longer surrender period, a thinner crediting menu, or both, so the bonus ends up funded by give-backs elsewhere in the contract.

A buyer drawn to a bonus contract is often asking the wrong question. The more useful question is what the actual crediting terms look like over the life of the contract, not whether there is a headline number at the start. A no-bonus design with a fair crediting menu can, in many cases, out-earn a bonus contract with a thinner one, though which wins depends entirely on the current rate sheet for each, so have a strategist run both side by side before you decide.

Who Momentum Growth is best for

This fits a buyer roughly 60 to 72 years old, putting somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000 to work for a full decade, who already has lifetime income covered some other way and wants principal-protected, market-linked growth with the option to bank a gain mid-year if conditions look right. Buyers in states without an income tax get a little extra value out of the tax-deferred growth, since there is no state-level drag on top of the federal deferral.

It is a weaker fit for anyone who might need more than the annual free withdrawal, anyone who actually wants guaranteed lifetime income (better to price Delaware Life's income-focused contract instead), anyone uncomfortable owning strategies tied to newer, short-history indexes, or anyone who has not yet maxed out other tax-advantaged savings options.

Bottom line on Momentum Growth

This is a solid, no-bonus contract with one feature that earns real enthusiasm, the VersaGain mid-year lock-in, and one legitimate concern to weigh against it: how much this crediting menu leans on newer, proprietary strategies without much live history behind them. The crediting terms look fair without being extraordinary, and the surrender schedule is about what you would expect for the category. We would lean toward this contract over a comparable bonus-driven 10-year FIA in most cases, but we would still want to see a transparent, capped S&P 500 option on the table before recommending it without reservation for a purely accumulation-minded buyer.

Other annuities to consider

• Delaware Life company review: the carrier's full history, ownership and financial strength
• Delaware Life Retirement Stages Select review: a shorter-surrender FIA from the same carrier with a wider index menu
• Corebridge Power Select Builder review: another accumulation-focused FIA with no rider fee
• FIA crediting methods explained: how caps, participation rates and spreads actually work