Delaware Life Retirement Stages Select Annuity Review (2026)

What is the Delaware Life Retirement Stages Select?

This is a flexible premium fixed indexed deferred annuity from Delaware Life Insurance Company, built to hold your money across a wide menu of index crediting strategies for either a 5-year or 7-year surrender period, your choice, set at issue. There is no mandatory income rider attached, so this is a pure accumulation contract that you can later choose to annuitize on your own schedule rather than being locked into an income structure from day one.

Because it accepts additional deposits after the initial purchase (as little as $500 at a time), this contract works well for someone funding an annuity gradually rather than all at once. This review walks through the crediting menu, the surrender terms, the standout Bailout Provision, and an honest look at how the carrier illustrates two of its newer index options.

How the Retirement Stages Select works

Like every fixed indexed annuity, this contract never invests your premium directly in the market. At each annual crediting date, Delaware Life measures how your chosen index performed and credits you a portion of any gain, up to whatever cap or participation limit applies to that strategy. A losing year simply credits zero: your principal is not touched by index declines.

Once credited, interest locks in for good and cannot be taken back by a later market drop. You can also make additional deposits at any point before the owner or annuitant turns 85, which is what makes this a flexible premium design rather than a single-deposit contract.

Index crediting options

This contract offers one of the wider menus you will find in its category, ten strategies in total, covering capped, participation-based, performance trigger and a couple of specialty formats. Several track the S&P 500 through different crediting methods, others track the Nasdaq-100, and a handful use proprietary indexes built by outside index providers specifically for annuity crediting.

Every strategy's cap or participation level gets set at issue and can change at each renewal, so we are intentionally not printing specific numbers here. Ask your strategist for the current rate sheet, since it changes often enough that anything printed on this page would go stale quickly. For a full explanation of how these crediting methods differ, see our FIA crediting methods guide.

The Performance Trigger strategy, explained

One option worth understanding on its own is the Performance Trigger. Rather than tracking a share of the index's actual gain, it pays a flat, pre-set rate in any year the S&P 500 finishes the year flat or even up by a single point. A down year earns nothing. This design can outperform a capped strategy in a flat or modestly positive market, but it caps your reward in a strong bull year at that same flat, pre-set rate, no matter how far the index actually climbed.

Precision Portfolios: pre-allocated options

For a buyer who would rather not pick individual strategies, Delaware Life offers two pre-built blends. Precision Core leans conservative, favoring stability and steadier participation across its underlying mix. Precision Edge leans more aggressive, aiming for higher potential participation from a different blend of the same strategy types.

Both portfolios handle the allocation work automatically, which can simplify the decision for someone who does not want to manage individual strategies themselves. Keep in mind that the underlying index mix inside each portfolio still carries the same renewal uncertainty as picking strategies on your own, and the exact rebalancing rules behind each portfolio are not fully spelled out in the consumer-facing materials.

Why two of the ten indexes deserve extra scrutiny

Two of the ten available strategies launched recently enough that they have little or no live trading history behind them. One incorporates a bitcoin-related sleeve into its methodology and had only a matter of months of actual market data at the time this review was written; everything shown before that point in an illustration is a backtested estimate. A second, tied to the Nasdaq-100, is similarly new, with only a brief live track record so far.

Both of these designs add intraday or crypto-related mechanics that make backtested numbers especially hard to trust as a guide to the future. The remaining eight strategies, built on more established benchmarks like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 alongside a couple of established third-party indexes, give you a sturdier basis for setting expectations than either of the newer two.

What the guaranteed floor looks like

If every strategy you hold credits nothing at all for the full surrender period, your account value simply stays put at your original deposit, and a separate guaranteed minimum value grows slowly underneath it regardless of index performance. That guaranteed number is the one figure in this contract nobody can take away from you.

Anything a carrier's illustration shows above that guaranteed floor, especially figures built from a brand-new, backtested index, depends entirely on how markets actually behave going forward, which is not something any illustration can promise. If you want to see what your own deposit and time horizon could look like under assumptions you choose yourself, our fixed annuity calculator is a better starting point than a carrier's own hypothetical exhibit.

Surrender charge schedule

The 7-year version's standard schedule starts at 8% in year 1 and steps down to 0% by year 6, several years before the contract technically finishes its term:

California uses a different, longer glide path. A market value adjustment also applies to withdrawals and full surrenders taken beyond the free amount during the surrender period, though it is waived entirely if a payout is triggered by death.

The Bailout Provision

One feature worth calling out is the Bailout Provision. If Delaware Life renews the capped S&P 500 strategy's rate below a floor stated in your contract at any anniversary, you gain the right to withdraw your entire account value without a surrender charge or market value adjustment.

Think of it as a defined exit ramp: if the carrier ever cuts that particular rate sharply enough to cross your contract's stated line, you are not stuck riding it out for the rest of the surrender period. Few competing contracts build in a comparable guarantee.

No-cost riders and waivers

Two waivers ride along with the contract at no additional charge, subject to state availability:

• Nursing home waiver. Available after your first contract anniversary once you have spent 90 or more days in a row admitted to a hospital or nursing facility, generally on contracts issued before age 76.
• Terminal illness waiver. Available after your first anniversary if you receive a qualifying terminal illness or hospice diagnosis, generally for contracts issued before age 70.

Both waivers let you access money that would otherwise be subject to a surrender charge or market value adjustment, which matters most if a health event forces an early exit.

Annuitization options

Once your surrender period ends, you can convert the contract into a guaranteed income stream through several payout choices: single life only, single life with a period certain, or joint and survivor life, with a maximum annuitization age of 95. Because there is no built-in income rider forcing your hand earlier, you keep full flexibility at that point to annuitize, take a lump sum, or roll the money into a different product entirely.

Who the Retirement Stages Select is best for

This contract is a strong fit if you want the ability to add deposits over time, prefer choosing from a wide menu of index strategies, value having the Bailout Provision as a safeguard against a steep cap cut, do not need a guaranteed income rider built into the contract itself, and are comfortable with an A- rated carrier.

It is a weaker fit if guaranteed lifetime income has to be part of the contract from day one, since annuitization only happens later and on your own terms here. For an income-focused alternative, compare it against Delaware Life's own Momentum Growth sibling contract or an income-rider FIA from a different carrier.

Bottom line on the Retirement Stages Select

This is a capable, mid-tier accumulation FIA whose strengths are real flexibility and one genuinely buyer-friendly feature. The ten-strategy menu beats most contracts in its class for sheer breadth, the flexible-premium structure lets you add as little as $500 at a time, and the Bailout Provision, a defined exit right if the carrier cuts its S&P 500 cap below a stated floor, is a real form of protection that few competitors match. The choice between a 5-year and 7-year surrender period, plus no-cost nursing home and terminal illness waivers, rounds out a fair overall package.

The honest reservations: Delaware Life sits at A-, a notch below the top financial strength tier, two of the ten strategies lean on backtested-only numbers from indexes too new to have proven anything yet, an early exit can still cost you through the market value adjustment, and there is nothing resembling an income rider here, which keeps this an accumulation tool you convert to income later rather than a guaranteed-income contract from the start. A buyer who cares about menu breadth, likes the Bailout safeguard, and has no objection to an A- rated issuer will find this one worth shortlisting. New York residents cannot currently buy it, and terms shift from state to state, so run availability and current rates by a licensed strategist before you apply.