Great American Life Insurance Company Review

Pros Explained

• Multiple plans: Great American Life Insurance Company has 19 different annuity plans to choose from, so you can be sure to find one that best fits your needs.
• Guaranteed retirement income: Most of the products offered by Great American give you the opportunity to turn in your plan into a reliable stream of retirement income.
• Penalty-free withdrawals: With Great American Life Insurance Company products, you can access up to 10% of your money without incurring a penalty. 
• Early declining withdrawal charges: Nearly all the products offered have early decreasing withdrawal charges that end after the contract term.

Cons Explained

• No online quotes: Great American Life Insurance Company doesn’t provide online quotes for any of its products.

Available Plans

Great American Life Insurance Company offers multiple plans, including fixed-indexed, fixed, registered indexed-linked, and immediate annuities. Annuities are contracts sold by insurance companies that guarantee the buyer regular income, often for a lifetime. 

Whether you’re looking to protect your loved ones or supplement your retirement income, Great American has 19 different plans to meet your needs.

Fixed-Indexed

An indexed annuity, also known as a fixed-indexed annuity, is an insurance contract whose income payments are based on the performance of a specific market index. 

Great American Life Insurance company has five different indexed annuities options:

• American Landmark 3: Accumulate money while receiving a level of protection against market loss. Using indexed strategies, you can earn interest based on market performance. Any interest credited to your account is locked in and can’t be lost as a result of market performance. You can access your money penalty-free after three years.
• American Landmark 5: Multiple interest strategies to help you build your savings without the need to worry about market loss. One year point-to-point indexed strategy guarantees cap or participation rate at the end of a one-year term. The five-year cap lock annual point-to-point strategy guarantees a maximum interest rate for five years. The point-to-point indexed strategy compares the closing value at the end of the one-year term and the closing value on the first day of the new term. If the result is positive, interest is credited, but for a negative outcome, the credited interest rate is 0%. 
• American Legend 7: Build money while receiving protection against market loss. Apart from protecting your principal, you can earn interest based on a market index. This plan also allows you to choose an index strategy that’s right for you, either a point-to-point or a monthly sum strategy. 
• Premier Income Bonus: With this plan, you won’t lose your money regardless of the market conditions, plus it comes with a built-in rider that offers guaranteed growth of your retirement income with a 6% bonus and 10-year rollup period.
• Safe Return: This plan guarantees a return of premium, retirement income, and a level of protection from market loss. With Safe Return, you’ll be able to grow your money tax-deferred using a point-to-point index strategy. The plan also offers a bailout feature that lets you withdraw your funds without incurring early withdrawal charges, if certain conditions are met.

Fee-Based

A fee-based annuity is essentially a fixed-indexed annuity that allows you to lock in your earnings or at least put a cap on your losses on an annual basis regardless of what’s happening in the market.

Great American Life Insurance Company has five fee-based annuity options:

• Index Protector 4: Allocating a portion of your portfolio to Index Protector 4 guarantees principal protection, higher earning potential, and an income stream that could last the rest of your life. It earns interest based on the performance of a market index with point-to-point index strategies. 
• Index Protector 5 MVA: Offers point-to-point indexed strategies and a market value adjustment (MVA) that ends in five years. You can then turn your accumulated funds into a steady stream of reliable retirement income. 
• Index Protector 7: Grow your plan with strategies that earn interest based on a market index. This annuity offers a return of premium guarantee after the third contract year and guaranteed retirement income. 
• Advantage 5 Advisory: This annuity is issued with a single premium and offers guaranteed interest rates during the first five years. It also has a market value adjustment during those first five years.
• Index Achiever Advisory: This annuity is issued with a single premium and accepts subsequent payments during the first two months to add to its value. It offers many index options that can limit your losses when the market declines and can guarantee certain returns in positive markets.

Registered Index-Linked

A registered indexed-linked annuity allows you to take advantage of the market growth while minimizing your losses. This type of annuity uses a market index, such as S&P 500, to determine gains and losses. 

Great American Life Insurance Company has six registered indexed-linked product options:

• Index Frontier 5: This plan lets you grow your investment tax-deferred until withdrawn while offering a level of protection from market loss. Choose to allocate your money using either of the two credit rating strategies: declared rate strategy and indexed strategies. With a declared rate strategy, your cash builds up at a fixed interest rate, while indexed strategies earn you a return based on market performance.   
• Index Frontier 7: Grow your money tax-deferred while partially protecting it from market loss by either using a buffer or a floor. Buffer indexed strategies offer protection against 10% index losses each term. Floor indexed strategies protect against index losses that exceed -10%.
• Index Summit 6: Offers two kinds of indexed strategies: term with cap and term with participation rate. Both approaches limit losses to 50%.
• Index Frontier 5 Pro: Grow your savings while protecting your money against market downturn. Typically, your money earns a return based on the performance of the market index. You can choose between a buffer or a floor to limit your downside risk.
• Index Frontier 7 Pro: Grow your money at a faster rate while protecting your investments from the impact of inflation. You can set the amount of downside protection you need using either a buffer or a floor. With this product, you’ll also need to pay an annual fee of 1%. 
• Index Summit 6 Pro: Unlike investing your money directly into the stock market, this plan protects your money from market turndown. Index Summit 6 Pro protects your investments using either term with cap or term with participation rate. Both strategies provide up to 50% protection from loss. The plan also deducts a daily fee, which compounds to a yearly rate of 0.75%.

Fixed

A fixed annuity guarantees a fixed interest rate on your contributions for a specific period of time. This type of annuity often offers protection from loss since the interest rate credited is not dependent on the market performance. If you’re looking to protect your principal while safely growing your interest tax-deferred, fixed annuities may be perfect for you.

Great American Life Insurance Company has three fixed annuity product options: 

• SecureGain 3: Offers a guaranteed interest rate for two three-year terms with reliable income regardless of the market conditions. Turn the money you’ve accumulated in your annuity into a reliable stream of retirement income. If you pass away, your beneficiaries will receive death benefits.
• SecureGain 5: SecureGain 5 has a five-year initial term with a 0.25% first-year interest rate bonus and a 0.10% bonus in years two through five.
• SecureGain 7: Offers a 1% interest rate bonus in the first year of the contract, and a 0.25% interest rate bonus added to the base interest rate for years two through seven. Each year, you’ll have access to a portion of your money with penalty-free withdrawals—you can withdraw up to 10% of your purchase payment in the first contract year.

Immediate

An immediate annuity is an insurance contract that allows you to convert a lump sum of money into an annuity so that you can start receiving regular income. Payments typically begin around a month after you purchase the annuity. If you want financial security in the form of consistent cash flow, either for a set period or a lifetime, you may want to consider immediate annuities.

Great American Life Insurance Company has one basic immediate annuity product:

• SPIA: With a single premium immediate annuity (SPIA), you can choose the length of time you want to receive payments. If you choose to receive payment for life, you’ll have a steady stream of retirement income. This product, however, doesn’t provide death benefits.

Available Riders

Riders are additional benefits you can purchase to add to your annuity. You can customize your plan with riders to either increase or decrease your coverage.

Great American Life Insurance Company has the following rider options: 

IncomeDefender

IncomeDefender rider offers guaranteed growth of your retirement income at an extra cost of 0.85% of the benefit base at the end of each year. You can add the rider to Index Protector 7 and grow your benefit base in two ways—rollup credits and resets.

Your benefit base will increase by 8% of your purchase payments at the end of your first contract year, with the maximum rollup period being seven years. You also have the option to reset your benefit base if your annuity’s account is more than the benefit base.

IncomeSecure

Available for American Legend 7 and Safe Return, the IncomeSecure rider offers guaranteed growth of your benefit base at an annual charge of 0.95%. Your benefit base will rise by 6% at the end of your first contact year, with the maximum rollup period being 10 years. 

You can also choose how you want to receive your income, either single lifetime (at least 55 years of age) or joint lifetime income (you and your spouse must be at least 55 years of age)

Inheritance Enhancer

This rider is available for American Legend 7 and Safe Return. Inheritance Enhancer rider offers guaranteed growth of your benefit over a 10-year rollup period. At the end of the first contact year, your benefit base will rise by 9% for issue ages 50 to 75 and 6% for issue ages 76 to 85.

After the fifth contract year, your contract’s death benefit is replaced with the rider’s enhanced death benefit. Your beneficiaries can choose to receive the death benefits either in a lump sum or a series of payments.

Customer Service

If you need more information about Great American Life Insurance Company’s products, you can contact their customer service in several ways, including by phone at (800) 854-3649 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

Complaint Index

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) keeps track of complaints submitted by consumers about insurance companies. According to NAIC, a company with an average number of complaints has a complaint index score of 1.0. A score below 1.0 means the company has fewer complaints than expected, while a score above 1.0 means a higher number of complaints than is expected relative to the market share. 

In 2021, Great American Life Insurance Company’s complaint index was 0.03, which is way better than the industry average.

Third-Party Ratings

Several rating agencies issue the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) to insurance companies, with the most popular being AM Best. A strong rating shows that the company is likely going to stay in business and pay out claims.

AM Best awarded Great American Life Insurance Company A+ (Superior), one of their highest possible ratings. Great American Life also received an A+ (Strong) rating from Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Cancellation Policy

To cancel your policy with Great American Life Insurance Company, you can call their customer service team at (800) 854-3649 or fill out a surrender form.

If you cancel your plan while surrender charges still apply, these charges can be very costly.

Price

Great American Life Insurance Company doesn’t have online quotes. To find out if a plan is right for you, talk to the company’s financial professionals and discuss the available plans, your budget, and your needs. A financial professional will give you a quote based on the best annuity plan to serve your needs.

Competition

When shopping around for an annuity, it’s wise to compare prices and plans offered by multiple companies. By doing so, you might get the best deal for a financial product that meets your needs. 

Great American Life Insurance Company is an annuity provider. If you’re looking for life insurance, the company is not the provider for you. We’d recommend looking at Mutual of Omaha where you’ll get coverage plans beyond annuities.

Though both insurers received an A+ rating from AM Best and offer annuities as one of their products, Mutual of Omaha provides multiple life insurance policies, long-term care insurance, and investments in addition to annuities, giving it an edge over Great American Life Insurance Company.

Additionally, Mutual of Omaha allows you to get free online quotes for term and whole life. The whole life policy they offer is guaranteed acceptance. You can apply online in as little as five minutes and get coverage with no medical exam.

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Methodology

Our reviews of life insurance companies are based on both qualitative and quantitative methodology approaches, including stability and reliability, third-party ratings, customer satisfaction, claims experience and complaints, coverage options, cost, and diversity of product lines. We also consider policies, premium payment options, and whether the company has riders.