You can further protect yourself by sticking to annuities issued by insurers that
get high financial strength ratings from companies like A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's, by spreading your money among two or more highly rated insurers and by limiting the amount you invest with any single insurance company to the maximum coverage offered by the state insurance guaranty association in your state.
But since most individuals aren't up to the task of analyzing the finances and claims - paying ability of insurance companies, a more practical way to home in on strong insurers is to look for those that
get high financial strength ratings — say, A + or better — from firms like A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's.
Not exact matches
In the case of immediate annuities and longevity annuities, you can
get a sense of whether one annuity's costs are
higher than another's by comparing the size of the monthly lifetime payments each makes for a given investment (although you'll also want to consider an insurer's
financial strength rating rather than just pick the one with the
highest payout).
People with no
financial strength: If your debt - income ratio is already
high and you are unable to increase your income, you will definitely find it difficult to
get a new regular credit card.
An insurance company with poor business practices and poor
financial strength gets a lower rating, such as a C or D.
Higher rated insurance companies will have ratings of the B or A mark; A rated insurance companies are preferred and are your best investment.
21st Century
gets high marks for its
financial strength and from the BBB, but on balance, the company has worse than average ratings as measured by complaints submitted to industry / regulatory organizations or feedback in consumer satisfaction surveys.