5 Best Annuity Companies In the US

3. Athene

AM Best Rating: A (Excellent)

Athene is an insurance company founded in 1896. The parent organization for the company is Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company. The company issues, reinsures, and acquires retirement savings products. It is based in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Independent rating agencies like AM Best, S&P, and Fitch see Athene as a financially strong company with a stellar performance. All three agencies have placed positive ratings on the company as of 2022. They have placed ratings of A (Excellent), A+ (Superior), and A+ (Superior) on Athene’s financial strength, respectively. The company also offers some of the best fixed-annuity rates. For MaxRate, Athene offers fixed annuities of three, five, and seven years. The rates for these annuities are 4.7%, 5.35%, and 5.4%, respectively, as of January 2023.

The company’s latest financial highlights as of 2023 show that it holds $236.7 billion in total assets, $13 billion in gross organic inflows, and $2.7 billion in excess capital. In 2021, Athene generated $11.9 billion in funding agreement inflows and was the top issuer of funding agreement-backed notes with $11.1 billion of issuance across six currencies. It is among the best annuity companies in the US because it has multiple distribution channels to source its liabilities. These include retail, reinsuring in the annuity industry, and acquisitions and block reinsurance transactions.