Annuity type

Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuity (MYGA)

Also called: Fixed-rate deferred annuity, CD-type annuity

The CD of the annuity world: a guaranteed interest rate for a set term, tax-deferred, with surrender charges for leaving early.

Reviewed by Evan Chait, Esq., Senior Vice President, OperationsUpdated

Principal
Yes — account value, principal intact
Liquidity
Limited — surrender charges during the term
Backed by
State guaranty association, within limits

The decoder

What the quoted number means

A true interest rate — the honest quote of the family

A MYGA's quoted rate is what it appears to be: compound interest credited on your premium for the guarantee period. This is the one annuity quote directly comparable to a CD or bond yield. The catches live elsewhere — surrender schedules, renewal rates after the term, and the fact that the insurer's rate sits close to what its own bond portfolio earns.

You deposit a premium for a set term — commonly three, five, or seven years — at a guaranteed rate, tax-deferred. Exit before the term ends and surrender charges (and possibly a market-value adjustment) apply; at the end you renew, exchange, or withdraw.

Because insurers fund MYGA rates from investment-grade bond portfolios, quoted rates cluster near those yields minus the insurer's margin. MYGAs are simple, honest instruments; they are also structurally capped by that math.

Who it tends to fit: cd-style savers who want tax deferral.

The honest comparison

MYGA vs. a payment stream

The cleanest comparison in the family: both quote a real rate on a fixed obligation. The MYGA keeps principal accessible (with penalties) and guaranty-association cover; the payment stream typically quotes a meaningfully higher effective yield, locked for the life of the schedule, without the account value or the guaranty net. It is a genuine risk-for-yield trade, and it should be made knowingly.

What the secondary market pays right now is on our current estimated yields page; for rate context on this product family, see current myga rate context.

MYGA questions

Why do secondary-market yields run above MYGA rates?
A MYGA rate is manufactured from an insurer's bond portfolio, so it cannot stray far from investment-grade yields. A payment stream's yield comes from buying an existing obligation at a negotiated discount — a price, not a manufactured rate — which is why estimated yields on current inventory typically run above MYGA quotes from comparably rated carriers. The trade-offs are liquidity and guaranty coverage.

Other types: SPIADIAQLACFixed deferredFixed indexedRILAVariable

Pacific Structured Assets

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