Annuity type
Registered Index-Linked Annuity (RILA)
Also called: Buffered annuity, structured annuity
An FIA's aggressive sibling: higher caps in exchange for absorbing part of the losses — a securities product with real downside.
- Principal
- At risk beyond the buffer
- Liquidity
- Limited — surrender schedules; prospectus product
- Backed by
- Securities product — not a guaranty-association fit
The decoder
What the quoted number means
A cap paired with a buffer — read both numbers
A RILA quote is two numbers: the cap on gains and the buffer (or floor) on losses — say, gains to 20%, with the insurer absorbing the first 10% of a decline and you taking the rest. Unlike an FIA there is no zero floor: principal is genuinely at risk beyond the buffer, which is why RILAs are registered securities sold by prospectus.
You choose an index, a term, and a protection shape (buffer or floor); the insurer prices the cap accordingly. Deeper protection buys a lower cap, and vice versa — the option math is explicit.
RILAs fit investors who want equity-linked upside with defined, partial protection and who will read a prospectus. They are the annuity family's closest thing to a structured note.
Who it tends to fit: prospectus readers wanting defined partial protection.
The honest comparison
RILA vs. a payment stream
These are opposites. A RILA accepts market risk within defined bounds for equity-linked upside; a payment stream removes market movement from the equation entirely — a fixed schedule at a stated estimated yield, with the issuing carrier's credit as the risk that remains. Investors choose by which uncertainty they would rather own.
What the secondary market pays right now is on our current estimated yields page.
RILA questions
Can I lose money in a RILA?
Other types: SPIA · DIA · QLAC · MYGA · Fixed deferred · Fixed indexed · Variable
Pacific Structured Assets
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