Carrier

Brighthouse secondary market annuities

Brighthouse Life Insurance Company holds one of the industry's more layered lineages: it was Travelers Insurance Company's life and annuity business, became MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut after MetLife's 2005 acquisition, and was spun off as Brighthouse in 2017. Structured settlement annuities written under all three names are Brighthouse obligations today.

Brighthouse Life Insurance Company

Lineage: Travelers → MetLife of CT
Spun off: 2017 (Nasdaq: BHF)
Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina

See current inventory How the safety compares

What it means

Backed by Brighthouse

When a payment stream is backed by Brighthouse, the scheduled payments are that carrier's obligation. You are buying the right to receive those payments — transferred through a court-approved process — at a discount, not a new insurance contract, and the difference between what you pay and what you collect is your yield. Read more about the asset itself on our secondary market annuities guide.

Because the income depends on Brighthouse continuing to pay, the carrier's financial strength is your protection. These payment rights are not FDIC-insured and generally are not covered by a state guaranty association, so we place only top-rated carriers and show the current rating on every listing. Where a Brighthouse-backed stream sits against CDs, Treasuries, and new annuities is laid out on our comparison page.

The company

A brief history

The annuities behind many Brighthouse-backed streams began life as Travelers contracts — Travelers was one of the major structured settlement writers of the 1980s and 1990s. When MetLife acquired Travelers' life and annuity business from Citigroup in 2005, the issuing company became MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut.

In 2017, MetLife spun off its U.S. retail business as Brighthouse Financial, and that Connecticut entity was renamed Brighthouse Life Insurance Company — a public company traded on Nasdaq and headquartered in Charlotte. Settlement paper reading Travelers or MetLife of Connecticut is typically a Brighthouse obligation today, on unchanged terms.

This is also why a stream can say "MetLife" and not be an obligation of Metropolitan Life: the retail Connecticut entity went to Brighthouse, while Metropolitan Life Insurance Company remained with MetLife. The listing names the exact issuing entity so there is no ambiguity about who owes the schedule.

Name history

Travelers Insurance Company (life & annuity) → MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut (2005) → Brighthouse Life Insurance Company (2017 spin-off, Nasdaq: BHF)

Retail products, decoded

Brighthouse's annuity products

Independent guides to the annuities Brighthouse sells today — what each quoted number really means, from the official product terms.

A Shield Rate plus a cap — and no floor beneath

Shield Level II Annuities

Brighthouse's flagship buffered annuity family: the insurer absorbs the first slice of index losses — the Shield Rate — and the rest is yours.

A cap that is not an annual rate — above a 0% floor

SecureKey Fixed Indexed Annuities

Brighthouse's principal-protected indexed family: credits floored at zero, caps that are not an annual rate, and a market value adjustment.

A true guaranteed rate — read the renewal sentence

Brighthouse Fixed Rate Annuity

Brighthouse's MYGA: a genuine guaranteed rate for 3, 5, or 7 years — with the renewal line as the fine print that matters.

Brighthouse payment stream questions

Is a Travelers or MetLife of Connecticut settlement annuity now Brighthouse?

Generally yes. Travelers' life and annuity business became MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut in 2005 and was renamed Brighthouse Life Insurance Company in MetLife's 2017 spin-off. The same entity owes the payments under the Brighthouse name; the listing names the exact issuer.

Are Brighthouse secondary market annuities safe?

The payments on a Brighthouse-backed stream are that carrier's obligation, so its financial strength is your protection. These payment rights are not FDIC-insured and generally are not covered by a state guaranty association, which is why we place only top-rated carriers and show Brighthouse's current rating on every listing. Review the issuer's rating before you commit.

How do I buy a Brighthouse payment stream?

Browse current inventory, and when a Brighthouse-backed listing fits, reserve it by its contract number. The right to receive the payments is assigned to you through a court-approved transfer, and the scheduled payments then arrive direct to you. Registering a free account unlocks full terms and investor pricing.

What yield do Brighthouse-backed streams pay?

Effective yields on current inventory run roughly 4 to 7 percent, depending on the category, the term, and the specific listing rather than on the carrier alone. Each Brighthouse listing shows its own yield, purchase price, and full payment schedule.

What these assets are, and what they are not

Guaranteed and life-contingent structured settlement payment rights, and lottery payment rights, represent the right to receive factored payments that Pacific Structured Assets purchases and assigns to investors through a court-approved process. They are purchased at a discount to their total scheduled payments.

These payment rights are NOT annuities, NOT insurance products, and NOT securities registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They are not bank deposits, are not FDIC-insured, and are not protected by any state insurance guaranty association. The industry term “secondary market annuity” refers to these payment rights and does not mean you are purchasing an insurance annuity contract.

You acquire the right to receive the payments, not the underlying annuity. The annuity itself does not change hands. Unlike the original structured settlement annuity, which may be shielded from creditors under applicable law, the assigned payment rights you purchase generally do not carry that creditor or bankruptcy protection.

Assigned annuities, offered as a separate product line, are existing insurance annuity contracts reassigned to a new owner through a change of ownership or an irrevocable change of payee.

These are long-term holdings with limited liquidity, and may not be suitable for every investor. There is no public trading market and no daily price. Resale or reassignment of a payment stream to another buyer may be possible, and Pacific Structured Assets can assist, but a resale is not guaranteed and the price it would bring is not guaranteed. Because the payments are fixed, that resale value moves with prevailing interest rates: an investor could realize a gain if rates have fallen since purchase, or a loss if rates have risen. These holdings are best suited to capital an investor can commit for the long term. Nothing on this website is tax, legal, financial, or investment advice. Consult your own advisors before investing.

Pacific Structured Assets, Inc. is an independent company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or otherwise connected to any insurance company, annuity issuer, state lottery, or other payment obligor named on this website. Issuer and carrier names are used solely to identify the entity obligated to make the scheduled payments on a particular payment stream. All company names, trademarks, and service marks are the property of their respective owners; their appearance here is for identification purposes only and does not imply any partnership, agency, sponsorship, endorsement, or other business relationship. No issuer named on this website has reviewed, approved, or endorsed any of its content.

Pacific Structured Assets, Inc. does not provide tax, legal, financial or accounting advice. The material on this website has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, financial or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, financial or accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction, including the acquisition of factored structured settlement payments. Pacific Structured Assets is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not licensed to sell insurance in any state.

Pacific Structured Assets

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