CALL US: (888) 440-2468

CALL US: (888) 440-2468

have an annuity question?
have an annuity question?

Independent Review of the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 Annuity

What We Will Cover in this Annuity Review

In this annuity review, we will be going over the following details regarding the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA (Multi-Year Guarantee) 5 Annuity:
  • Product type
  • FeesSagicor Life
  • Current rates
  • Realistic long-term return expectations
  • How this annuity is best used
  • How it is most poorly used

Annuities can be complex. That’s where having an Annuity Investigator who loves math comes in. We make the complex, simple.

The purchase of an annuity can be a big decision. After all, these financial vehicles – if they are purchased properly – can help to ensure that you will have an income for the rest of your life, no matter how long you need it. Today, many people are living much longer than in the past, so knowing that you have ongoing income can be a big relief. But even though annuities can offer a long list of benefits, there can also be some pitfalls in the products themselves, as well as the way they are sold. Annuities are confusing products, so unless you really read the “fine print”, an annuity may not perform the way that you expected it to. On top of that, these products can also sometimes be mis-sold by insurance and financial advisors. This doesn’t necessarily happen on purpose, but because advisors who don’t have a focus on annuities may not fully understand them either. This is where Annuity Gator comes in.

Annuity and Retirement Income Planning Information You Can Trust

If this is your first visit to our website, please allow us to officially welcome you here to Annuity Gator. We are a team of experienced annuity experts who focus on offering comprehensive and unbiased annuity reviews online. We have been at this for quite some time now – far longer than our competitors. Because of this, we have come to be known as a highly trusted source of annuity information online. Over the past several years or so, though, a number of “copycat” websites have started to spring up, mimicking what we do. While that can be somewhat confusing for consumers, we take it as “imitation being the highest form of flattery.” While you’ve been researching annuities online, you may have come across some conflicting details about these products. This really isn’t too surprising, as there are many opinions about them – some good, some not so good. This is another reason why it is so important to really get a handle on how annuities work so that you can decide for yourself whether or not an annuity will fit in with your short- and long-term financial goals. If you would like to know more about the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 annuity, you are in the right place. In fact, dare we say that our website is the only place on the Internet where you will get all of the important details that you need for making a well-informed decision. One reason for this is because we aren’t going to paint a rosy picture for you and focus on only the good stuff. Rather, we provide the whole picture – good, bad, and yes even the ugly. But this can help you in determining whether or not this MYGA annuity is right for you. In order to be perfectly clear, we want to state for the record that annuities can be a great addition to your portfolio. But that is only provided that you’re purchasing the annuity for the right reason(s). So, if you’re ready to get started, let’s go!

Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 Annuity at a Glance

Product NameMilestone MYGA 5
IssuerSagicor Life Insurance Company
Type of ProductMulti-Year Guarantee Annuity (MYGA)
A.M. Best RatingA- (Excellent)
Phone Number(888) 724-4267 Ext. 4610
Websitehttps://www.sagicorlifeusa.com

Opening Thoughts on the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 Annuity

Sagicor Life Insurance Company – a wholly owned subsidiary of Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited – has been in the business of offering wealth building and protecting tools since 1954. The company is licensed in 45 states, as well as the District of Columbia. Based on the company’s financial strength and stability, it has maintained an A- (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best Company. It also has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Sagicor Life offers several annuity options in its product line up, including a Single Premium Immediate Annuity, a Single Premium Deferred Annuity, several fixed indexed annuity options, and the Milestone MYGA (multi-year guaranteed) fixed annuity products. The need for fixed / MYGA annuities – which are always backed by life insurance carriers – has been steadily growing over the past few years as more and more of today’s workers are retiring without having the stability of a traditional “defined benefit” pension for future income. By choosing the lifetime income stream on such an annuity, you can essentially “replace” a defined benefit pension plan. If you have a “defined contribution” retirement plan, such as a 401(K), then upon retirement, you will need to have an idea of what you want to do with the money you’ve saved in it – as well as a way to convert those dollars over into a stable and reliable income stream (ideally that will last for the remainder of your life – regardless of how long that may be). One possibility would be a fixed or MYGA annuity. This is because these financial vehicles can offer you a set return and safety of your principal (regardless of what happens in the market), along with a lifetime income that you can count on going forward. For more information on how to compare annuities in order to determine which one may be the best for you and your financial circumstances, click here to obtain our free annuity report.

Before we get into the gritty details, here are some necessary legal disclosures…

This is an independent annuity product review. It is not a recommendation to purchase or to sell an annuity. Sagicor Life Insurance Company has not endorsed this review in any way, nor do we receive any type of compensation for providing this review. This annuity review is meant solely to be an independent review at the request of our readers so that they may see our perspective when breaking down the positives and the negatives of this particular annuity. Before purchasing any type of insurance and/or investment product, it is important that you do your own due diligence, and that you consult a properly licensed professional if you should have any specific questions that relate to your individual situation. All of the names, marks, and materials that were used for this annuity review are the property of their respective owners.

How Sagicor Life Describes the Milestone MYGA 5 Fixed Annuity

According to the Sagicor Life Insurance Company’s website, the Milestone MYGA is a single premium deferred fixed annuity. With this annuity, you can garner a number of nice benefits, including:
  • Guaranteed Interest Rates
  • Tax-Deferred Growth
  • Principal Protection
  • Access to Funds (with some exceptions)
The Milestone MYGA 5 offers a guaranteed fixed rate of interest for five years – regardless of what happens in the market. At the end of this guarantee period, you can withdraw all of your money without incurring a surrender charge. (Note that you need to do so within 30 days of the initial guarantee period’s end. Otherwise, the money will be placed into another five-year guaranteed rate period – and another surrender period will begin again, too). The Milestone MYGA annuity also has a three-year and a seven-year guaranteed interest rate option. Alternatively, you could opt to convert the funds in your annuity into an income stream – one of which is a lifetime income option, which will continue to pay out income for the remainder of your life. This annuity offers some other nice features, too, such as a death benefit. Here, for instance, in the event of your passing, a named beneficiary (or beneficiaries) will be paid a death benefit that is equal to the accumulation account value of the annuity, without incurring a surrender charge or a market value adjustment. Your beneficiary can choose to receive this benefit either as a single lump sum or as multiple payouts over a set period of time. To take a look at the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA annuity consumer brochure, go HERE. Or, if you’d like to view the product details at a glance, you can check out the Sagicor Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuity product guide HERE.

How an Insurance or Financial Advisor Might “Pitch” this Annuity

If you are approaching retirement, then you may be torn between going with financial vehicles that have more risk in order to increase your opportunity for growth, and going with something “safe” so that you don’t lose any of your hard-earned retirement funds. Because many pre-retirees today are concerned about not losing what they’ve already saved, having certain guarantees can be comforting – so if you have been presented this annuity by an insurance or financial advisor, it is likely that they keyed in on the safety features of this product, along with the ability to earn a higher return if or when rates rise in the near future. So, in many ways, this annuity can allow you to potentially increase the returns on your “safe money”. But there are some tradeoffs that you need to be mindful of. For example, even though you can earn more than the guaranteed rate on this annuity, the reality is that you still may not be able to beat, or even meet, the rate of inflation. For instance, with the Milestone MYGA 5 annuity from Sagicor Life, once the initial five year guarantee period has elapsed, you will have the option of renewing for another guaranteed period (at the then-current interest rate). This, however, may not necessarily be beneficial for you. That is because, since we have been in a historically low-interest rate period for quite some time now, you could end up “trapping” a large portion of your money for a long period of time – which in turn means that you could be giving up the ability to take advantage of other financial opportunities that could provide you with a better rate.

Are There Any Fees on the Sagicor Milestone MYGA 5 Annuity?

Although annuities can – and do – offer some very enticing benefits, the reality is that, just like most other types of insurance and financial vehicles, you will likely run into some fees. In the case of the Sagicor Milestone MYGA 5 fixed annuity, you could run into surrender charges if you take out more than 10% of the contract’s value during the surrender period. In this case, the surrender charge is five years – which correlates to the rate guarantee period. But, if you renew for another guaranteed rate period, guess what happens – the surrender period starts all over again. (Note that the same holds true if you opt for any of the other Milestone MYGA annuities).

Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA Annuity Surrender Charge Schedule

Guarantee Period7 Year5 Year3 Year
1st9%9%9%
2nd8%8%8%
3rd7%7%7%
4th6%6%
5th5%5%
6th4%
7th3%

In addition to being hit with a surrender penalty, if you make a withdrawal before you reach age 59 ½, you could also incur an additional 10% “early withdrawal” penalty from the IRS. So, given all of the penalties, you could end up netting out far less than you had hoped for if you need this money. With that in mind, you really need to consider this (or any) annuity as a long-term financial endeavor and know that the money you put into it could be locked up for quite some time before you can use it.

The Annuity Gator’s End Take on the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 Fixed Annuity

Where this annuity works best: While the Sagicor Life Milestone 5 Year Multi-Year Guarantee annuity may not be right for everyone, it could be a good option for those who are seeking the following benefits:
  • Guaranteed growth (at least five years, and then again for another guarantee period once the initial period has elapsed)
  • Protection of principal
  • Lifetime income in retirement
Where it works the worst: This annuity may not be right for you if:
  • You want the opportunity to earn an even higher rate of return in order to keep better pace with future inflation
  • You want to access more than just 10% of the contract’s value each year during the surrender period
  • You do not plan to use the lifetime income feature

In Summary

If you’ve been thinking about what to do with your savings for the future, there are a number of criteria that you should ideally take into account. For instance, with annuities, you’ll need to make sure that the product allows you the opportunity to earn a nice return (at least enough to meet or beat inflation), while also keeping your money safe. Likewise, if you are vying for a future income stream, you also need to know how the annuity will pay out when you need to convert the funds into ongoing income. So, if you are still considering a purchase of the 5 Year MYGA annuity from Sagicor Life, then you can definitely rest assured that your money will be safe, no matter what goes on with the stock market. You can also count on an ongoing income stream down the road, alleviating the worry about running out of money before “running out of time.” On the other hand, though, even though this annuity can provide you with a plethora of features, the reality is that this product could still fall a tad bit short, and quite honestly, there could be a better alternative out there for you. This is particularly the case if you have been looking for a way to keep your principal safe, yet still have the opportunity to earn a higher amount of return. In any case, the only way to really know how this annuity may perform – based on your specific situation – is to have it tested. We can do this for you by running the numbers through our annuity calculator, and we can then provide you with a spreadsheet of the results. In order to receive this information, just simply contact us through our secure online form here and let us know.

Do You Have Any Additional Questions? Any Other Annuities You’d Like to Have Reviewed?

While we know that this annuity review was a bit on the long side, we feel that providing “too much” information is far superior to not providing enough. That being said, we appreciate you sticking with us here to the end. We also realize that, because everyone’s situation is different, there may have been some questions that went unanswered in this review. If this is the case and you still have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us here. In addition, if you found this annuity review to be helpful, then please forward it on to anyone else that you think may benefit from it, as there is a lot of misconception out there about annuities and how they work. Is there any other annuity you would like to see reviewed? If so, we will get right on it! There is a long, long list of annuities that are available today. So, if you would like to learn more about a certain product (or products, if more than just one), please let us know and we will be happy to add that review to our annuity database. Best, The Annuity Gator   Independent Review of the Sagicor Life Milestone MYGA 5 Annuity

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Spotify
Consent to display content from - Spotify
Sound Cloud
Consent to display content from - Sound