Annuity FYI Blog

When buying an annuity, it’s very important that the insurer providing the product is stable. Doing so minimizes the risk that you will lose part or all of your investment. Ratings are a good way to find out about a company’s strength. Here are TheStreet.com’s 10 strongest annuity insurers, as reported by Melissa Gannon:

1. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Assocation of America (TIAA-Cref)
2. State Farm Life Insurance Company
3. Country Life Insurance Company
4. State Farm Life and Accident Insurance Company
5. American Family Life Insurance Company
6. New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation
7. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual)
8. Pacific Life Insurance Company
9. New York Life Insurance Company
10. Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company

According to the Hartford Business Journal, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) is one of the firms most hurt by the Bernie Madoff investment scam. Its Tremont Group Holdings subsidiary invested about $3.3 billion with Madoff, which is most likely lost. 

Ruthie Ackerman at Forbes says that the Rye Investment Management division of Tremont invested virtually all of its clients’ money into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Rye was responsible for half of Tremont’s investments. Unfortunately, many investors may have lost their retirement savings as a result.

Despite Tremont being worth $250 million on MassMutual’s books, their representatives are attempting to reassure customers that their accounts have “very little exposure” to the Madoff fraud, and that their financial position will not be greatly affected. That, however, is based only on the parent company’s relatively minor ($10 million) investments with Madoff and not from investors with the Rye unit.