Corebridge Financial
Our Take
Corebridge Financial’s annuities offer fixed, indexed and variable options, with many offering beneficial features. The drawback is that most of these features are only available as additional riders to your contract for an extra fee.
Pros
- Variety of annuities offered
- Strong financial strength
Cons
- Brand confusion following creation of new identity in 2022
- Strongest annuity features only available through riders
Products Offered by Corebridge Financial
Corebridge Financial offers several different annuity products that are broken down by type. Some annuity providers focus on a few specific types of annuities while offering many variations of those types.
Corebridge’s offerings are a bit different. Typically, Corebridge offers just one or two products for each type of annuity, but it has products from many different types.
Fixed, indexed and variable options are available.
Fixed Annuities
Corebridge Financial currently advertises two types of fixed annuities.
The first is the Assured Edge Income Builder,® which is designed to provide a guaranteed fixed income stream. It’s a solid product that includes many of the hallmark offerings of fixed annuities, such as the ability to withdraw up to 10% of the contract value without facing charges and provisions to account for a move to a nursing home or the development of a terminal illness.
The Assured Edge Income Builder® annuity allows you to change who is covered by the annuity (accounting for divorces, marriages, etc.) if you have not activated income.
Also offered is the American Pathway® fixed annuity, which advertises guaranteed interest rate periods and guaranteed interest earnings.
Indexed Annuities
When it comes to indexed annuity options, Corebridge offers one choice: the Power Series Index Annuity. While it is just one product, it offers two different riders that can alter it significantly.
The first option is the Lifetime Income Max® rider, which guarantees a 10% income credit every year before you start withdrawals. The product allows you to withdraw up to 7.35% per year for life and is also a great choice for those comfortable waiting a long time to start receiving payments since your income base is guaranteed to grow 10% yearly.
Your other rider option is the Lifetime Income Plus Multiplier Flex,® which allows your income to grow even after you begin taking withdrawals.
The annuity can match your interest earned with this rider until you are 95 of when your contract value is completely depleted. Credits offered can also be equal to double the interest earned before you begin taking payments.
While both riders offer big-time benefits, they do come with a cost. Each choice is available for a 1% annual fee on your income base.
Variable Annuities
The variable annuity available through Corebridge Financial is called the Polaris. One useful feature available through its Polaris Income Plus Daily Flex Rider is the ability to take advantage of daily step-ups, as opposed to the more common monthly or annual step-ups.
This gives customers a better shot at capturing a market high and seeing the value of their annuity grow even more.
Customers have the choice of three different income options when they purchase a Polaris Variable Annuity, with different annual withdrawal rates available depending on the age that you start taking income.
Polaris Income Options for Single Life Coverage
| Age | Withdrawal Amount Option 1 | Withdrawal Amount Option 2 | Withdrawal amount Option 3 |
| 60 to 64 | 5% | 5% | 4% for life |
| 65 to 74 | 6.75% | 7.75% | 5.4% for life |
| 75+ | 7.25% | 8.25% | 5.7% for life |
Buy an Annuity From Corebridge Financial Today
About Corebridge Financial
Corebridge Financial was previously known as AIG Life & Retirement. It underwent a rebrand and assumed its new identity in 2022 after it was spun off into a separate company.
While Corebridge Financial is the front-facing name of the company, most of its annuities are issued through American General Life Insurance.
Depending on where you live and the type of annuity you buy, some products also may be issued the United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York or the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company.
Log into your provider account or connect with customer service at 800-888-2452.
Talk to one of our trusted partners at 855-995-1277 or request a free estimate.
Credit Ratings
Credit ratings for annuity providers can help determine a company’s financial strength and stability — an indication that it will be around to guarantee payments to you in the future. Different rating companies use different scales.
Corebridge Financial Life Credit Ratings
| Rating Company | Credit Rating |
| AM Best | A |
| Fitch | A+ |
| S&P | A+ |
See which annuity providers our independent editorial team ranked as the Best Annuity Companies of 2024.
What Customers Are Saying About Corebridge Financial
From a customer satisfaction perspective, Corebridge Financial appears to be around the middle of the pack. Under the AIG brand, it scored very well in the 2022 J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index Rating for annuities, ranking near the top of the industry.
Corebridge did come in much closer to the industry average in the 2023 customer satisfaction index, and was far below competitors like MassMutual or F&G.
It’s NAIC Complaint Index score also leaves something to be desired. This metric measures consumer complaints concerning a company’s footprint in the marketplace, and Corebridge’s main issuing company American General Life logged nearly twice as many complaints as expected for a company of its size.
The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) tracks consumer complaints each state’s insurance commission receives each year. These are used to compile a company’s NAIC Complaint IndexNAIC Complaint IndexDetermined by dividing the company’s share of complaints in the U.S. market by the company’s share of premiums in the U.S. market. The National Complaint Index is always 1.00, so a score of 2.00, for example, is twice as high as expected in the market..
NAIC Complaint Index for Corebridge Financial
| All Policy Types | 0.37 |
| Individual Annuities Only | 1.82 |
Corebridge Financial Pros & Cons
A pro to Corebridge Financial is the variety of annuity types that it offers, speaking to the diversity available from working with a large company. Some competitors specialize more heavily and drill down on one or two specific types of annuities.
But Corebridge provides robust offerings across a few different categories. It also is a strong and financially stable company.
There are drawbacks for consumers to consider, many of which come from the company’s new identity. Corebridge’s recent rebranding from AIG Life and Retirement — and the fact that its annuities are mostly issued through American General Life — may cause some confusion.
“Companies that aren’t new and companies that have rebranded are pretty urgent to get back on the field and get noticed by building a brand reputation again,” Ryan Cicchelli, owner of the Safe Investing Expert, told Annuity.org “You have to look at their financials and liability […] I’m not saying don’t buy them, I’m just saying make sure you and your financial professional understands them.”Corebridge’s base offerings are also somewhat limited. The company’s brochures for their various annuities tout many impressive benefits, but these are largely only available through add-ons to your contract that you must pay for.
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Provider Rating Methodology
Annuity.org created a fact-based methodology to analyze the strength, security and reach of different annuity providers. We assessed companies based on their availability, the amount of direct premiums sold, their AM Best Financial Strength Rating and their NAIC Complaint Index score.
Providers received a rating on a five-star scale for each of these categories, with the complaint index and financial strength ratings weighed as the heaviest variables. Then, using a weighted average, each company was assigned an overall star rating.
Annuity.org’s Top-Ranked Providers
| Provider | Annuity.org Star Rating |
| Mass Mutual |  |
| New York Life | |
| Pacific Life | |
| Midland National | |
| North American | |
| Western Southern | |
Our Rating Panel
The Annuity.org editorial team spoke with several different annuity experts to learn more about what is important to customers when searching for a provider and what factors make a company reliable. While Annuity.org designed the methodology, these experts provided feedback during the process and consulted on what factors we should leverage to best help prospective buyers compare providers.
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