New RILA makes Corebridge the biggest company with full annuity suite

Corebridge Financial is out with a new registered indexed-linked annuity.

By John Hilton

Corebridge Financial recently launched its much-anticipated registered indexed-linked annuity, making the company the biggest annuity seller to offer products in every major category.

During a recent investor event, CEO Kevin Hogan expressed high expectations for the new MarketLock Annuity. Corebridge subsidiary American General Life Insurance Co. will issue the product.

“We recognize how essential it is for financial professionals to have a single trusted annuity provider that can help them meet the diverse retirement needs of all their clients," said Bryan Pinsky, president of individual retirement at Corebridge Financial. "With MarketLock, Corebridge is expanding on what is already one of the broadest and most comprehensive annuity platforms in the industry.”

RILA sales are expected to hit $60 billion in 2024, LIMRA predicts, a 25% increase over 2023.

A RILA is a long-term, tax-deferred insurance contract that's designed to help people save for retirement. RILAs work by tying the performance of the contract to one or more stock market indexes, and offering a level of protection from market downturns.

Corebridge employs a "lock strategy" that locks and credits a rate based on actual S&P 500 index performance on the day the preset growth target is reached. Once the gains are locked in, consumers are guaranteed a fixed rate of interest until the next contract anniversary, when they can transfer assets to any available MarketLock strategy account option. Growth targets for the lock strategy are 30%, 40% or 50% for 3-year terms and 50%, 75% or 100% with 6-year terms.

The Corebridge RILA comes with 20 different strategy account options that include the lock strategy, as well as popular crediting methods such as cap (offers earnings potential up to a maximum percentage), trigger (can guarantee a preset rate of return when index performance is 0% or higher) and dual direction (opportunity to generate positive returns in both up and down markets).

Pinsky agreed to answer a few questions about the new Corebridge product.

INN: What is unique about this product?

Pinsky: “We are bringing together a best-of-the-best approach around what we've seen in the market, what RILA strategies advisors like today, and with that, we're also bringing a very unique and powerful accumulation strategy into the Corebridge MarketLock annuity. That unique strategy is the only crediting strategy in a RILA that will credit a rate based on actual S&P 500 performance immediately when a preset threshold is hit, even if that happens before the strategy term date. So we're pretty excited about that.”

INN: What does this product do for Corebridge?

Pinsky: “Financial professionals already see Corebridge as a sort of one-stop shop for where they can match up different annuity offerings with the specific needs of each of their clients. By adding a RILA to that already broad product portfolio, it gives us the ability to now truly have a solution for all different client needs across the full risk spectrum and retirement needs spectrum.”

INN: Is the product available in all 50 states?

Pinsky: “We are available in all jurisdictions, except for New York, California and Oregon. And we do hope to have those last three states at some point in the near future.”

INN: Who is this product aimed at from a consumer standpoint?

Pinsky: “Gen X is going to have a generally higher risk tolerance than baby boomers, given the fact that most people in Gen X still have five to 15 years, maybe longer, before they're set to retire. So, the Corebridge RILA can be a perfect opportunity for them to have that upside exposure, potential growth for their retirement assets while giving them an extra level of protection in case equity markets don't perform well.”

INN: How will you distribute this product?

Pinsky: “We're very proud of the broad distribution that we have today across so many different distribution firms, and we're really leveraging that existing network. We've seen a lot of excitement from those distribution firms, and financial advisors within those firms, about us entering the RILA space. We've been laying the groundwork to have this product approved and available with those firms for quite some time. … We have a significant portion of the RILA marketplace available through those distribution firms, and we'll have many more that will come on board in the coming weeks and months.”

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.