Reliance Standard Overview: Annuity Products, Ratings and More

Reliance Standard offers two types of annuity products: fixed annuities and fixed index annuities. The company sells a few different products within each type.

Reliance Standard sells three fixed annuity products: one traditional fixed annuity and two multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs).

Reliance Standard also offers two fixed index annuity products: the Keystone and the Reliance Accumulator.

Reliance Standard Life was originally founded in 1907 as Central Standard Life Insurance Company. The company got its name during a 1963 acquisition by Reliance Insurance. In 2012, Reliance’s parent group was acquired by Tokio Marine Group, a global insurance conglomerate and the leasing property and casualty insurer in Japan.

Reliance Standard sells insurance and annuity products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. The company has over $20 billion in assets under management. In 2023, Reliance Standard sold over $2.3 billion in individual annuities, owning a 0.67% market share in the U.S. according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Reliance Standard has a strong reputation for financial stability, receiving high ratings from three of the major credit rating agencies. An annuity company’s financial strength rating reflects its overall stability and creditworthiness.

Because annuities are only backed by the guarantees of issuing companies, it’s important to purchase an annuity from a financially sound provider.

Reliance Standard has had some issues with customer satisfaction in recent years. In 2023, the company had four complaints from annuity customers reported to state insurance commissioners, according to data gathered by the NAIC.

The NAIC tracks consumer complaints each state’s insurance commission receives each year. These are used to compile a company’s NAIC Complaint Index.

The index score is calculated 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.

These numbers indicate that Reliance Standard received a higher-than-average number of complaints regarding individual annuities but significantly fewer complaints than the insurance industry average.

Reliance Standard did not appear in the 2023 J.D. Power Annuity Customer Satisfaction Study, which scored annuity companies on a 1,000-point scale of overall customer satisfaction.

Like any other annuity company, Reliance Standard has pros and cons. Before purchasing an annuity from any provider, consider the company’s and products’ benefits and drawbacks.