Income Quality Score (IQS): 2026 Annuity Rankings
TL;DR: The Income Quality Score (IQS) is a 1-100 framework we built because no carrier illustration, no Morningstar tool, and no broker tear-sheet actually measures what matters when you're buying an annuity for income: how many dollars per dollar of premium hit your bank account for the rest of your life, and how reliable that promise is. We score 100+ products across 7 weighted criteria. The pattern is consistent: SPIAs from A-rated mutuals dominate the top of the leaderboard because mortality credits are mathematically the cheapest income money can buy. FIA+GLWB riders score in the 70s-80s when paired with strong rollups. MYGAs and accumulation-only FIAs score in the 25-40 range. They were never designed for income.
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CD vs MYGA, after tax
What $100,000 earns in 5 years: CD vs MYGA, after tax
Rates used: CD 5.00%, the top nationally available 5-year CD (Bankrate, October 14, 2026); change it to the rate you are offered. MYGA 5.95%, the best A-rated rate we track as of October 13, 2026: Delaware Life Pinnacle Plus 5-year (AM Best A-, negative outlook, 7/31/2026), $100,000 and up, effective October 6, 2026 (Delaware Life rate sheet).
| CD, interest taxed every year | $121,081 |
|---|---|
| MYGA, tax-deferred, before tax | $133,507 |
| MYGA after paying tax on all the interest at withdrawal | $126,136 |
| Tax deferral alone adds about | $674 |
| MYGA ahead of the CD, after tax | $5,055 |
Assumes 22% federal and 0% state income tax, no withdrawals, rates held for the whole term. MYGA interest is taxed as ordinary income when you withdraw it, not as capital gains. Gains taken before age 59 1/2 can owe a 10% IRS penalty, and cashing out early can cost a surrender charge. In an IRA both grow tax-deferred, so the edge there is the rate alone. Bank and credit union deposits are FDIC or NCUA insured up to the limits; a MYGA is backed by the issuing insurer's claims-paying ability and your state's guaranty association up to its limits, not the FDIC. General education, not tax, legal or financial advice.
Why we built the IQS
If you've ever sat across from an annuity agent with a stack of carrier illustrations, you know the problem. One product promises an "8% guaranteed rollup." Another shows a "65% income bonus on day one." A third advertises a "lifetime income of $1,142/month from $100,000." None of those numbers are comparable to each other. They measure different things across different time horizons under different assumptions, and the carrier has every incentive to surface the prettiest number.
We invented the IQS because nothing else captures it. The retiring buyer doesn't care about rollup rates, benefit-base bonuses, or the difference between Income Account Value and Account Value. The buyer cares about actual monthly dollars, for life, from a carrier that will still be there at age 95. The IQS reduces every product to one number that maps to that question.
The framework is proprietary. We publish the weights and the scores. We do not take money from carriers to alter the rankings. Hans is appointed with most of the carriers on the top-10 list and not appointed with some of them. The scores don't change based on appointment status.
The IQS framework: 7 weighted criteria
Each product is scored 1-10 on each criterion, then weighted, then rolled up to a single 1-100 score. Here is the rubric.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime income guarantee | 30% | Does the income last for life, or is it term-certain only? A SPIA Life-Only and an FIA+GLWB both pay "for life"; a period-certain SPIA does not. The full 30% weight goes only to true life-contingent contracts. |
| Payout per dollar at age 65 / 70 / 75 | 20% | The actual monthly dollar amount per $100K of premium at three issue ages. This isolates carrier pricing and mortality-credit capture. Athene and NY Life compete here every month. |
| Joint-life option strength | 15% | For couples: how much does the carrier reduce the payout to add spousal continuation? A carrier that drops the payout 18% for J&S 100% is generous; one that drops 28% is not. |
| Inflation / COLA option | 10% | Is a 1-3% annual COLA rider available? Almost no FIA+GLWB offers a true COLA. Most SPIAs do, at the cost of a 30-38% lower starting payment. |
| Income rollup (deferred products only) | 10% | For deferred products with income riders: the annual rollup percentage on the benefit base during the deferral years. 6% is competitive; 8% is excellent; 10% is suspect (and usually paired with a low payout factor). |
| Carrier financial strength | 10% | AM Best, S&P, Moody's, Fitch composite. Income annuities are 20-40 year promises. A B-rated carrier with the best payout in year 1 is not the best income contract in year 25. |
| Income flexibility (start/stop) | 5% | Can you defer activation past contract date? Reduce income temporarily? Withdraw a chunk and reset the income? Most SPIAs score zero here. Modern GLWB riders score high. |
Total weight: 100%. The 30% loaded on "lifetime guarantee" is intentional. Annuities exist to convert savings into income that cannot be outlived. Any criterion that doesn't ladder up to that purpose gets a small weight.
IQS averages by annuity type
Before we get to individual products, here is the type-level pattern. If you understand this, you already know 80% of the picture.
| Annuity Type | IQS Avg | Why |
|---|---|---|
| SPIA Life-Only | 95/100 | The gold standard. Maximum mortality credit capture. No money "wasted" on death benefit or refund features. For pure income, mathematically unbeatable. |
| SPIA Joint-Life | 88/100 | Slight reduction in single-life payout for spouse continuation. Best structure for married couples who want lifetime income on both lives. |
| SPIA Period Certain 10/20 | 75/100 | Some mortality credits sacrificed for the "if I die early, payments continue" guarantee. Still strong income; weaker than life-only. |
| DIA / QLAC | 90/100 | Deferred Income Annuity. Better than SPIA per dollar because mortality credits compound during the deferral period. QLACs add the bonus of RMD deferral inside a qualified plan. |
| FIA with GLWB rider | 75/100 | Quality depends entirely on the rollup percentage, payout factor, and rider charge. Top FIAs with strong rollups land in the high 70s/low 80s. Average FIAs land in the 60s. |
| VA with GLWB rider | 70/100 | 1.0-1.5% M&E plus 1.0-1.5% rider charge eats 2-3% of payouts annually. The income guarantee is real but the cost basis is worse than an FIA. |
| MYGA | 30/100 | NOT designed for income. Interest-only path is a weak income solution. Use a MYGA for principal preservation, not income. |
| RILA | 40/100 | Some RILAs offer income riders, but they're secondary to the buffered accumulation purpose. |
| Variable Annuity (no GLWB) | 25/100 | Without a living-benefit rider, a VA is just an expensive mutual fund wrapper. No income guarantee. |
Top 10 highest-IQS products (2026)
Rankings reflect mid-2026 payout factors, rollup terms, and rider charges. Rates change monthly; confirm current values before purchasing.
| # | Product | IQS | One-line why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NY Life Guaranteed Lifetime Income SPIA | 95 | A++ mutual; best joint-life pricing in the industry; cleanest payout-factor disclosure. |
| 2 | MassMutual RetireEase SPIA | 94 | A++ mutual; consistently top-3 single-life payout for ages 65-80; participating contract pays dividends. |
| 3 | Penn Mutual SPIA | 92 | A+ mutual; aggressive payouts for older issue ages; underrated in broker channels. |
| 4 | Athene SPIA | 90 | A+ rated; often the top single-life payout per dollar in any given month; aggressive carrier. |
| 5 | Pacific Life Pacific Income Generator (DIA) | 88 | Deferred Income Annuity leader; mortality credits compound during deferral; ideal for the 60-year-old planning income at 75. |
| 6 | Allianz 222 FIA with PIV | 86 | 45% Protected Income Value bonus (Allianz rates, 9/1/2026; 222+ outside Oregon); one of the only FIA+GLWB structures where the rider math actually works. |
| 7 | Nationwide Peak 10 with Bonus Income+ | 84 | 8% annual rollup on the benefit base for up to 10 years; strong payout factors at age 65/70/75. |
| 8 | Athene Agility 10 (FIA + GLWB) | 82 | Top FIA income rider for the 7-10 year deferred buyer; A+ carrier; reasonable rider charge. |
| 9 | Lincoln OptiBlend with i4LIFE | 80 | i4LIFE variable income option lets payouts rise with index credits; A+ carrier; sophisticated structure. |
| 10 | F&G Power Accumulator + GLWB | 78 | A-rated; competitive rollup and payout combination; less marketing noise than Allianz/Athene but real income value. |
What the top 10 tells you
Five of the top 10 are SPIAs or DIAs (positions 1-5). Five are FIA+GLWB structures (positions 6-10). This is not an accident. Once you cross from income annuity (SPIA/DIA) to accumulation annuity with income rider (FIA+GLWB), you sacrifice 10-15 IQS points of pure income efficiency in exchange for liquidity, death benefit, and the option to delay activation.
That trade is sometimes worth it. The 62-year-old who wants to lock in a future income at 72 but hates the irreversibility of a SPIA buys an FIA+GLWB. The 75-year-old widow who needs maximum income today buys a SPIA.
Worst-IQS products (the avoid list for income)
These products are not "bad" in absolute terms. Most are excellent at what they were designed for. They are bad for income, which is the only thing IQS measures.
- Bonus-heavy FIAs without an income rider: IQS 20-35. A 10% premium bonus is real, but if there's no income rider, you have an accumulation product wearing income marketing.
- Basic MYGAs: IQS 25-40. The interest-only path is a poor income solution. Use a MYGA for principal preservation, not income.
- VAs without GLWB: IQS 20-30. A variable annuity without a living-benefit rider is a tax-deferred mutual fund with extra fees.
- Period-certain-only SPIAs without life contingency: IQS 50-60. You've paid for an annuity but gotten a bond ladder; you sacrificed mortality credits for nothing.
- FIAs with high rollup but suppressed payout factors: IQS 50-65. A 10% rollup that converts to a 4.5% payout factor at activation is worse than a 6% rollup that converts at 5.5%. The "highest rollup" agent pitch is a trap.
Joint-life mechanics: why couples lose 6-15% of single-life income
Joint-life SPIAs cover two lives. The carrier will pay until the second person dies. To price that, the carrier extends expected payment duration by 4-7 years for a typical 65/63 couple, which means a lower monthly payment from the same premium.
The "reduction percentage" varies by carrier. NY Life's joint-life pricing is consistently the most generous (about 10-12% reduction vs single-life for J&S 100%). Some carriers price the same coverage 18-22% lower. Same dollars in; very different dollars out.
| Structure | Pays until | Typical reduction vs single-life |
|---|---|---|
| Single-life | Annuitant's death | Baseline (0%) |
| Joint & Survivor 100% | Second death; survivor receives 100% | -12% to -22% |
| Joint & Survivor 75% | Second death; survivor receives 75% | -8% to -16% |
| Joint & Survivor 50% | Second death; survivor receives 50% | -5% to -10% |
The decision is not just price. A J&S 100% election protects the surviving spouse against a 25-35% drop in Social Security when the higher earner dies. A J&S 50% election does not. For couples with significant SS asymmetry, J&S 100% is often correct even at the cost of 18% lower monthly income today.
Mortality credits explained, the math no one shows you
This is the single most important concept in lifetime income and it is almost never explained outside actuarial textbooks. The IQS scores SPIAs and DIAs at the top because mortality credits make life-contingent payouts mathematically cheaper than any bond ladder, dividend stock, or systematic withdrawal strategy can be.
Here is the mechanic. A carrier pools $100M from 1,000 65-year-olds. They pay every annuitant $7,500/year for life. The 65-year-old life expectancy is roughly 22 years. Each year, ~3% of the pool dies; their payments stop, and the carrier redirects those dollars to surviving annuitants. That redirection is the mortality credit.
By the time the surviving annuitants are 90, the carrier is paying out at a rate that would be impossible from any bond yield. The 90-year-old survivor is being subsidized by the 25-year payment history of the cohort members who died at 72 and 78 and 84. None of those early-deceased annuitants is being "cheated"; they exchanged future income for present income on the same actuarial fair-value basis as every other contract. The pool just works.
The practical implication: a SPIA at age 75 might yield 9-10% of premium per year. No CD, treasury, bond ladder, or dividend portfolio yields 9-10% safely. The only thing that does is the mortality-credit pool. This is what the IQS rewards in positions 1-5.
Deferred income (DIA / QLAC), the underused power play
A DIA is a SPIA you fund today but don't activate for years. Pay $100K at age 60, start receiving income at age 75. Because mortality credits compound during the deferral period (the carrier knows fewer 60-year-olds will survive to 75 than there are 60-year-olds today), the eventual payout is much higher than a SPIA you'd buy at 75 with the same accumulated dollars.
Pacific Life's Pacific Income Generator is the cleanest DIA on the market. A 60-year-old funding $100K with income starting at 80 receives roughly $24,000-$28,000/year for life. That's a 24-28% payout factor on the original premium. No accumulation product comes close.
A QLAC (Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract) is a DIA bought inside an IRA, designed to defer Required Minimum Distributions on the QLAC portion until age 85. The 2026 QLAC limit is $200,000 per person. For high-balance IRA owners who want to delay RMDs on a chunk of their assets, the QLAC is one of very few legal vehicles to do so.
The IQS rewards both DIAs and QLACs in the 88-92 range, second only to immediate SPIAs from A++ mutuals.
How the IQS feeds into the Big Kahuna Finder
The IQS is one of four scoring frameworks we use to triangulate the right annuity for any specific buyer. The other three are the Growth Potential Score (GPS), the Death Benefit Quality Score (DBQS), and the Goldstein Complexity Index.
For a buyer whose primary goal is income, we filter the universe to IQS > 75, then apply secondary filters: joint vs single life, deferred vs immediate, A-rated only vs willing-to-go-A-minus. The top 12 products that survive that filter are documented in our Best Annuities for Lifetime Income (2026) ranking.
For a buyer whose primary goal is growth with some income upside, we look at IQS + GPS together. The few products that score > 70 on both axes (Allianz 222, Athene Agility, Lincoln OptiBlend) are the "hybrid accumulation-income" sweet spot.
Related scoring frameworks and rankings
- Growth Potential Score (GPS): Ranking Annuities for Accumulation
- Death Benefit Quality Score (DBQS): Ranking Annuities for Legacy
- Goldstein Complexity Index: Ranking Annuities by Transparency
- Best Annuities for Lifetime Income (2026): Top 12 by IQS
- Best Annuities for Growth Potential (2026): Top 12 by GPS
- Best Annuities for Highest Death Benefit (2026): Top 12 by DBQS
- Allianz 222 FIA Review: PIV Bonus Explained
- Comdex Score Explained for Annuity Buyers
- AM Best Rating Explained for Annuity Buyers
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the IQS the same thing as a "buy rating"?
No. The IQS measures income quality only. A SPIA Life-Only scores 95 because it delivers the most income per dollar. But if you want death-benefit protection or liquidity, the SPIA is the wrong product for you regardless of its IQS. Use the IQS to compare products within an income mandate, not to decide whether income is the right goal in the first place.
Why does Athene rank above NY Life on single-life payouts but lower overall?
Athene typically posts the highest single-life monthly payout per $100K of any A-rated carrier. They want the income market and price aggressively. NY Life trails on raw single-life by 3-6% but wins on joint-life pricing, carrier rating (A++ vs A+), and contract simplicity. The IQS weights all of those, which pushes NY Life to #1 overall.
How often does the IQS get updated?
We refresh the rankings quarterly to capture payout factor changes, rollup adjustments, and new product launches. Payout factors move monthly for most carriers; significant shifts (more than 4-5% on payouts) trigger an interim update.
Does the IQS work for non-qualified vs qualified annuities equally?
Yes. The income mechanics are the same. Where qualified annuities (inside an IRA) differ is taxation (every payment fully taxed as ordinary income) and the QLAC RMD-deferral feature (qualified only). Those tax issues sit alongside the IQS rather than inside it.
What's the difference between a "rollup rate" and an "income payout factor"?
The rollup rate (e.g., 8% per year) grows a benefit base during deferral. That base is what's used to calculate income, not your cash value. The payout factor (e.g., 5.5% at age 70) is then applied to the benefit base to determine annual lifetime income. A 10% rollup with a 4% payout factor is worse than a 6% rollup with a 6% payout factor. The IQS scores the combination, not either number in isolation.
If SPIAs score so well, why does anyone buy FIA+GLWB?
Three reasons. First, FIA+GLWB lets you defer activation, change your mind for years, and keep the cash value as a death benefit. SPIAs are irrevocable. Second, the cash value of an FIA can grow with market index credits while you wait. Third, in the rare years when index credits push the benefit base above the rollup, FIAs can outpace what a SPIA bought today would deliver. The trade-off is real, but real also is the 10-15 IQS point gap between FIA+GLWB and SPIA for pure income production.
Can I combine SPIA and FIA+GLWB in one income plan?
Yes, and many of our highest-conviction plans do. A common structure: a SPIA covers essential expenses (housing, food, healthcare) for guaranteed lifetime cash flow, and an FIA+GLWB sits behind it as a future income reserve that can be activated later if needed or passed to heirs if not. Two products doing two jobs.
Why don't VAs with GLWB score higher?
Fee load. A typical VA carries 1.0-1.5% M&E on subaccounts plus a 1.0-1.5% rider charge, sometimes 3% total annually. That cost compounds against the benefit base and against actual subaccount returns. The income guarantee is real, but the cost basis means an A-rated FIA+GLWB usually wins on net delivered income. Specific Lincoln and Jackson VAs with i4LIFE or LifeGuard structures score higher than average (low-to-mid 70s) when the rider math actually works.
Want the IQS run on the annuity you've been quoted?
Talk to Hans Goldstein, a licensed independent insurance producer.
If a broker has put a SPIA, FIA+GLWB, or DIA in front of you, get the IQS computed on that specific product before you sign. Most buyers find the product they were pitched scores 15-25 points lower than a comparable contract from a different carrier. That gap is real money for the next 20-30 years.
Send your details. Within one business day you'll get a written IQS analysis of your quote, side-by-side against the top-3 alternatives in the same structure, and a 15-minute call if you want one.
Rather talk it through? Or book 15 minutes on Hans’s calendar, or call 213-414-2808.
Hans Goldstein · 213-414-2808 · NPN 20602398, independent licensed insurance producer appointed with multiple A-rated carriers
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Disclosure
This article reflects publicly available product materials and approximate payout factors as of the date stated above. Annuity payout factors, rollup percentages, rider charges, and crediting methods change often, sometimes monthly. Confirm current figures in the latest carrier disclosure and the contract before you buy. The Income Quality Score (IQS) is a proprietary scoring framework developed by Hans Goldstein for informational and comparative purposes; it is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or licensed from any carrier or rating agency. This is general education, not a personal recommendation or an offer of any product. Hans Goldstein is an independent licensed insurance producer (NPN 20602398) appointed with multiple A-rated carriers across the annuity and long-term care insurance market; specific appointment status with any carrier discussed may vary, and discussion of a carrier is not an endorsement or representation of carrier appointment. No compensation has been received from any carrier in connection with the publication of this article. Always read the actual contract and consult a licensed advisor before purchasing any annuity product. Annuities are long-term contracts with surrender charges; they are not suitable for funds you may need before the end of the surrender period. AM Best ratings and tax treatment are subject to change. Tax discussion of IRC §72, §401(a)(9), and Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contracts reflects law as of 2026 and is subject to change.