Delaware Life Momentum Growth Fixed Indexed Annuity – Flexible Growth, VersaGain Customization, and Principal Protection

VersaGain gives you annual control over one specific decision: what percentage of this year’s Available Gain (the index interest your contract has earned) to lock in as protected, vs. how much to leave unprotected in exchange for the possibility of higher participation rates or caps in the next crediting period. Protected gains are secured permanently — they cannot be reduced by future index performance or market movements. Unprotected gains are not lost; they are redirected to potentially generate higher crediting terms for the following year. At the extremes: electing 100% protection each year means every dollar of credited interest is immediately locked in, producing a highly secure but more conservative accumulation trajectory. Electing 0% protection means no gain is locked in that year, and the full Available Gain is put back to work for higher potential credits next year — a strategy appropriate only for buyers with a long remaining horizon, strong conviction about continued index performance, and no need for the certainty of this year’s gains. The practical middle ground for most buyers: protect 50%–70% of Available Gain in years of strong index performance to lock in real progress, and adjust toward lower protection percentages in years when available gains are modest and the upside potential from putting gains back to work is more compelling relative to the amount at risk. VersaGain is most valuable to buyers who engage with it annually — tracking index performance, making informed elections at each anniversary, and using the Index Lock feature to capture mid-year gains when markets are favorable. Buyers who want to set and forget should recognize that a passive approach to VersaGain — either not adjusting the Protected Auto-Credit Percentage or not utilizing Index Lock — may produce results similar to a conventional FIA without the feature’s benefits.

The two primary indices on the current Momentum Growth rate card are the S&P 500 Dynamic Intraday TCA Index and a BlackRock proprietary index with a bitcoin sleeve. Both are 1-year point-to-point with participation rates. The critical fact for buyers: both indices have backtested performance histories beginning in 2014. That 12-year backtested window contains no recessions of consequence, no extended bear markets, and no interest rate cycle resembling 2000–2009 or 1973–1982. The “Low Period” scenarios in Delaware Life’s product illustrations represent the worst 10-year windows within this limited backtested history — they are not worst-case scenarios drawn from real market data covering a full economic cycle. Independent analysis estimates realistic expected credited rates for these index strategies at approximately 4%–7% annualized in a representative long-term economic environment. The BlackRock index with bitcoin exposure adds another layer of caution: inception date of June 2025 means approximately 10 months of live performance exists. There is no multi-year live track record for this index in an FIA crediting context. Buyers evaluating Momentum Growth should benchmark against the current top 10-year MYGA rate — available on our current fixed annuity rates page — and ask whether the Momentum Growth’s realistic 4%–7% expected credited range justifies the 10-year commitment and additional complexity vs. a declared MYGA rate for the same term. If the MYGA rate is within that expected range, the FIA only adds value if the upside scenarios above 7% are meaningful to the buyer’s planning and the complexity is actively managed through VersaGain and Index Lock.

Both Momentum Growth health waivers — the hospital/nursing facility confinement waiver and the hospice care waiver — are one-time provisions, not recurring annual waivers. This is an important distinction from some competing FIAs that offer recurring annual waivers (e.g., 10%–100% of contract value annually for qualifying confinement). The Momentum Growth’s waivers allow a single qualifying event withdrawal without surrender charges or MVA — once used, the waiver is exhausted. For the hospital/nursing facility waiver: the qualifying event is confinement of 90+ consecutive days at a qualified facility, occurring after the first contract anniversary. The contract must be purchased before age 76 for this waiver to apply. For the hospice care waiver: the qualifying event is hospice care for end-of-life comfort, occurring after one year from purchase. The contract must be purchased before age 70. The age-at-purchase eligibility limits are material: a buyer who purchases at age 75 qualifies for the confinement waiver but not the hospice waiver. A buyer who purchases at age 71 qualifies for neither. Confirm both the one-time nature of these waivers and the age eligibility requirements in the contract disclosure at application. Reviewing annuities with nursing home care riders compares one-time vs. recurring waiver structures across the FIA market to inform the suitability evaluation.

The Delaware Life Momentum Growth Plus uses the same VersaGain and Index Lock chassis as the standard Momentum Growth but adds a 15% premium bonus credited to the contract value at issue. The bonus creates an immediate 15% uplift in the starting account value — on a $100,000 premium, the contract starts at $115,000. This is meaningful: the 15% bonus takes approximately 3–5 years to “earn back” through the rate differential between the bonus version and the no-bonus version (bonus FIAs typically offer slightly lower participation rates or caps to fund the bonus cost), and it also means a larger base on which VersaGain and Index Lock operate from Day 1. The decision between the two comes down to: how long do you intend to hold the contract, and does the bonus’s long-term net benefit (after accounting for the rate differential) improve your projected accumulated value? For buyers who are confident in a full 10-year commitment, the Momentum Growth Plus’s 15% bonus typically produces a better accumulated outcome at maturity — the rate differential rarely consumes the full 15% advantage over 10 years. For buyers who have any uncertainty about the full 10-year commitment, the standard Momentum Growth’s higher participation rates without the bonus may produce better results if the contract is surrendered or repositioned before maturity. Obtain illustrations for both versions at your premium and compare the projected accumulated values at Years 5, 7, and 10 to make the choice based on your specific timeline.

Momentum Growth is an accumulation tool — it has no guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit rider by default, and converting accumulated value to income requires either annuitization (irrevocable) or repositioning into an income product at the end of the 10-year term. This is appropriate for buyers who are 10 or more years from their target income start date and want to build protected growth during the accumulation phase before making income decisions. The most common post-Momentum Growth income transition paths are: (1) annuitization into a period-certain or lifetime income stream from Delaware Life; (2) 1035-exchange into a Delaware Life income-rider FIA such as the DualTrack Income FIA; (3) 1035-exchange into a competing carrier’s income product for the income phase. Buyers who are already within 5–7 years of their income start date, or whose primary objective is guaranteed lifetime income from the outset, should evaluate income-first products before committing to a 10-year accumulation FIA. The accumulated value comparison — what Momentum Growth produces at Year 10 vs. what a comparable income-rider FIA produces at the same point with lifetime withdrawals already beginning — is the definitive analysis. If income timing is the primary planning variable, coordinating it with Social Security claiming strategy to minimize bracket exposure is the planning priority before product selection.