Delaware Life Target Growth 10 Fixed Index Annuity – Principal Protection with Built-In Growth Guarantees

Delaware Life Target Growth 10: Key Product Features at a Glance

About Delaware Life Insurance Company

Delaware Life Insurance Company is headquartered in Zionsville, Indiana, and operates as part of Group 1001 — a diversified insurance holding company formed in 2019. With an AM Best A- (Excellent) rating carrying a Positive outlook (affirmed October 2025), an S&P A- rating, and a Fitch A- rating, Delaware Life holds a consistent tri-agency A- financial strength profile. The Positive outlook from AM Best indicates that AM Best views the company’s financial trajectory as trending toward a potential upgrade, which is a meaningful directional signal for buyers making 10-year commitments. Over $64.7 billion in assets under management and a Ward’s 50 L&H Top Performer designation for six consecutive years reflect institutional scale and operational consistency. For a full carrier evaluation, our dedicated resource on whether Delaware Life is a good insurance company is already linked above — this is the first and only use of that URL on this page. Delaware Life is authorized to transact business in all states except New York, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

How a Fixed Indexed Annuity Works and What Separates Target Growth 10 from Simpler Designs

The appeal of a fixed indexed annuity is straightforward: you are not buying the stock market. Instead, you are buying a principal-protected insurance contract that credits interest based on an index formula. When the index performs well during a crediting period, the annuity credits interest up to the applicable cap or crediting limit. When the index performs poorly or declines, the contract is designed to credit 0% — protecting the accumulated value from direct market loss. Gains credited in any prior period are locked in and cannot be reduced by subsequent market downturns. This annual reset structure is what separates indexed annuities from variable annuities and from direct equity market investments. If you want a complete technical explanation of caps, participation rates, spreads, performance triggers, and annual reset mechanics before comparing products side by side, reviewing how a fixed indexed annuity works provides that foundation.

What separates the Target Growth 10 from a simpler indexed annuity design is the combination of structural features built into the base contract at no additional charge: the GMAV, the Bailout provision, the flexible premium design, and the Precision Portfolio option. Most FIAs offer index participation and a zero floor as their core value proposition. The Target Growth 10 goes further by guaranteeing a specific minimum outcome at year 10 (the GMAV), providing a contractual exit mechanism if renewal crediting terms deteriorate significantly (the Bailout), allowing ongoing premium additions without restarting the surrender period (non-rolling), and offering two pre-built allocation strategies that do the diversification work for buyers who prefer a simplified approach (Precision Portfolios). The result is a product that can serve conservative accumulation goals with a level of contractual certainty that basic FIA designs do not provide.

The GMAV: What 125% Means, When It Applies, and Why It Matters

The Guaranteed Minimum Account Value is the single most distinctive feature of the Target Growth 10 and the clearest demonstration of what the contract is designed to guarantee at its core. The GMAV states that the account value will be at least 125% of the initial premium — less any withdrawals — at the end of the 10th contract year. On a $100,000 initial premium with no withdrawals, the guaranteed minimum at year 10 is $125,000, regardless of what any index strategy has done over the decade. On a $250,000 initial premium, the guaranteed minimum at year 10 is $312,500.

Understanding what the GMAV is — and what it is not — is essential before treating it as a planning anchor. The GMAV is a point-in-time guarantee. It applies specifically at the end of the 10th contract year, not at any intermediate point during the contract. If a buyer surrenders in year seven, the GMAV does not apply to that surrender — the actual accumulation value minus applicable surrender charges determines the surrender proceeds. The GMAV is not a year-by-year floor, not a minimum annual return, and not a replacement for index-credited interest. It is a contractual backstop that ensures the buyer will not exit the 10-year period with less than 125% of their original commitment (adjusted for withdrawals), regardless of whether any particular index strategy produced meaningful credits during the decade. In extended flat-market or low-crediting environments, the GMAV can override the accumulation value and bring the guaranteed payout above what the contract would otherwise provide based purely on credited interest. In strong or moderate market environments, the accumulation value will typically exceed the GMAV — in which case the GMAV becomes irrelevant because the actual account value is higher. The 125% GMAV guarantee represents a 10-year annualized growth rate of approximately 2.26% on a simple linear basis — meaningful as a guaranteed floor, but not as the buyer’s primary expected outcome. Buyers who fund the Target Growth 10 should expect to do better than the GMAV in most crediting environments; the GMAV protects against the scenario where they do not.

Withdrawals taken during the contract period reduce the GMAV proportionally. A buyer who takes free withdrawals or excess withdrawals over the 10 years will receive a GMAV at year 10 that is adjusted downward by the amount of those withdrawals. This is not a penalty — it is the contractual structure of how the guarantee works. If preserving the full GMAV outcome is a planning priority, managing withdrawals to minimize or eliminate them during the surrender period is an important discipline.

The Bailout Provision: What It Does, How It Triggers, and Why It Matters for Long-Term Planning

The Bailout provision addresses one of the most legitimate concerns buyers have about 10-year FIA commitments: declared crediting rates — caps, participation rates, spreads — can change at renewal. The carrier has the right to declare new rates at each anniversary renewal within contractual minimums, and in a changing interest rate or competitive environment, renewal rates may be materially lower than what was available at contract issue. The Bailout provision is Delaware Life’s contractual response to this risk. If the renewal cap rate for the S&P 500 1-year point-to-point with cap strategy falls below the Bailout Cap Rate — defined as the cap rate available when the contract was originally issued — the contract owner may make a full or partial withdrawal from the contract without any surrender charges or MVA, regardless of which strategies the account is currently allocated to.

This is a meaningful structural protection. It means that if Delaware Life renews the S&P 500 cap significantly below the original level — indicating a potentially unfavorable rate environment for the remainder of the surrender period — the buyer is not trapped. They have an exit without penalty. The Bailout provision does not require the buyer to be allocated to the S&P 500 strategy at the time the renewal rate triggers the provision — it triggers based on the S&P 500 1-year cap rate regardless of the buyer’s current allocation. This design means a buyer who has diversified into the Goldman Sachs Canopy Index, the Flex-Lock strategies, or the Precision Portfolios still retains the Bailout exit option tied to the S&P 500 cap benchmark. Understanding what a market value adjustment is and how it interacts with surrender charges helps clarify why having a Bailout provision that waives both — surrender charges and MVA — is more complete protection than a waiver that addresses only one of the two.

The Index Menu: A Multi-Provider Strategy Across Six Institutional Partners

The Target Growth 10 offers a broad index menu constructed from partnerships with six major index providers: S&P Dow Jones Indices, Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, First Trust, and BlackRock. This multi-provider approach is one of the genuine structural differentiators of the Delaware Life FIA lineup compared to many single-provider FIA competitors. Each index brings a different methodology, volatility profile, and historical behavior pattern — giving buyers a real choice rather than multiple variations on a single index theme. For a full explanation of how different crediting methods interact with index performance, reviewing index annuity crediting methods explains caps, participation rates, spreads, and performance triggers across different design types.

The S&P 500 strategies are the most transparent and historically verifiable — the underlying index has decades of public performance data and is not a proprietary construction. S&P 500 credits are limited by the declared cap rate, which resets annually. The Bailout provision is keyed to the S&P 500 1-year cap rate, making it the product’s benchmark crediting strategy even for buyers who do not allocate significantly to it. The Goldman Sachs Canopy Index is a volatility-controlled strategy designed to provide more consistent return profiles across market environments — a common design approach for FIA-specific index partnerships. The Franklin SG Select Index, co-developed by Franklin Templeton and Société Générale, operates with an embedded maintenance fee of 0.50% per annum deducted daily from the index level. Buyers evaluating this strategy should understand that the participation rate applies to an index return that has already been reduced by the 0.50% annual fee — effective net credits are the participation rate applied to the fee-reduced index return. The First Trust Capital Strength Barclays 10% Index combines the First Trust Capital Strength methodology with a Barclays volatility control mechanism targeting 10% annualized volatility. The Nasdaq-100 Intraday Elite 15% strategy provides exposure to the Nasdaq-100 methodology. The BlackRock U.S. Equity strategy draws on BlackRock’s equity management expertise in a volatility-controlled FIA-specific format.

The Flex-Lock feature available on select strategies provides an additional layer of rate certainty. On strategies that include a Flex-Lock option, the credited rate — cap rate or performance trigger rate — is set at contract issue and guaranteed not to change for the lock period. This is a meaningful planning advantage in an environment where buyers are concerned about renewal rate reductions during the surrender period. The important limitation: Flex-Lock strategies are not available for renewal at the end of the 10-year surrender charge period. At renewal, any account value in a Flex-Lock strategy must be reallocated to other available options. This requires proactive planning at the renewal date to avoid an automatic reallocation outcome that may not align with the buyer’s preferences. Delaware Life confirmed in its product disclosures: Flex-Lock “Index Accounts that include a Flex-Lock feature will not be available for renewal at the end of the Surrender Charge Period.”

Precision Portfolios: Simplified Diversification in Two Check-the-Box Options

For buyers who prefer a managed diversification approach over building a custom index allocation, the Target Growth 10 offers two turnkey Precision Portfolio options at contract issue. Each Precision Portfolio is a preset, multi-index allocation that distributes the initial premium across selected individual index strategies from S&P, Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, and First Trust, plus an allocation to the fixed account. The allocation percentages are fixed and do not change over time — buyers who select a Precision Portfolio accept the preset diversification approach rather than managing allocations themselves.

Precision Portfolios are available only at contract issue and only one may be selected; 100% of the initial premium must be allocated to the chosen portfolio. Additional premiums received after contract issue are allocated to the Fixed Account rather than to the Precision Portfolio. At renewal, the accumulated balance can be transferred back to the same Precision Portfolio or retained in the Fixed Account — the buyer must provide instructions. If no instructions are received by the date specified in the renewal notice, any Flex-Lock account value is automatically reallocated to the same Flex-Lock strategy. The practical planning note for Precision Portfolio buyers is the same as for all Target Growth 10 owners: track the renewal window and provide allocation instructions proactively rather than relying on automatic default outcomes.

Flexible Premium Design and What “Non-Rolling” Actually Means

The Target Growth 10 is a flexible-premium FIA — buyers can add funds to the contract at any time after issue, subject to the $500 minimum additional premium and the age 85 cutoff on subsequent payments. This is a meaningful structural advantage over single-premium-only FIA designs, where the buyer must commit the full allocation at contract issue and cannot add to it later. A flexible-premium design allows buyers to use the Target Growth 10 as an ongoing accumulation vehicle — adding IRA contributions, CD proceeds, or other repositioned assets over time rather than making a single large allocation decision upfront.

The non-rolling surrender charge structure is equally important to understand. In a rolling surrender charge design, each additional premium payment initiates its own separate surrender charge period, meaning different portions of the account value are on different surrender charge timelines simultaneously. The Target Growth 10 uses a non-rolling structure: all premium payments — initial and subsequent — are free from surrender charges at the end of the single 10-year surrender charge period that began at contract issue. A buyer who adds $50,000 in year three does not create a new 10-year surrender period for that contribution — it becomes fully accessible from surrender charges at the same time as the initial premium. This design significantly simplifies liquidity planning for buyers who intend to add funds over time, because there is only one surrender period to track rather than multiple overlapping windows. Understanding how annuity surrender charges work — including the distinction between rolling and non-rolling designs — is essential before evaluating any flexible-premium FIA.

Liquidity Framework: Free Withdrawals, RMDs, and Health Event Waivers

The Target Growth 10’s liquidity framework reflects a standard 10-year FIA approach with some buyer-favorable design elements. The free withdrawal provision is generous in year one: 10% of total premiums paid — calculated on the full premium amount from day one, not just the initial deposit — is available penalty-free, or the full RMD amount if larger. In years two through ten, the free withdrawal is 10% of the most recent contract anniversary value, or RMD if greater. In both cases, the free withdrawal is completely free of surrender charges and MVA — the combination of no surrender charge and no MVA on the free portion means the buyer receives the full 10% without any interest rate adjustment.

The RMD waiver is a significant planning feature for buyers using qualified funds. If required minimum distributions from the contract exceed the standard 10% free withdrawal amount in any given year, the full RMD can be taken without surrender charges or MVA. This protects buyers from an unintended compliance cost — without the RMD waiver, a buyer whose required distribution is, say, 15% of the contract value in a particular year would face surrender charges on the excess 5%. The RMD waiver eliminates that risk, making the Target Growth 10 more suitable as a vehicle for IRA rollover funds than a comparable FIA without this provision. For a deeper understanding of how annuities interact with IRA rollover planning, reviewing what an IRA annuity is clarifies the structural and tax considerations before funding.

The health event waivers provide meaningful emergency liquidity for qualifying situations. The nursing home and hospital confinement waiver is a one-time provision available after the first contract anniversary — if the owner is confined to a qualifying facility for at least 90 consecutive days, a full or partial withdrawal can be taken without surrender charges or MVA. The contract must have been purchased before the owner’s 76th birthday, and the nursing home waiver explicitly does not include home health care. The terminal illness waiver similarly provides a one-time penalty-free access after the first anniversary upon a qualifying diagnosis. Both waivers require specific documentation and are subject to state availability. These are not LTC insurance substitutes — they are emergency liquidity provisions designed to prevent a health crisis from creating a simultaneous financial penalty.

Tax Deferral, Death Benefit, and Estate Planning

Interest credited within the Target Growth 10 compounds on a tax-deferred basis. Unlike taxable accounts where each year’s gains generate an immediate tax event, indexed credits inside the annuity accumulate without annual taxation until distributions occur. For higher-income savers who have already maximized contributions to other tax-advantaged retirement accounts, or for those seeking to build an additional bucket of long-term retirement capital with a different risk profile, the deferral efficiency of an FIA can produce a meaningfully larger after-tax accumulated value over a 10-year period compared to a taxable alternative earning the same nominal rate. The benefit is magnified at higher marginal tax brackets and in environments where annual investment income would otherwise be taxed at ordinary income rates. For a full explanation of how annuity distributions are taxed — including LIFO sequencing for non-qualified accounts, the 10% penalty before age 59½, and how qualified account taxation interacts with other retirement income sources — our resource on how annuities are taxed covers the complete framework.

At death, the full accumulation value passes to named beneficiaries without surrender charges. The Target Growth 10 does not offer an enhanced or rider-based death benefit — the beneficiary receives the current contract value, which will reflect all credited interest earned during the contract’s life and any withdrawals taken. Proper beneficiary designation allows the death benefit to pass outside of probate in most cases, simplifying the transfer process for heirs. For a comprehensive review of how beneficiary designations work, what settlement options are available to beneficiaries, and how annuity death benefit taxation interacts with estate planning, our resource on annuity beneficiary death benefits provides the full landscape.

Who the Target Growth 10 Fits Best and Where It Sits in the Delaware Life Lineup

The Target Growth 10 is most appropriate for buyers who want a 10-year principal-protected accumulation vehicle with a defined minimum outcome guarantee (125% GMAV at year 10); who value the Bailout provision as protection against an unfavorable rate renewal environment; who want the flexibility to add funds over time through the flexible premium design without restarting the surrender period; who prefer a broad multi-provider index menu with optional Precision Portfolio diversification; who do not need an income rider now and are focused on accumulation before converting to income at a later date; and who are comfortable with an A- rated carrier with a Positive AM Best outlook across a 10-year commitment. The non-rolling surrender design, RMD waiver, and year-one 10% free withdrawal make the Target Growth 10 particularly well-suited for IRA rollover and qualified account repositioning, where the combination of ongoing liquidity and RMD protection makes it more functional than single-premium or rolling-surrender alternatives. For buyers who are evaluating the broader context of how indexed annuities compare to fixed declared-rate alternatives, our analysis of whether annuities are worth it covers the full range of product types, risk profiles, and planning objectives.

Within the Delaware Life product lineup, the Target Growth 10 is the accumulation-focused FIA without optional income riders. Delaware Life’s Growth Pathway FIA offers optional Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit riders for buyers who want lifetime income embedded in the product alongside the accumulation features. Buyers who are specifically interested in Delaware Life and need both accumulation and guaranteed lifetime income within one product should evaluate the Growth Pathway alongside the Target Growth 10 — the Target Growth 10 is more appropriate when the income conversion will happen later through a separate product or when annuitization at the end of the surrender period is the planned approach. Against competing accumulation FIAs from A-rated and A+-rated carriers, the Target Growth 10’s 125% GMAV at year 10, Bailout provision, non-rolling flexible premium design, and tri-agency A- rating with Positive outlook together create a competitive accumulation-focused value proposition that merits a direct side-by-side comparison before any purchase decision is finalized.