Is Liberty Bankers a Good Insurance Company?

Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company does not advertise heavily, does not rank on most top-ten carrier lists, and does not have a recognizable consumer brand. What it has is an AM Best A- (Excellent) rating, a product feature that most MYGA competitors cannot match, and more than six decades of continuous operation from its Dallas, Texas headquarters. Founded in 1958 and domiciled in Oklahoma, Liberty Bankers Life is part of Liberty Bankers Insurance Group — a Dallas-based holding company that also includes Capitol Life Insurance Company and American Benefit Life Insurance Company, with a combined operating history of roughly 280 years. The company holds over $2 billion in total assets, an A+ from the BBB, and a distribution network of more than 6,000 independent agents operating in 46 states and DC. The product that consistently earns Liberty Bankers a place on serious MYGA comparisons is the Heritage Premier — a multi-year guaranteed annuity that includes built-in health event waivers at no additional charge. Those waivers — covering nursing home confinement, terminal illness, disability, and the inability to perform Activities of Daily Living — allow penalty-free access to the annuity during health crises. Most MYGA carriers either do not offer these waivers or charge a rider fee for them. Heritage Premier includes them as part of the base contract. That single feature makes Heritage Premier meaningfully different from most MYGAs at comparable rates, and it is the reason Liberty Bankers belongs on the evaluation list for retirement savers who want guaranteed accumulation but are concerned about what happens to their annuity if their health changes before the surrender period ends. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, DIA, CAA, evaluates Liberty Bankers for clients where the Heritage Premier’s health event liquidity provisions are the right fit for their retirement income and care planning situation.

What Liberty Bankers Offers Retirement Savers

The Heritage Premier Health Waivers — Why They Matter

The standard MYGA structure gives you one predictable form of liquidity: a percentage of contract value accessible annually without surrender charge — typically 10% per year starting in year two. That is useful for regular income needs, but it does not help much if something unexpected happens to your health. A nursing home admission or a serious illness does not wait for a surrender-free window, and the standard MYGA response is that you will pay a surrender charge if you need more than the annual free withdrawal amount. The Heritage Premier resolves that problem by embedding health event waivers directly into the base contract at no additional cost. If you are confined to a nursing home or a qualified care facility, the waiver allows penalty-free access — 10% in year one, 50% or more in year two and beyond depending on the circumstances. If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, a separate waiver applies. If disability or the inability to perform Activities of Daily Living prevents you from living independently, another waiver applies. These are not optional riders you elect and pay for — they are part of the Heritage Premier contract. The practical effect is that the Heritage Premier functions like a MYGA with a built-in long-term care liquidity backstop. It does not replace standalone long-term care insurance — it does not pay for care directly — but it removes the surrender charge barrier to accessing your own money if care becomes necessary. For buyers who are specifically evaluating whether a fixed annuity can work alongside their long-term care planning, our resource on annuity with long-term care benefits covers the broader category of annuities that combine accumulation with care-related provisions. The Heritage Premier is a MYGA with health event liquidity; a true hybrid annuity like GILICO’s AnnuiCare actually pays LTC benefits from the contract — two different products for two different needs, and buyers evaluating long-term care funding should understand the distinction before choosing one.

Heritage Premier vs. Bankers Elite — Choosing the Right MYGA

Liberty Bankers offers two MYGA products with different trade-offs, and the right choice depends entirely on how you think about liquidity. The Heritage Premier builds health event waivers into the contract, which means it implicitly prices those waivers into its rate — the Bankers Elite, without those provisions, offers slightly higher guaranteed rates across comparable terms. For a buyer who genuinely will not need to touch the annuity under any circumstances during the surrender period, the Bankers Elite’s higher rate may be worth the absence of flexibility. For a buyer who wants a safety valve in case health changes, the Heritage Premier’s built-in waivers may justify the marginally lower rate. The 9-year term available on both is uncommon in the MYGA market — most carriers top out at 7 years, and Liberty Bankers’ 9-year option is worth pricing for buyers who want to lock in a favorable rate environment across a longer accumulation window. For buyers building a laddered strategy using multiple MYGA terms, our resource on the power of laddering fixed annuities covers how multiple carriers and terms work together to create rolling income — a strategy where the Heritage Premier’s health event waivers are particularly useful as the long-term leg of the ladder. For buyers evaluating how Liberty Bankers’ rates compare across the full A-rated MYGA market, our resource on best MYGA annuity rates provides the competitive context that any single-carrier review cannot. And for buyers rolling over a CD into a MYGA for the first time, our resource on transferring a CD into an annuity covers the mechanics and tax treatment of that transition.

What to Know Before Comparing Liberty Bankers

Liberty Bankers Life is available in 46 states and DC — not in New York, and the Bankers Elite product also excludes Alabama and Delaware. Confirm availability in your state before spending time on a comparison. The AM Best A- rating places Liberty Bankers solidly in the tier most financial advisors recommend as the minimum for annuity placements, which means the decision is primarily about product fit rather than financial strength concerns. For buyers evaluating Liberty Bankers against carriers at the same A- rating tier that offer comparable MYGA terms but different features — including Royal Neighbors of America, which also offers a fraternal-structure MYGA — our resource on Is Royal Neighbors a Good Insurance Company covers that comparison. For buyers whose retirement planning runs alongside a Medicare coverage decision, our resource on Medicare Advantage versus Medicare Supplement covers the healthcare cost side of retirement planning that directly affects how much your annuity needs to produce in guaranteed income. And for buyers who want an independent review of any Liberty Bankers illustration before committing, our resource on getting a second opinion on your annuity quote covers why that validation step matters before any annuity purchase.