American Equity Investment Reviews

Extremely DISSATISFIED with American Equity. I invested a small portion and their 'surrender charge' for withdrawing early is INSANE. This is MY MONEY so I should be able to withdraw if I want. You can withdraw a measly 10% per year without penalty, BUT your money will make HARDLY NOTHING! STRONG SUGGESTION - look for a MYGA that pays 5 or 6%. You can tie your money up for as little as 5 years and still get a healthy return.

American Equity is a terrible company. Some disrespectful staff. Don't return phone calls. And now there may be fraud on one annuity that is being handled. Terrible results on gains, around 1.6% (including the bonus portion for the year). I don't know how this company is rated as good, because I would give it a zero star if I could. If your agent wants you to get an annuity, don't use American Equity. I personally think annuities are scams - you know: "Annuity Scam". Maybe MYGA is okay but don't do a full surrender because you will stolen from.

American Equity!! In 2022 the stock market went up 26%. They paid me nothing. In 2023 the stock market went up 28%. They paid me nothing. In 2024 the stock market went up 24%. They paid me $8/10 of 1%. In 2025 the market went up 18% to an all-time high. They paid me .8 of 1%. After 10 years of nothing I decided to pay their $21,200 penalty to be free of them. You buy their product, you get paid nothing, you get tired of it so you pay the high penalty, and they win and you lose. You stay the course, they pay you nothing to use your money, they win and you lose. The worst part of this all, I am 90 years old and I have to live with this nightmare the rest of my days. I would give American Equity zero Stars if that was possible.

I had to unravel investments at American Equity on behalf of my father in law when his wife passed away. She had done these investments and he really didn't have a clue what she had bought. As I dug into it I was horrified at what I found. Basically, this company gets its product sold through these will mills; companies that get old people to attend their seminars by offering them dinner, etc. Old people love a free dinner and then are sold this package of estate planning that includes shoehorning them into truly terrible investment products like the ones sold by American Equity.

Worse annuity I ever owned (and I own several). The explanation on how this annuity works is not clear. The paperwork is even more confusing. It has not made any money in the best years of the stock market. The company does not offer any help.

American Equity are thieves. They just cut my monthly payment by more than half and I want OUT of the contract, so I have to give them over $1000.00. I would never recommend them to my worst enemy. They are corrupt with a capital C!!

In my experience, American Equity is a Den of Thieves. Through my own stupidity I was convinced it was a good idea to enter into a 10-year annuity contract that paid, at best, 4.5%. True, I'd never lose in a downturn, but the upside was pathetic. I finally decided to bail out of this dog and was hit with both a surrender charge and an even bigger 'Market Value Adjustment' charge. This company is run by money-grubbing scum bags who will be happy to take your money in return for a few bread crumbs. Should you decide to leave early they'll take that back too. Terrible, awful, despicable, rotten scoundrels - that about sums up American Equity experience from my 7 years as their customer.

I helped my mom set up her retirement years ago with this company. My mom passed away at the end of May 2025 so me and my brother filed our claim since we were the beneficiaries which that part was easy, I had access to my mom’s account online because she wanted me to handle all of her accounts online since she was not able to so I could see the amount plus me and my brother were told our amount each was 3,300, neither of us received this we both received over 1,000 less and they refuse to explain, this money along with her small life insurance was to bury her and get her headstone plus it was money our mother put in, do not use them move your money because if you think your children are getting it they are not

I had a wonderful contact at this company since my original broker stopped servicing my account. Darren must have left! The person that answered the call center today must not know the meaning of one’s LIFE'S SAVINGS.

American Equity along with my financial advisor lied, lied, lied to me. They convinced me to do a 7-year term, with the notion that I would make an average 5% yearly return for the 7 years. In three years I have made a so little interest on my investment. In fact the first two years I made nothing, If I wanted to put my investment in a fixed account the rate of return is 1.5 %. That is highway robbery. I would not recommend American Equity to anyone.

ASSETSHIELD 10. My worst investment so far. I was sold on this annuity at age 62 with a rosy projection that it would last me to age 102 years old by withdrawing an equal amount annually. After 3 years into this thing, I'm NOT getting the projected earnings of $95,000. My actual earnings are less than 1% for a lousy $4,500. At this rate, this annuity will be dragging me down below poverty level by age 70 and staring at bankruptcy at age 75. I'm still hoping for better returns to come but there might not be much left by then to earn on.

My mom took out a policy from American Equity in 2021. We have been working for over a month now to get the funds transferred to another financial institution. We have gotten nothing but lies and excuses from American Equity regarding the status of the transfer. At this point we are pursuing legal action as the funds have been missing since February 5th.

I’ve been with American Equity for about 5 years now, and over time, I’ve come to realize just how important the annual financial statement review is. If these reviews aren’t done, the account simply won’t perform as well as it should. The market is always shifting, but what I really appreciate about American Equity is that they stay competitive, and their annual statement is a great tool—it actually shows you where to allocate your money based on the current performance. If you're not receiving these annual reviews, I’d strongly recommend finding a new agent. It’s really that simple. Staying on top of these reviews is key to ensuring your account grows and performs as expected.

I took out an 2 year annuity in 2022. This is after being told for 6 months how much money I was going to make. The numbers were 25 to 30 thousand after a 2 year pay out of 330 percent of the index yield. After 2 years I have only lost money. Not made 1 dime. Hell the economy has been good as far as the markets. No excuse. The dumb person at American Equity told me to wait another 2 years and there may be a gain. These crooks need to be in jail.

#AmericanEquity is stealing from us & covering up crimes of their agent Frederick **, who runs MoneyMattersUSA Advisory LLC—a company that is unlicensed unregistered & non-existent. ** was paid $52K by AEL to transfer our Retirement Money to AEL's lousy contracts. The core issue here is not just about the contracts we purchased but about the fact that a conman was able to represent AEL & sell us these contracts. AEL has not admitted its failure in supervising its agent, **, nor did it conduct a thorough background check on him. AEL has knowingly failed in its fiduciary duty, and for this reason, we demand a full refund with 7% interest and penal interest. We thought because of our action, AEL may learn from this incident & ensure that someone like ** never represents them again. Unfortunately, it appears that AEL cares more about protecting fraud individuals like ** than their small contract holders.

This is a scam I used someone in my former wife's family that I thought I could trust. She made all these positive projections that I was gonna make all this big money. It was bull crap talk just to get you sucked in and trapped into a long term contract. They still have the audacity to try to make me feel this is legit. It's ok. It will come back to haunt them. Please run from these indexed annuities. They're just salesman who want to make money for themselves and don't care about people's hard earned money.

My experience mirrors many of the reviews I have read. This was a terrible investment recommended by an advisor who was just in it for the commission. The company disavows any responsibility and blames everything on the salesman. The answer to every question is, ask your advisor. When I tell them that I fired my advisor over this investment, they go silent. The last representative I spoke with hung up on me after telling me that she could give me the ticker symbols and I could look them up and figure out the investment results myself.

0/10. This company is a joke. 100k in assets and 1% return over 4 years with an 11% penalty to take out. DO NOT USE. Wish I checked here first before forking over one of my account. Now it has 6 years until I can withdraw without the bull crap penalties. Stay far away if you want to make money, only losses, excuses & no accountability. This dude trying to sell me life insurance term policy now!? Nah. More fake info and gain. They are stealing your money. Get OUT NOW! Look at my portfolio to see 1000$ gain in 4 years and a 11k fee. SCAMMERS.

I wish I had seen the input on this site before I purchased one of this company's "Bonus Gold 16-Year Index annuity) in 2014. My initial investment was $67,534, plus so-called $6753 bonus, yet it never it was never actually worth that. After a review with another (honest this time) financial planner, she noted poor performance since inception. The situation was so stressful for me that I wanted to get out of the entire thing, so I got a cash surrender of $66,906.72 in 2022, not even covering my initial investment 8 years before. My agent was very much less than candid about this thing. I subsequently wrote to the company twice to try and unwind/reverse my surrender, and never received a response. I really don't know how these products can be legal..

American Equity Assetshield 5 Fixed Index Annuity was recommended to us on 2/9/22. Our experience: $120K invested over 2 years returned $421.20. Yes, 0.00351% yield. NOT EVEN 1% yield. We would have been better of leaving the money in the bank. Market has been up 25+%, since our anniversary date... BEWARE OF THE CAP AND PARTICIPATION RATE ON THESE FIXED INDEXED ANNUITY! They adjust these annually for their maximum profits. Reallocation to fixed rate is 1.5%, current cap is 5.5%, participation rate is 40%. The is the worst performing annuity in our portfolio! We have 7 fixed annuities and 3 fixed indexed annuities with other issuers. DO NOT BUY AN ANNUITY WITH THIS COMPANY!

Scam! I wish I saw this reviews before signing up, promised me 8% interest, deliver 1%. When calling rep. telling me straight out, "Your account is on 1% fixed. It can't make more, if you want to transfer it you will need to pay 5k penalty," after 4 years of me paying them out of my hard working money. How can this be legal?

Took out a 3-year annuity. At full surrender 3 years later I can't get my money back. I filled out and emailed all the surrender forms 7 times now and every week when I call to see what's going on they say they don't have the forms. No communication whatsoever. Nobody calls or emails you back. Promise's can't be kept! It's an absolute dogfight trying to get my money back. They hold your money hostage hoping you'll give up and just leave it there. They're hurting for cash! STAY AWAY!!! In the meantime I'm losing money on a 5.5% CD I want to transfer into. I wonder how much money they're making with my missing money!!!

After contacting the excellent broker for Slagle financial it was discovered that an error was made on the initial paperwork application. It’s not clear how the mishap occurred but this drama has been rectified in a positive manner. Thanks to the honest people that made this a priority for our investment. GS/KS

I was recent retired and wanted my money somewhat safe and I would never lose money and would make a minimum of 6%. It seems to never make more than 6% even though the market is sky rocking. We looked at moving and this is where the surprise came in. We were never told that it was like a 16 year contract. If we take our money out before than we would lose a big share of our investment. I ask the representative at the time about this and he said we could take our money out anytime we wanted but omitted the important detail about the huge penalty we would have to pay. Very dishonest in my world.

Months prior to obtaining this annuity, my husband and I met with the representative 5 or 6 times. We discussed our business and were convinced to believe that this person was actually concerned about situation. As time went on the topic changed to this annuity. We ended up losing our business but this didn't stop the rep from pushing us in to something we did not understand completely or couldn't afford. We need that money to get back on our feet after our business loss. For us to take a partial amount out of the annuity will kill us with interest and fees. If we surrender the policy, we will lose half of the money that my husband worked hard for. We haven't heard from our representative since the transaction, which I see is commonplace in many of the comments.

My husband passed away so we called in November to get correct initial investment and gains. The amounts provided were incorrect. Received a letter correcting the error in December, then filed for the payout. They send the wrong amount as the amounts in the account were never corrected. That also stated check was sent in mid December and it was never mailed. Called in early January to inform them the check was incorrect and was assured it would be addressed and a new check for Delta would be sent before the end of January. This did not happen. They filed with IRS incorrect paperwork as well.

Have had an annuity for around three years - was told by my rep after me and my wife both purchased an annuity there would be yearly reviews and he would keep in touch. I have never heard one word from him since time of purchase. Overall plan seems to be doing okay but I would rate my representative at total zero.

Realized made huge mistake buying gold annuity from this co. Return very low and contract very long compared to other annuity on the market who perform at a much better rate and give you more flexibility to manage your account. Was convinced by sleazy agent that this was a great deal.

I contacted American Equity to ask about surrendering my account due to financial hardships because of having to bury my dad. AE contacted me and basically told me that I was out of luck until 2030, unless I wanted to pay the surrender charges which are outrageous. It is horrible to be tied into something and have no way out... And for the percentage it's gaining, I may as well have my money under a mattress. I will not put another penny into this company.

Updated on 11/07/2018: My final words on this trainwreck of an annuity. In my last review in August I expressed my dismay with this product. My prediction of another 0% yearly was wrong. It turned out to be $945 or 3/4 of a percent, WOW! Unfortunately my 11 month summary showed a surprising $7300 return. I then was on the S&P watch for the next month. I watched it dribble down next to nothing and there was nothing I could do. This happened to me 4 years ago as I watched a 11% return drop to 6%. What's the point of the 11 month summary anyway.

We tried to make a request for a simple withdrawal of a portion of our account. The first person we spoke to after waiting over 10 days gave us an uneducated response delaying the deposit even longer. The person processing the withdrawal made a 20% error upward to the amount we requested and then taxed the higher amount. All paperwork submitted to American Equity was correct. Their incompetent employees made the errors.

I have been a customer of American Equity since January of 2009. My wife also opened an account during the same month. In 2008 I took early retirement and rolled over my employer 401k into the Bonus Gold annuity. At the time the US economy was a disaster and the stock market was in a free fall. I received a 10% bonus upon opening the account and my money was much safer than the market. I slept well at night and still do... I became knowledgeable in how the annuity works and the annual investment options that were available.

This might be fine for younger people who are coming in at a time of low interest rates, but I was confused by Matt ** on this and am stuck with an awful contract, having turned over fixed 3% annuities into this risky low-return disaster. Now I'm stuck with it.

My parent owned two annuities from American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company. One was a Deferred Annuity that transferred to my siblings and myself without complaint. The second Annuity (I suspect it was a SPIA - Single Premium Immediate Annuity) was annuitized during while my parents were living. Upon the death of each parent, I was appointed as the executor of each Estate. As the Executor I have the duty to collect all funds, file all taxes, and distribute all residual property. Upon the death of my mother (predeceased by my Father) the payments ended. This could possibly be appropriate if the contract was written as such. But the contract could have included a payout for a specific (or minimum) time period.

The person who sold me this policy misrepresented just about every aspect. I was told as an annuity, it had a guaranteed interest rate. And would I be interested in the lifetime income rider? What he did not tell me is that the first was dependent on the second. Last year, interest was posted every few months, now it is only calculated at the end of the policy year. This is quite a big thing to leave out of the explanations. "But Ma'am, you signed it?" Yes I did, I trusted this man. Bad idea. He wanted a commission, not my financial well being.

A nice lady answered the phone, very professional. I asked how we did last year, I expected about 4%. Much better than the bank offerings. 10% plus. I didn't expect such a return. I will add to my account at first opportunity. Have a good year.

My mother passed away very unexpected on the May of this year. We reached out to American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company in July. My siblings and I are disappointed that this has been a very long process with American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company. We have settled All matters (life insurance policies, IRS, pensions, etc.) associated with my Mom's estate months ago but this American Equity matter just drags on.

We had received a request to call the agent of American Equity Investment if we wanted to change our percentages. Well he finally got a hold of my husband who is the one bearing this account to call my wife about getting this down before the deadline. Well time came and went and that never did happen and from what I can tell the only one making any money on our account is them.

Today, I received a call from my agent, Mike **, and he explained how the annuity works. After speaking with him, I am happy with American Equity and will let my money continue to grow. Thanks, Mike for your patience and support.

They are the worst claims department I've ever dealt with! If you need your money quickly, just forget it! And if you make a mistake the whole process starts all over. 10 business days to process, and 5 days to mail! They make sure to keep your money for 2 to 3 more months. When they took the account only took minutes to get money. Let's put it this way. Would never do business with them ever again. They don't inform you about anything, and try to get fees any way they can! Also they prey on the elderly, never finished what they set forth in contract, also didn't pay off what was in contract. Buyer beware!!!