Why it earned this rating
Our assessment
Passport 2 earns a middling score because its surrender cage doesn't match its rate guarantee. A 2-year initial rate sitting inside a 7-year surrender schedule means five years of exposure to discretionary renewal rates with no penalty-free exit if they disappoint. The A+ carrier, automatic return-of-premium floor, and fee-free structure keep this from falling further, but the structural mismatch is the review's central concern.
The short version
This is a fixed annuity where the marketing name is more descriptive of the rate than the commitment. Passport 2 locks 3.80% for two years, but the surrender-charge schedule underneath it runs a full seven years — so after the guarantee period ends, the owner is stuck for five more years earning whatever Columbus Life decides to declare annually, bounded only by a 1%-3% contractual floor. As of the 4/1/2026 snapshot, that's a real risk: elsewhere in the same Passport family, a buyer who elects the full 7-year rate lock (Passport 7) gets 3.50% guaranteed for the entire surrender period, no renewal roulette involved. Passport 2 trades that certainty for a slightly higher headline rate and an open question about years 3 through 7.
Key facts
The full review
Is Columbus Life Passport 2 a Good Annuity?
Depends on how closely you read the fine print. Taken as a standalone 2-year MYGA, 3.80% is a reasonable if unremarkable rate. Taken as what it actually is — a 7-year surrender contract with only a 2-year rate lock — it's a harder sell, because the buyer is exposed to five years of carrier-discretion renewals with no rate-triggered way out. I think it's a fair product from a financially strong carrier, but not one I'd call competitive against a straight 7-year MYGA for anyone who actually plans to hold the full term.
Why Someone Would Buy This Annuity
The rational case for Passport 2 is that 3.80% for two years beats the 3.50% Passport pays for a full 7-year rate lock, and beats the 3.65%-3.75% offered on the 3, 4, and 5-year elections too — so a buyer chasing the best short-term guaranteed number inside the Passport family lands here. Someone might also choose it if they expect renewal rates to rise over the next five years and want the option to benefit from that, rather than locking in today's longer-duration rate. The automatic 100%-of-premium return-of-premium feature and A+ rated carrier add a layer of comfort that isn't universal in this product category.
Who This Annuity Is Best For
I think this fits a buyer who is comfortable holding for the full seven years regardless of what renewal rates end up being — someone using non-qualified savings or a rollover IRA who wants principal protection and a fixed-income allocation, not someone counting on a specific yield to fund a near-term goal. It's a poor fit for anyone who might need to exit in years 3-7 if renewals come in low, since there's no rate-based escape hatch — only the standard 10% free withdrawal and the hardship waivers (30+ day confinement, terminal illness, RMDs, annuitization, death).
What You're Really Buying Here
You're not buying a 2-year annuity. The "2" in Passport 2 refers only to how long Columbus Life guarantees the 3.80% rate — the actual contract, including the surrender-charge schedule that determines when you can get your money out without a penalty, runs the full 7 years, identical to every other Passport variant. What you're really buying is a 7-year commitment with a rate that's locked for less than a third of it. After year 2, the rate resets annually at the carrier's discretion, and the only hard promise is that it won't drop below 1%-3% (the exact floor is fixed in the contract at issue).
How the Core Feature Works
The 3.80% figure quoted for Passport 2 reflects a first-year-only 2.00% interest-rate enhancement layered on top of the base declared rate — the client guide describes crediting the boosted rate in year one, then "the initial rate, less the rate enhancement," for the remainder of the guarantee period. In practice that means the 3.80% is not credited flat across both years; it's front-loaded, with year two normalizing lower to land at the disclosed two-year figure. Once the 2-year guarantee period ends, Columbus Life declares a new rate annually for the remaining five surrender years. Those renewal rates aren't disclosed in advance and aren't tied to any index or formula — they're set at the carrier's discretion, subject only to the 1%-3% guaranteed minimum locked in at issue.
Why the Secondary Feature Matters
The automatic return-of-premium guarantee is the best thing about this contract, and it costs nothing extra. Regardless of how renewal rates perform, the cash surrender value can never fall below 100% of premium paid (adjusted for withdrawals), because the 1%-3% minimum guaranteed rate accrues against the full premium from day one. That's a real backstop against the renewal-rate risk described above — it caps the downside at "your money back plus a small guaranteed trickle," not "your money back minus a penalty." It doesn't offset the opportunity cost of being stuck at a low renewal rate for years, but it does mean the worst-case outcome here is mediocre, not damaging.
Liquidity and Surrender Schedule
The surrender schedule is 7/7/7/6/5/4/3 with no market value adjustment, which is on the steeper end for a fixed annuity and doesn't shorten just because the rate guarantee is only two years. The standard 10% free withdrawal is available immediately and every contract year afterward, and it's not cumulative, so unused free withdrawal in one year doesn't carry over. Systematic interest-only withdrawals avoid surrender charges entirely and can be set up monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually. RMDs and 72(t) substantially equal periodic distributions are also waived from surrender charges, which makes this workable for a qualified account already taking distributions. What's absent is any waiver tied to the renewal rate itself — if years 3 through 7 credit at or near the 1%-3% floor and the owner wants out, standard surrender charges apply just as they would in year one.
| Contract Year | Surrender Charge |
|---|---|
| 1 | 7% |
| 2 | 7% |
| 3 | 7% |
| 4 | 6% |
| 5 | 5% |
| 6 | 4% |
| 7 | 3% |
Fees and Tradeoffs
There are no policy fees, no administrative charges, and no rider fees — the surrender-charge waiver riders for confinement and terminal illness are automatically included at no cost. That's a genuine positive; nothing erodes the credited rate here. The real cost isn't a fee, it's the renewal-rate risk described throughout this review: five years of the surrender period sit outside the guarantee, and the tradeoff for the marginally higher 3.80% short-term rate is uncertainty about what the contract actually yields once averaged over its full 7-year life.
Product snapshot
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Product Type | Fixed Annuity |
| Surrender Period | 7 years |
| Issue Ages | 0-89 |
| Minimum Premium | $5,000 |
| Crediting Methods | Fixed (declared rate, multi-rate-guarantee MYGA) |
| Free Withdrawal | Up to 10% of account value may be withdrawn each contract year, beginning immediately, free of surrender charge (non-cumulative; $250 minimum withdrawal). Also waived for IRS-required minimum distributions and Section 72(t) substantially equal periodic distributions. |
| MGSV | 100% of premium paid (adjusted for withdrawals), accruing at a contractually guaranteed rate of 1%-3% set at issue (client guide CL 5.817 (11/18), 'Money-Back Guarantee'; Wink profile: 'Minimum Guarantee/Minimum Guaranteed Surrender Value: Varies, 1-3% Guaranteed Annual Return') |
| Death Benefit | Full current account value, paid to the designated beneficiary without surrender charge upon the Owner's death, bypassing probate. |
| Income Rider | Not available |
| Premium Bonus | None |
| Availability | Not approved in NY, AK, or OR. Approved with state-specific contract variations in FL and MS. Columbus Life is licensed in DC and all states except New York. |
Carrier snapshot
Legal Entity: Columbus Life Insurance Company
Parent: Western & Southern Financial Group
A.M. Best Rating: A+
Final take
Passport 2 isn't a bad annuity — it's a financially strong carrier, no fees, an automatic return-of-premium floor, and a competitive short-term rate. But the naming convention obscures the real commitment: this is a 7-year surrender contract wearing a 2-year rate guarantee, and there's no rate-triggered exit if the five years of discretionary renewals that follow disappoint. If you're set on the Passport chassis and plan to hold the full seven years regardless of what renewals bring, the extra 30 basis points over the 7-year election (3.80% vs. 3.50%) is a reasonable bet. If certainty matters more to you than squeezing out a slightly higher initial number, the straight 7-year Passport election locks the same duration at a known rate for the whole term — a cleaner match between commitment and guarantee.