New Momentum 5-Year review

It depends on what you need. For a conservative buyer who wants a locked rate, principal protection, and the credibility of an A+ carrier, it's a reasonable choice. For someone who wants a true five-year commitment, the seven-year surrender period is a real limitation that the product name obscures. And for anyone who might need more than 10% annually, or who wants index participation or a lifetime income rider, this product isn't designed for them.

The practical reason to buy New Momentum 5-Year is certainty. You know the rate for five years, you know the carrier is backed by Western & Southern, and you know the floor: principal is protected and the minimum guaranteed rate is 1% for the life of the contract. The $2,000 minimum also makes this accessible at a lower premium floor than many competing fixed annuities, which tend to start at $5,000–$10,000. For someone with a modest initial rollover or a specific dollar amount to deploy, that accessibility is a genuine advantage.

I think New Momentum 5-Year is best for retirees or near-retirees in their 60s and 70s who want predictable interest on a portion of their conservative assets and have no plans to access more than the 10% annual free-withdrawal amount. It works for both qualified (IRA rollover) and non-qualified money, and the RMD-friendly structure makes it practical for IRA holders who need to take distributions without triggering surrender charges. It is less well-suited for accumulation-focused buyers who want market upside, for younger buyers who may need the money before year seven, or for anyone whose primary goal is lifetime income.

You're buying a contractual promise from a highly rated insurance company to pay a declared interest rate on your premium, with the guarantee that your principal won't go backward and the rate won't fall below 1% for the life of the contract. That's the core of what this is: a multi-year guaranteed-rate vehicle backed by the general account of Integrity Life Insurance Company, itself part of Western & Southern Financial Group. It is not an investment, it doesn't participate in any index, and it won't keep pace with strong equity markets. What it offers is stability — and the 0.75% first-year rate enhancement is a modest extra, applied only to the initial declared rate in year one, not an account-value bonus that compounds forward.

New Momentum 5-Year credits interest through a Guaranteed Rate Option (GRO). You select a GRO term — options include 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10 years — and Integrity locks in the declared rate for that period. The most common selection for this product is the five-year GRO, which is where the product name comes from. As of the current brochure materials, the declared rate is 3.95% for a five-year GRO, with a 0.75% rate enhancement applied in year one only. There is also a Quarterly Interest Option (QIO) for buyers who want to receive interest distributions rather than accumulating it.

The 1% minimum guaranteed rate applies for the entire life of the contract, meaning even if declared rates drop at renewal, they cannot go below 1%. That floor is contractually guaranteed and is a standard feature of this product type.

The most practically important secondary feature here is the waiver package. Integrity waives surrender charges and MVA for nursing home confinement, terminal illness, and unemployment (unemployment waiver availability varies by state; see the state note). For a fixed annuity targeting conservative retirees, the ability to exit without penalty if a serious health event occurs is meaningful. It doesn't make the surrender period irrelevant, but it does provide a real safety valve for the scenarios that matter most to this buyer profile. The death benefit is also clean: full account value passes to beneficiaries with no surrender charge applied at death, which is a straightforward and favorable provision.

The name "5-Year" is a crediting term, not a surrender term. The actual withdrawal-charge schedule runs seven years: 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%. That means if you need to exit the contract in year six or seven, you still face a 3% or 2% charge plus a potential MVA — a Market Value Adjustment that can push the effective penalty higher or lower depending on where interest rates have moved since issue.

The 10% free-withdrawal provision is more flexible than average: it's available immediately from contract issue (not after year one), and it's calculated as 10% of account value rather than 10% of premium, which typically means a slightly larger accessible amount as the contract earns interest. RMDs attributable to this contract also qualify for waiver treatment, making it a workable option for qualified money. Just don't treat this as a liquid account — withdrawals beyond the free amount trigger real costs.

There are no explicit contract fees, no rider fees, and no spread or cap structures to manage. That is one of the cleaner aspects of this product — what you see in the declared rate is what you earn, minus nothing. The tradeoffs are structural, not fee-based. You accept a declared rate that may be reset after the five-year GRO period, in exchange for certainty during that window. You also accept MVA risk on top of surrender charges if you leave early, which means the exit cost can be more than the stated percentage depending on rate movements. And you're giving up any participation in market upside in exchange for the guaranteed floor and declared rate.

Legal Entity: Integrity Life Insurance Company

Parent: Western & Southern Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A+