Milestone Max MYGA 3-Year review

Depends on how much you're bringing to the table. If you have $25,000 or more to commit for three years, Milestone Max is a reasonably good MYGA — it beats Sagicor's own base Milestone MYGA on rate at every premium band it qualifies for, and it throws in a chronic-illness waiver for free. If you have less than $25,000, this product isn't available to you at all, and the base Milestone MYGA is your only option at Sagicor. Against the broader 3-year MYGA market, the rate is respectable for an A- carrier but not exceptional — shop it against other current 3-year offers before assuming it's the best one available to you.

The rational buyer here already knows they want a MYGA — a fixed-rate deferred annuity that functions like a tax-deferred CD — and has enough premium ($25,000+) to clear Milestone Max's higher entry bar. In exchange, they get a better rate than the base Milestone MYGA at every premium tier they'd qualify for, a modestly higher ceiling rate (4.80% vs. base's 4.75%) at the top end, and a built-in penalty-free withdrawal waiver if they end up in a nursing home or are diagnosed with a terminal illness during the 3-year term — protection the base product's own materials don't describe.

This fits savers, generally pre-retirees or retirees, with at least $25,000 in investable, non-emergency funds who want a short 3-year rate lock and don't need the money before the term ends. It works in both qualified (IRA) and non-qualified accounts — the product is RMD-friendly, allowing penalty-free withdrawals up to the calculated RMD amount starting in contract year one. It is not a fit for anyone under the $25,000 minimum, anyone who might need more than 10% of their money in a given year, or anyone prioritizing the single highest 3-year rate in the market over staying with Sagicor specifically.

Strip away the "Max" branding and this is a straightforward single-premium deferred annuity: you hand Sagicor a lump sum, they credit a fixed rate for three years, and at the end of that term you can walk away, roll into a new rate, or let the contract auto-renew. The account value grows tax-deferred at the guaranteed rate for the full term — no index, no cap, no participation rate to track. "Max" is really a pricing and features tier layered on the same chassis as Sagicor's base Milestone MYGA: a higher premium threshold buys a better rate table and a couple of built-in health-related withdrawal waivers the base contract's own materials don't confirm having.

The core mechanic is simple fixed-rate crediting: the premium at issue determines which rate band applies, and that rate is locked for the full 3-year guarantee period. Premium under $75,000 earns 4.55%; $75,000 and above earns 4.80% (rates current as of the November 4, 2025 Wink data pull — confirm the live rate sheet before applying). At the end of year three, Sagicor can auto-renew the contract into a new 3-year guarantee period at a new rate, subject to a new surrender schedule and MVA, or the owner gets a 30-day penalty-free window to withdraw the funds or shop elsewhere. There's no index participation, no cap, and no spread to erode the return — the rate you're quoted is the rate you get, for better or worse, for three years.

The built-in nursing-home/confined-care and terminal-illness penalty-free withdrawal waivers are what separate Max from a plain MYGA. If the owner is confined to a nursing home or diagnosed with a terminal illness during the contract term, the surrender charge and MVA that would otherwise apply to an early withdrawal are waived — no separate rider election or additional fee required. This is meaningful downside protection: MYGA buyers lock up money for years specifically because they don't expect to need it, and a health event is one of the more plausible reasons that assumption breaks. The base Milestone MYGA's own product materials don't describe an equivalent waiver, which makes this one of Max's clearer, spec-verified advantages over its sibling.

The standard surrender schedule is 9% in year one, 8% in year two, and 7% in year three — a fairly typical front-loaded 3-year schedule, and it applies again for each subsequent 3-year guarantee period the contract renews into. A Market Value Adjustment (MVA) also applies to withdrawals beyond the free amount, meaning the penalty can move up or down with interest rates at the time of withdrawal — a rising-rate environment can make an early exit more expensive than the surrender charge alone suggests. Owners can access up to 10% of the prior anniversary's accumulation value each year starting in contract year two with no charge (minimum withdrawal $500), and the product is RMD-friendly, allowing penalty-free withdrawals to satisfy a calculated RMD starting in year one. A 30-day penalty-free window also opens at the end of each guarantee period, and the nursing-home/terminal-illness waiver adds a further escape hatch outside of normal free-withdrawal limits.

There's no base contract fee and no separate rider fee — the chronic-illness and terminal-illness waivers are built into the base contract at no additional cost, which is a genuine value-add rather than a feature layered on with a fee that erodes the crediting rate. The real cost to weigh isn't a stated fee; it's opportunity cost on the entry premium. The $25,000 minimum is $10,000 higher than the base Milestone MYGA's $15,000 floor, and the rate improvement it buys is modest at the very top end (4.80% vs. base's 4.75% at $100,000+). The bigger win is in the middle: for premium in the roughly $25,000-$74,999 range, Max's 4.55% clears base's 3.75%-4.50% (depending on which band the base contract's premium falls into) by a meaningful margin.

Legal Entity: Sagicor Life Insurance Company

Parent: Sagicor Financial Company, Ltd.

A.M. Best Rating: A-