Best annuity providers in Canada, compared

The instinct when buying an annuity is to look for a rate board — the way you would compare GICs or savings accounts. It does not exist, and that is not an oversight. An annuity payout is a personalized quote, priced on the day you buy from a handful of inputs: your age, your sex, your deposit amount, the type of annuity you choose (single life, joint life, term-certain, with or without a guarantee period), and the level of interest rates that day. Change any one of those and the income changes. Two people the same age, depositing the same amount, can be quoted materially different monthly income.

That is why this hub does not — and cannot honestly — rank providers by "rate." Anyone publishing a single annuity rate is either quoting one narrow profile or guessing. What you can compare before you ever request a quote are two things that are public and verifiable: how financially strong each insurer is, and how the Assuris safety net protects you whichever insurer you pick. Get those right, build a shortlist, and then let live quotes decide the income. For the mechanics of how the product itself works, see our guide on how annuities work (pros & cons).

A life annuity is a promise to pay you for as long as you live — potentially three or four decades. So the first thing to verify is that the insurer is strong enough to keep that promise. That is exactly what a financial-strength rating measures: the rating agencies — AM Best, S&P, Moody's and DBRS — assess each insurer's ability to meet its ongoing claims and obligations. A higher rating signals a greater capacity to pay you, decade after decade.

The reassuring news is that all the big Canadian life insurers carry strong A-to-AA-range financial-strength ratings, and every federally regulated insurer is supervised by OSFI under the LICAT capital framework, which sets minimum capital levels they must hold. Between strong ratings and active regulation, outright insurer failure in Canada is rare. One critical caution when you research ratings yourself: a bank's credit rating is not the same as its insurance subsidiary's rating. RBC the bank, BMO the bank and Desjardins Group the banking parent each carry their own ratings — but your annuity is issued by their insurance company (RBC Life Insurance, BMO Life Assurance, Desjardins Financial Security Life), which has its own, separate financial-strength rating. Use the insurer's rating, not the parent's.

Even though failure is rare, you do not have to rely on that alone. Every annuity in Canada is backed by Assuris — the insurance-industry equivalent of CDIC for bank deposits. Assuris is an independent, not-for-profit, industry-funded organization (founded in 1990) that protects Canadian policyholders if their life-insurance company fails. Membership is mandatory for any company authorized to sell insurance in Canada, which means the protection follows you no matter which insurer you choose — including a smaller one.

For an annuity, the protection is generous. Assuris protects your monthly income up to $5,000 per month, or 90% of your promised monthly income — whichever is higher (the enhanced level in effect since May 2023). Working through what that means:

Here is the practical implication, and it is ours to reason through: because that protected band is backstopped industry-wide, a retiree whose monthly income falls within it carries limited extra insolvency risk from choosing a smaller insurer that happens to offer a better quote. The safety net does not care whose name is on the policy. That frees you to let the quote drive the decision for income inside the protected band, rather than feeling forced to pay for the biggest brand. For income that exceeds the band, splitting a large deposit across more than one insurer is one way to keep more of it inside the limits.

These are the mainstream Canadian insurers that currently sell individual life and term-certain annuities. None has permanently exited the business. Sun Life, Canada Life and Manulife sit at the top of the rating scale and appear in nearly every comparison; iA Financial Group is also highly rated; RBC Insurance, Desjardins and BMO Insurance carry AM Best A (Excellent); and Equitable Life of Canada and Empire Life round out the mainstream issuers. Read the ratings as a measure of strength and dependability, not of who pays the most — that part comes from the quote.

Ratings shown are the most recent confirmed figures from AM Best, S&P, Moody's and DBRS; where a cell reads "confirm at issuer", verify the current rating on the insurer's own page. For RBC Insurance, BMO Insurance and Desjardins, the rating belongs to the insurance company, not to the bank or banking group of the same name.

Two more names worth knowing: Co-operators and Assumption Life also sell annuities, but distribute through their own advisor channels and sit outside the main rate-shopped comparison market, so they may not appear in a standard multi-insurer quote. They can still be worth a look if you already deal with their advisors.

Because the payout is a quote rather than a published rate, shopping an annuity looks different from shopping a GIC. The income you are offered is personalized and time-sensitive: it moves with your age, sex, deposit, annuity type and — importantly — the level of interest rates the day you buy. Higher rates mean more income for the same deposit, so when you buy affects how much you get.

Annuities are bought through a licensed insurance advisor or broker, not off a website. The advisor runs your numbers through CANNEX, the industry quote engine that pulls live pricing from most Canadian annuity issuers and updates daily — so one request can compare many insurers at once. Because payouts vary materially between insurers for the same person, the standard guidance from both FCAC and the OSC's GetSmarterAboutMoney is to compare quotes from several providers before you buy. An advisor who shops the market is doing exactly that on your behalf.

• Shortlist on strength. Start with financially strong, well-rated insurers from the table above.
• Check the Assuris band. Confirm your target monthly income falls within the protected limits ($5,000, or 90% above that).
• Compare live quotes. Have an advisor run several insurers through CANNEX on the same day, for the same annuity type.
• Mind the timing. Quotes move with interest rates — locking in when rates are higher buys more income.

It is tempting to assume the highest-rated insurer also pays the most — but the two are different questions. A financial-strength rating tells you whether an insurer can keep paying you for life. The quote tells you how much it will pay you today. Pricing is competitive and moves around, so a mid-tier-rated insurer can easily out-quote a top-rated one for your specific age, sex and deposit on a given day. The rating earns a provider a spot on your shortlist; the quote decides which one you actually buy from. That is the whole reason the process is "shortlist on strength, then compare quotes" rather than "pick the biggest name."

It is also why an annuity rarely stands alone in a plan. Many retirees use a life annuity to cover the essentials and keep flexible, market-based income alongside it — the trade-off we lay out in our guide to all the retirement income options compared, and one you can model directly with the annuity vs RRIF calculator. Whatever mix you land on, your guaranteed government income from CPP and OAS together forms the base underneath it.

General information, not financial advice. This hub compares insurers on financial strength and the Assuris protection that backs annuities — it does not quote or rank annuity payout rates, which are personalized and change daily. Financial-strength ratings change too, so verify the current figure on the insurer's own page before acting. Annuity quotes are personalized: compare several providers with a licensed insurance advisor. Figures reflect 2026. Learn more in our guides on how annuities work, retirement income options and CPP and OAS together.