Athene vs Nationwide Annuities: 2026 Comparison

Athene and Nationwide are two of the most-shopped annuity carriers in 2026, and they win on different things. Athene is the rate leader in the multi-year guaranteed annuity (MYGA) space and one of the largest fixed indexed annuity (FIA) sellers in the country. Nationwide is a 100-year-old mutual carrier with a broader product shelf, a higher Comdex score, and a flagship FIA, the Peak 10, that pays a 10% premium bonus.

If you are shopping rate alone, this comparison usually goes one way. If you are shopping for a mutual carrier with a deeper bench across MYGA, FIA, RILA, and variable annuities, it goes the other way. The right answer depends on which job you are trying to fill in your retirement plan, and the rest of this page works through the specifics.

Financial strength: Athene vs Nationwide

Both carriers earn an A+ from AM Best and an A+ from Standard & Poor's, which puts them in the second-highest financial-strength tier in the industry. The separator is the Comdex score, a composite of all four major rating agencies on a 0-to-100 scale. Nationwide sits at 92, Athene at 87. That is not a small gap, and it reflects two real differences: Nationwide is mutually owned by its policyholders and has been continuously rated since 1926, while Athene is a public-company subsidiary of Apollo Global Management with a shorter standalone rating history and an investment portfolio Apollo manages directly. Both pay claims. If you weight rating depth and ownership structure, Nationwide is the stronger pick on paper.

Product lineup

Athene runs a focused shelf: MYGA, fixed indexed annuities, and single-premium immediate annuities. They do not sell variable annuities or RILAs. What they do, they do at scale, with the Performance Elite, MaxRate, and Ascent Pro lines doing the heavy lifting.

Nationwide is the broader carrier. They sell MYGA (Secure Growth), FIA (Peak 10, New Heights Select 9), DIA, variable annuities, and registered index-linked annuities (RILAs), all under one roof. If you want one carrier across multiple annuity types, or you specifically want the Peak 10's 10% premium bonus and 1.05% participation on the S&P 500 Daily Risk Control 5% index, Nationwide gives you options Athene does not.

Rate competitiveness (updated 2026-05-01)

Athene has been the more aggressive MYGA pricer through most of 2026. Their 5-year MYGA has held above Nationwide's by 30 to 60 basis points across the last twelve months. On a $250,000 purchase, a 40-basis-point spread compounds to roughly $5,100 in extra interest over five years. If you are shopping pure 5-year rate, Athene is hard to beat.

The picture flips on the FIA side. Nationwide's Peak 10 has been the more competitive cap and participation play this cycle, with the 10% premium bonus front-loading roughly $25,000 of locked-in growth on a $250,000 purchase before any index credit. Athene's FIA caps reset more often, which can be a feature or a drawback depending on rate direction. The honest read: Athene for fixed-rate shopping, Nationwide for indexed.

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Customer service and complaints

The NAIC complaint index is a normalized measure where 1.00 equals the industry average. Nationwide's most recent index sits at 0.27, Athene's at 0.34. Both are well below the industry baseline, meaning both carriers generate fewer complaints per dollar of premium than the average annuity company. Practically, the difference is small.

In our day-to-day experience placing business with both carriers: Athene is the faster underwriter on standard MYGA cases, often issuing within 5 to 7 business days. Nationwide is more deliberate, with an average issue time closer to 10 to 14 business days, but their post-issue service desk is one of the strongest in the industry, and they handle complex multi-policy households cleanly.