MassMutual Ascend is giving advisors a way to limit one of the less predictable parts of owning a registered index-linked annuity: what happens to the cap rate when a term renews.
The Cincinnati-based insurer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., has added a feature called Cap Control to select indexed strategies on its RILAs. The feature sets a defined range around a strategy’s initial cap rate, which restricts how far the cap can rise or fall from one term to the next.
Having a tighter band shields clients from a steep cut at renewal, but it also limits how much a cap can climb when conditions would otherwise support a richer rate.
In a RILA, the cap is the maximum index-linked return a contract can be credited over a term. The client accepts that ceiling in exchange for a buffer or floor that absorbs some losses.
“Cap Control is a direct response to advisor feedback, providing greater transparency around renewal cap expectations and helping advisors have more confident conversations with clients,” Dave Mebius, vice president of national accounts at MassMutual Ascend, said in a statement announcing the new feature.
MassMutual Ascend – which sells fixed, fixed-indexed and registered index-linked annuities through retail, broker-dealer, financial-institution and RIA channels – describes Cap Control as the first feature of its kind. Mebius said the company’s RILA business has passed $5 billion in lifetime sales.
The MassMutual subsidiary has been building out its fee-based business, recently announcing it had crossed $2 billion in lifetime advisory annuity sales, written through more than 1,700 investment advisor representatives.
LIMRA’s second-quarter rankings put Massachusetts Mutual Life 17th among RILA writers for the first half of 2026, with about $463 million in sales. Equitable Financial led the category with $8.2 billion, followed by Allianz Life of North America at $5.9 billion and Jackson National Life at $4.4 billion.
The top 20 carriers accounted for 99% of the $44.4 billion in industrywide RILA sales over Q2 2026, which capped a record first half for annuity sales.
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Preliminary estimates from LIMRA indicate RILA sales reached a record $25.3 billion in the third quarter, a 22% annual increase that would mark the first time the category has topped $25 billion in a single three-month period.
Through the first nine months of 2026, RILA sales were estimated at $69.7 billion, up 21% from the same stretch of 2025. LIMRA has projected full-year RILA sales above $85 billion.
Some of that growth has come at the expense of fixed indexed annuities, which offer principal protection without the market participation of a registered product. FIA sales fell 8% from a year earlier to $30.7 billion in the third quarter. LIMRA cited competitive pressure from RILAs and from fixed-rate deferred annuities, which tend to respond faster to rising rates.
“Investors continue to value RILA’s combination of upside market participation and downside protection,” said Keith Golembiewski, assistant vice president and head of LIMRA Annuity Research.
Total annuity sales hit an estimated record $126.3 billion in the quarter, marking the 12th straight quarter above $100 billion in sales.
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