Who's behind North American Co.
Private / employee-owned (ESOP) · Sammons Financial Group. As a privately held, employee-owned company, the carrier answers to its internal stakeholders rather than to quarterly public-market expectations, which can support a longer-term capital posture but also means less of the public disclosure that comes with a listed company.
For the high-net-worth buyer, North American's appeal is less about a headline rate and more about who stands behind the contract. As part of a privately held, employee-owned group, the company is insulated from the quarterly earnings pressure that shapes some publicly traded and PE-backed insurers, and its A+ financial-strength rating reflects a balance sheet built to honor long-dated guarantees. That combination is why the carrier has earned a following among fee-only advisors who screen for clean product structures.
What North American Co.'s A+ A.M. Best rating tells you
The A+ rating from A.M. Best places North American squarely in the top tier of carrier financial strength, signaling a superior ability to meet long-dated contractual obligations on multi-year guarantees. It is solid but sits below the top: it trails the A++ marks of the largest dividend-paying mutuals, so a buyer relying on it for very large, multi-decade commitments should weigh that gap.
Illustrative projection, not a prediction or a quote: $100,000 at a constant 5% for 20 years, a 24% bracket throughout, no withdrawals, fees or rate changes (a real contract's rate is guaranteed only for its term). Both lines after tax. Deferral changes when you pay tax, not whether; the net advantage here is $14,814, smaller if your bracket rises and larger if it falls.
The product mix, spanning multi-year guaranteed annuities, fixed-indexed contracts, and immediate income annuities, gives a laddering buyer flexibility to match different sleeves of a portfolio to different objectives. The fixed-indexed line in particular is where the company's design reputation matters most: indexed crediting is only as good as its underlying mechanics, so an affluent buyer should request the current rate sheet and read the participation and cap terms rather than relying on illustrations alone.
Affluent buyers who want a clean, transparently structured MYGA or fixed-indexed annuity from a top-rated carrier with a strong reputation among fee-only RIAs, and who value product design over chasing the single highest teaser rate.
The A+ rating sits a notch below the A++ top mutual carriers, so a buyer concentrating a very large allocation here may prefer to ladder across additional A-rated carriers rather than over-index on this one, and fixed-indexed contracts in general warrant a careful read of the crediting mechanics before committing.
The honest caveat is where the A+ rating lands relative to the very top. It is respectable and top-tier, but it does not match the A++ marks of the largest dividend-paying mutuals. For a six- or seven-figure allocation, that argues for using North American as one rung in a diversified carrier ladder rather than as a single concentrated home for the bulk of an annuity portfolio.
Before you buy
Read how to vet carrier safety and how to buy an annuity, check today's MYGA rates, and compare North American Co. head-to-head in our best annuity companies ranking.