Equitrust Life Insurance Co

"Y’all literally suck…such a scam and getting innocent people in trouble with the IRS. Like just close down already. Glad they feel so comfortable messing people up."

"Once they have your money, my retirement by the way, they make it so difficult to get it back. The returns are horrible, customer service is horrible, long waits on the phone. The final insult, after 3 years of sitting on my money, is not only paying out a surrender fee, which by the way comes off your initial investment, but also the over $7,000 I did earn in interest. They keep that on top of the surrender value. Do not waste your time and money with this company. Read the comments! I finally had enough with them; I filed the paperwork on 1/16/2024 and am still waiting for my money. It amazes me that in this day of transfers it is now 2/5/2024, and still my money is on hold. You have been warned."

"The negative feedback I see for EquiTrust is from Consumers who didn't have good Agents to explain the products to them properly. I have worked with EquiTrust for 15 years on both the Corp and IMO/Brokerage side and its a great company all around. Remind you I work with over 30 Annuity Carriers and EquiTrust is one of the Top Carriers I work with."

"Notice that the positive reviews are from employees. Every single review I read about this company from a CUSTOMER is one star. If you haven't gotten your money out yet, do it. NOW. It reminds me of a Ponzi scheme. They give you the runaround about your withdrawals and expect you to hang on forever while they tell you they need this, that, and the other to put you off. If you're going to get your money out: 1. Start MONTHS in advance. Not days or weeks. You'll never make it. 2. Send everything certified mail, signature receipt requested, so they can't claim they didn't get it. 3. cc your lawyer on everything from the very first form/letter. 4. Make copies of EVERYTHING. 5. Document all conversations. 6. When things start getting difficult (and they will), send a demand letter and also begin cc'ing the Iowa State Attorney General's office as well. Get your money out now. And then RUN."

"We had an Equitrust Annuity for 5 years. When we went to cash it in after five years on the anniversary date they didn't provide an annual statement to show us what the interest we earned was nor what the fees and penalties were. After much pain they transferred the money, but there was never a statement showing how Equitrust came to the amount they gave us. We called and were told it was not company policy to provide a statement if you gave up the policy on the anniversary date and that we needed to wait one day from the anniversary to get a statement. When we called several months before our anniversary date to ask how to cash in the annuity they said to do it on the anniversary date so we would collect our interest for the year. When we thought the amount we received was hundreds below what was expected and tried to find out what the final charges to the account were we were told they couldn't give us this information. We changed companies because of the $0 to very low interest on the yearly anniversary dates. Over 5 years we received less than 1% on our initial investment. Absolutely don't recommend this company."