Refinance Your Retirement: A New Approach to an Old Problem
Leverage Higher Interest Rates To Your Advantage
While today’s high interest rates may have slowed mortgage refinancing, they’ve opened an entirely new opportunity for retirement planning.
A Retirement Refinance allows clients to reposition assets into modern annuities, taking advantage of today’s higher rates to secure stronger bonuses, greater growth potential, and more guaranteed lifetime income — opportunities we haven’t seen in over 20 years.
The Familiar Mortgage Refinance Story — But Applied to Retirement
Homeowners have long understood the value of refinancing a mortgage when rates drop: better terms, more savings, stronger cash flow.
But now, as rates have risen dramatically since 2020 — increasing by over 400% — we’re seeing the opposite effect open doors for retirees.
Where mortgage refinancing has slowed, retirement refinancing is heating up.
How a Retirement Refinance Works
Today’s higher rates directly benefit FIA policyholders in several key ways:
1️⃣ Higher Participation Rates
Current FIA participation rates have surged — in some cases offering 200% to 350% participation. That means a client’s annuity could credit 2–3.5x the index return, dramatically enhancing accumulation potential.
2️⃣ Premium Bonuses at Record Levels
Many FIAs are offering initial premium bonuses of 10% to 20% — some of the highest levels ever seen — immediately boosting the client’s contract value at inception.
3️⃣ Stronger Guaranteed Lifetime Income
With Income Base Bonuses as high as 30%, and guaranteed roll-up rates reaching 8%, FIAs today can generate higher levels of lifetime income — locking in income streams designed to endure for life, no matter how long that may be.
When to Consider a Retirement Refinance
A Retirement Refinance may make sense when:
New FIA crediting options or income features significantly outperform existing policies
Clients want to offset recent market losses or reposition for stronger guarantees
Client goals or financial needs have evolved since purchasing the original annuity
Factors to carefully evaluate before exchanging policies include:
Existing income or death benefit riders and their current values
The benefit base relative to the contract value
Planned timing for income withdrawals or legacy planning
In many cases, even contracts with strong riders may still benefit from refinancing, depending on how today’s enhanced bonus structures, participation rates, and guaranteed roll-ups compare to older policy terms. Each scenario should be analyzed individually to determine potential advantages or trade-offs.
Why This Is a Timely Planning Conversation
This is not about selling “new product” for the sake of activity.
It’s about reevaluating whether a client’s current retirement income plan is truly optimized for today’s economic landscape.
Markets evolve. Rates change. And just like homeowners evaluate refinancing options as rates shift, retirement income should be stress-tested to ensure it’s still maximizing benefits for the client.
The Bottom Line
While today’s rates have made mortgage refinancing far less attractive, they’ve created one of the strongest environments in decades for retirement income optimization.
Retirement Refinance helps advisors capitalize on this environment — delivering higher payouts, stronger guarantees, and greater confidence for clients who need their income to endure.
This is what The Endurance Plan is all about.
Retirement Refinance is one more way to help your clients endure uncertainty with confidence.
Use the client-ready one-pager to introduce the idea.
And when you're ready to explore specific client scenarios, our team of experts is here to handle the careful evaluation — so you can stay focused on your clients, while we do the heavy lifting.
