Your Annuity Issuer Is Changing Hands: Corebridge, Equitable, and Brighthouse Deals Explained

If your structured settlement or annuity checks come from Corebridge or Brighthouse, the company on your statements is changing hands.

On March 26, 2026, Corebridge Financial, the former AIG life and retirement business and one of the most active structured settlement issuers, announced an all-stock merger with Equitable Holdings valuing the combined company at roughly $22 billion. The merged company will operate under the Equitable name, with the deal expected to close by the end of 2026.

Months earlier, on November 6, 2025, Brighthouse Financial, the former MetLife annuity business that administers large blocks of legacy structured settlements, agreed to be acquired by Aquarian Capital for $4.1 billion. Shareholders approved in February 2026 and the deal remains pending as of this writing.

An annuity is a contract, and a merger or acquisition does not rewrite it. Your payment amounts, dates, and guarantees carry over to the successor company. This has already happened to millions of payees over the past decade: Allstate's life business became Everlake, AIG became Corebridge, and Hartford's legacy annuities moved to Talcott. Checks kept arriving.

What does change is the name on correspondence, sometimes the servicing portal or phone number, and, over time, the financial character of the owner. Both 2026 deals have rating agencies paying attention: AM Best placed Corebridge's ratings under review pending the merger, and Brighthouse's A rating is under review with negative implications while its sale closes, after the company posted a $792 million first-quarter loss.

Brighthouse's buyer is a private capital firm, joining Blackstone-owned Everlake and Sixth Street-owned Talcott as private owners of enormous legacy annuity blocks. Industry commentators have started asking pointed questions about what concentrated private-credit ownership means for policyholders if credit markets turn.

None of that is cause for alarm about any individual check. State guaranty associations backstop annuity obligations up to state-specific limits, and the insurers behind structured settlements remain heavily regulated. But if you follow your issuer's financial strength rating the way homeowners follow their insurer, 2026 is a year to pay attention. Our issuer directory tracks who currently stands behind the major structured settlement books, and our guide to state guaranty associations explains the safety net.

Issuer changes alone are rarely a reason to sell payments, and a sale should never be a panic decision. But if your circumstances have changed and you were already weighing a lump sum, know how the process works before you talk to anyone: every transfer requires court approval under your state's Structured Settlement Protection Act, a judge must find the sale in your best interest, and a legitimate quote states the discount rate in writing. Transactions through this site are funded and completed by our funding partner, Genex Capital, after court approval. Start with a free written quote or read the questions worth asking any buyer first.