Delaware Life partners with BlackRock to offer bitcoin exposure through fixed index annuity

Delaware Life Insurance Company says it is the first insurance carrier to offer investors exposure to crypto through a fixed index annuity.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it has added the BlackRock U.S. Equity Bitcoin Balanced Risk 12% Index to its fixed index annuity portfolio. The relatively new index blends traditional U.S. equities with Bitcoin exposure, primarily through investments in BlackRock's iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.

"As the retirement-planning landscape evolves, we're continuously and thoughtfully innovating to meet the needs of financial professionals and their clients," Delaware Life Marketing President and CEO Colin Lake said in the statement.

Delaware Life's new offering is the product of a new partnership with BlackRock, issuer of the largest spot bitcoin ETF, ticker symbol IBIT.

"This launch builds around the tremendous success and client demand we have seen for IBIT, enabling insurance clients to now add bitcoin exposure as part of a broader indexed annuity strategy,” BlackRock Global Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick said, adding that the new index allows "policyholders to participate in digital assets while maintaining the downside protection they expect from annuity products.”

A fixed annuity is one of the safest financial instruments on the market, as an investor's principal capital is protected against losses. 

BlackRock's IBIT, launched in January 2024, has nearly $76 billion in assets under management. Delaware Life is a subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance Holdings, LLC, which has combined assets under management of $76.4 billion, according to a statement.

Bitcoin exchange-traded products, which enable investors to forgo holding the cryptocurrency directly, continue to attract more institutional investment capital. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted $1.4 billion in weekly net inflows last week, the highest weekly total since early October.