So...I ended up going with an MYGA anyway (I was leaning CD when I wrote about this a couple weeks ago), to rebuild the 5 year rung of the ladder.
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There are A.M. Best rated issuers at the A- level (which translates to an expected rate of failure of 0.15% in the first year) that were paying as much as 6.3% when I locked in the other week. I went with one at that credit rating that paid 5.7% as they had been doing business longer, and had been upgraded about 8 years ago, and were reaffirmed a couple years ago. The 6.3% guys just started in the business in late 2024, so I took a pass for now. Who knows, maybe next year?

And boy did I research the issuer. I google map drove around their building (they've done some beautification), looked at their office party pictures, looked at their capitalization ratio, looked at how long their parent company had been in business, etc.

Also, if anyone does something like this - or should I say more specifically, sends a wire these days, call the company. Voice verify their information. There's a cyberattack vector here: a really clever, malicious actor will try to get into the email boxes of companies like this - or real estate title companies - anyone who asks for wires. The actor will send out emails that *look* like they're from the company, with wiring instructions, but that wire may as well be gone forever if you send it to their bullshit account.

This was all digital, this year. Last year I got some big folders from the issuers, with pretty brochures, and such.