Athene Performance Elite 10 review

It depends almost entirely on whether your 10-year commitment is real. For a buyer with genuinely untouchable long-term money who wants an immediate, guaranteed boost to their account value from a top-rated carrier, this is a good annuity — the bonus is among the largest available and it lands on real cash value, not an income-only benefit base. For anyone who might need meaningful access before year seven, it is a poor fit: the combination of unvested bonus forfeiture, 12% surrender charges, and an MVA makes an early exit expensive from three directions at once.

The rational reason to buy Performance Elite 10 is the bonus. A credit of up to 20% of premium, applied to account value at issue, is a head start that a non-bonus FIA cannot match on paper — on a $200,000 premium in a 20% band, the contract starts at $240,000 before any index crediting. Because the bonus is real account value rather than a benefit-base gimmick, it compounds with index credits, counts toward the death benefit, and is fully yours if you hold to the end of year ten. The second reason is the carrier: Athene's A+ rating from A.M. Best is a stronger grade than most companies competing in the bonus-FIA space carry, which matters on a promise that runs a decade.

I think Performance Elite 10 is best for a buyer in their 50s to late 60s — young enough to sit inside the top bonus band, old enough that a 10-year accumulation runway fits their retirement timeline — who has other liquid assets and will not need more than 5% a year from this contract. It also suits someone thinking about what passes to heirs, since death vests the bonus in full and the death benefit skips surrender charges and the MVA entirely. It is wrong for anyone shopping for lifetime income (there is no income rider on this contract, full stop), anyone who values liquidity (5% annual access is half the category standard), and anyone whose "long-term money" has a habit of becoming short-term money.

Strip away the headline number and you are buying a principal-protected index annuity where the carrier pre-pays you a large bonus and then recovers its cost through the contract design: compressed base caps, a long and unusually steep surrender schedule, a below-standard free-withdrawal allowance, and a vesting schedule that keeps the bonus out of reach for six full years. That is not a criticism — it is how every honest bonus FIA works — but it means the real question is never "do I want a 20% bonus?" It is "will index credits on the enlarged balance, minus the tighter terms, beat what a clean no-bonus FIA would have earned?" The answer depends mostly on whether you hold to term.

The premium bonus is credited to your account value at issue. The percentage is tiered by issue age and state: 20% is the headline in most states for issue ages through 70, several states use a 19% schedule, California tops out at 16%, and the bands step down with age to roughly 12–16% at ages 76–78. The brochure's age-bracket table overlaps in places, so confirm the exact bonus for your age and state on the current rate sheet before applying.

Vesting is the catch. Through the end of year six, 0% of the bonus is vested — surrender the contract or withdraw beyond the free amount and a Premium Bonus Vesting Adjustment claws back the unvested share, on top of the surrender charge and MVA. Vesting then phases in proportionally across years seven through ten and reaches 100% at the start of year eleven. Three events vest the bonus immediately in full: death, qualifying nursing home confinement, and a terminal illness waiver claim. Withdrawals inside the 5% free amount are not hit by the vesting adjustment.

The crediting menu is the other half of the accumulation story, and it is genuinely broad: annual and two-year point-to-point strategies across the S&P 500 and a set of volatility-controlled indices (BNP Paribas Multi-Asset Diversified 5, the AI Powered indices, Nasdaq FC, UBS Innovative Balanced), plus a fixed account. As of ARW rate data effective 5/1/2026, the base 1-year S&P 500 cap is 5.5%, the 1-year BNP Paribas Multi-Asset participation rate is 130%, and the fixed account pays 2.9%. Each strategy also comes in a "with charge" version that pays meaningfully higher rates — an 8% S&P cap, 185% BNP participation — in exchange for a 1.25% annual strategy charge. Those buy-up rates are where the product's growth case actually lives, but the charge is deducted monthly whether or not the index credits anything that year.

Starting in year two, you can withdraw 5% of account value each year free of surrender charge, MVA, and vesting adjustment, as long as at least $5,000 stays in the contract. That is half the 10% allowance most competing FIAs offer, and there is no free-withdrawal access at all in year one. Amounts above the free allowance are subject to the surrender schedule of **12% / 12% / 12% / 11% / 10% / 9% / 8% / 7% / 6% / 4%**, a market value adjustment, and the loss of any unvested bonus. The nursing home and terminal illness waivers are the pressure valves: either event releases the full value with no charge, no MVA, and the bonus fully vested. The minimum guaranteed surrender value floor is 87.5% of premium accumulated at 1–3%.

There is no base contract fee and no rider fee — there is no rider to charge for. The only explicit fee is optional: the 1.25% annual strategy charge on the buy-up crediting strategies, deducted monthly from the strategy value and locked for the index term. In a flat or down index year, that charge still comes out, which means the "with charge" strategies can lose ground in years when the base versions simply credit zero.

The larger cost is implicit. The bonus is financed through the contract terms: a base S&P cap in the mid-single digits, the steepest opening surrender charges in the peer group, a below-standard free-withdrawal allowance, and six years of zero vesting. Athene's own guaranteed-yield-to-surrender figures — roughly 1.5% to 2.4% depending on band — tell you what the worst case looks like if index credits disappoint. None of this is hidden, but it is the real price of the headline number.

Performance Elite 10 is issued by Athene Annuity and Life Company, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. Athene is a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management and carries an A+ rating from A.M. Best. Athene is one of the largest fixed annuity issuers in the United States, and its financial strength matters here more than it would on a shorter product: the bonus's value depends on the carrier making good on a contract that runs at least a decade, and the A+ grade is a genuine advantage over the mostly A- and B++ rated carriers competing in the bonus-FIA space.