Series S (Raymond James) review

It depends on what you want. This is a reasonable variable annuity for someone who wants tax-deferred market exposure inside an insurance wrapper and is willing to accept investment risk to get it. It is not a good fit for someone who came to annuities for principal protection or a guaranteed rate — those buyers want a fixed, indexed, or structured product instead. The honest framing is that Series S is a competent VA chassis whose value hinges entirely on whether you use the tax deferral and riders enough to justify the layered fees.

The main reason to buy Series S is tax-deferred growth with the ability to invest across a broad fund menu — useful for someone who has already maxed out IRAs and 401(k)s and wants another tax-deferred bucket. The secondary reason is the optional living-benefit rider, which can turn part of the account into guaranteed lifetime income later even if the markets disappoint. There is also a no-charge return-of-premium death benefit that protects your beneficiaries from a down market at the time of death. In practice, this is the type of contract an investor buys on an advisor's recommendation when they want market participation plus an optional income or legacy guarantee, and are comfortable paying for the insurance features.

I think Series S is best for an investor in their 50s or 60s who already has a Raymond James advisor, has used up other tax-advantaged accounts, and wants tax-deferred market exposure with the option to layer on a guarantee. It fits both qualified and non-qualified money, though the tax-deferral benefit is most meaningful with non-qualified dollars since an IRA is already tax-deferred. It is less attractive for someone who wants principal protection, someone who would never use a rider (a low-cost taxable brokerage account is usually cheaper for pure investing), or anyone who might need the full balance back inside the seven-year surrender window. It is also a poor fit for very conservative buyers — if a market drop would keep you up at night, this is the wrong category of annuity.

You are not buying a guaranteed rate, and you are not buying principal protection. You are buying a tax-deferred investment account that holds mutual-fund-style portfolios called subaccounts, wrapped in an insurance contract that adds optional guarantees. Inside Series S you allocate your premium across up to 62 subaccounts — stock funds, bond funds, balanced funds — and your account value moves with whatever you pick. There is no fixed account to fall back on, so the only way to "play it safe" is to choose conservative subaccounts, not to avoid market risk entirely. The insurance company isn't promising you growth; it's promising tax deferral on whatever the investments earn, plus a death benefit that returns at least your premiums, plus access to riders you can buy. Strip away the brochure framing and Series S is essentially a fund portfolio with an insurance layer bolted on top — and you pay for that layer every year whether the markets cooperate or not.

The core of Series S is the subaccount platform. You divide your premium among the available investment options, and each subaccount is essentially a professionally managed fund. Returns are not capped and not floored — if your funds go up 20%, your account value goes up roughly that much minus fees; if they fall 20%, you absorb that loss too. This is the fundamental difference between a variable annuity and a fixed or indexed one: the indexed products trade away upside for a 0% floor, while Series S keeps the full upside and the full downside.

The contract also offers a Dollar Cost Averaging program that pays a stated 3.00% on money parked in 3-, 6-, or 12-month DCA accounts while it is systematically moved into the subaccounts. That is a transition tool, not a place to leave money long term. There is no permanent fixed account in this product, so once the DCA period ends your money is in the markets.

One structural note worth understanding: Series S is also sold in an "L Share" version with a shorter four-year surrender schedule but a higher 1.85% mortality-and-expense charge in the early years. The version described here is the standard share class with a seven-year surrender and a 1.15% base charge. Which share class you are quoted changes the cost-versus-liquidity math, so confirm it.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the optional living-benefit rider, because it is what separates a variable annuity from an ordinary investment account. Series S offers FlexChoice Access VI, a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit that builds a separate Benefit Base growing at a 5.00% compound roll-up over a 10-year accumulation period. That roll-up applies to the Benefit Base used to calculate guaranteed income — it is not your real cash value, so you cannot walk away with it; it only governs how much you can withdraw for life. The rider costs 1.35% of the Benefit Base annually (with a contractual cap of 2.00%). There is also a simpler Guaranteed Withdrawal Benefit at 0.90%, and a separate optional GLWB Death Benefit rider (issue ages 50–65, 0.65% annually) that adds the same 5% roll-up logic to the death benefit.

These riders are the reason to consider a VA over a brokerage account: they convert market exposure into a floor of guaranteed income or legacy value. But they are optional and they cost real money every year. If you add FlexChoice Access VI and never activate income — or if your investments do well enough that the guarantee never matters — you simply paid 1.35% a year for a backstop you didn't use. The rider is worth it only if you actually plan to turn income on and want the insurance against poor market timing.

Series S uses a seven-year surrender schedule that starts at 7% and declines to 0% in year eight, as shown below. There is no market value adjustment on this contract, which is a point in its favor — your surrender penalty is a fixed percentage and does not swing with interest rates the way an MVA would. Liquidity is more generous than many fixed annuities: you can withdraw 100% of your earnings at any time without a charge, and after the first year you can take up to 10% of your purchase payments annually penalty-free. You do have to leave at least $2,000 in the account, and systematic withdrawals (monthly or quarterly, minimum $100 per payment) can start in year two.

There are also surrender-charge waivers for life events. A Nursing Home Waiver drops the withdrawal charge after year one if you are confined to a hospital or nursing home for 90-plus days (owner age 80 or younger at issue), and a Terminal Illness Waiver does the same if you are diagnosed with a life expectancy of 12 months or less under the same age limit. These waivers only relieve the surrender charge — they do not protect you from investment losses, which is a separate risk in a variable annuity.

One caveat: if you elect the Guaranteed Access Benefit or the FlexChoice Access GLWB, no additional payments are allowed after the first 120 days. RMD treatment was not clearly disclosed in the available materials, so if you intend to hold qualified money here and take required distributions, confirm how RMDs interact with the surrender charge directly with the carrier.

The fees on a variable annuity stack in layers, and it is important to see all of them. The base contract charges a 1.15% mortality-and-expense and administration fee annually, which includes a 0.25% administrative component and the standard Principal Protection death benefit — so the return-of-premium death benefit is genuinely free in the sense that it is already inside that 1.15%.

On top of the base charge come the subaccount expenses, which the materials list at a net range of 0.52% to 9.00% assessed daily on the funds you hold. That top end is unusually high and almost certainly reflects a handful of specialty subaccounts; most diversified investors will land far below it, but you should look at the expense ratio of every fund you actually select, because that cost comes straight off your return.

Then there are the optional riders. FlexChoice Access VI costs 1.35% of the Benefit Base (capped at 2.00%); the simpler Guaranteed Withdrawal Benefit is 0.90%; and the optional GLWB Death Benefit is 0.65%. There is also a flat $30 annual account fee, waived once your account value reaches $50,000, and a $25 charge for transfers beyond 12 per year (currently waived).

Here is the trade in plain terms: a stripped-down Series S with low-cost subaccounts and no rider might run roughly 1.7% to 2.0% all-in, which is defensible for tax-deferred market exposure with a free death benefit. Load on a living-benefit rider and a couple of pricier funds and you can easily clear 2.5% to 3% a year. That higher number only makes sense if the rider's guarantee is something you intend to use. Paying for guarantees you never activate is the most common way a variable annuity disappoints its owner.

Legal Entity: Brighthouse Life Insurance Company

AM Best Rating: A