ChoiceFour (MVA) review

It depends on how you weigh the bonus against the added risk. Yes, if what you want is a modest, immediate boost to your contract value and you're comfortable holding for the full 9 years without touching principal — the bonus and the full-value death benefit are genuine positives. No, or at least not obviously, if you're comparing it head-to-head against the plain Base Contract, since you're giving up a bit of rate and taking on MVA exposure for a bonus that amounts to 1.50% of premium, credited once.

Someone would buy this specifically because the 1.50% bonus is credited immediately and unconditionally on premiums received in the first contract year — no vesting schedule, no benefit-base gimmick, just an addition to the actual accumulation value. For a buyer who has already decided a 9-year EquiTrust fixed annuity fits their plan and is choosing between the Base Contract and this MVA variant, the bonus is a straightforward way to start with a higher balance, provided they're not worried about surrendering early into a rising-rate environment.

This fits a buyer with long-horizon, non-emergency money — someone who can genuinely commit to 9 years, doesn't need more than the prior year's interest in any given year, and views the premium bonus as worth accepting some MVA risk for. It's not a fit for anyone who might need principal access mid-contract, anyone uncomfortable with the idea that a market value adjustment could increase their effective surrender cost if interest rates rise after issue, or anyone chasing the very top of the fixed-annuity rate table — the bonus here is small compared to what some multi-year-guaranteed products offer outright.

You're buying a traditional single-premium fixed annuity with a one-year rate guarantee that resets annually thereafter (subject to a minimum guaranteed rate), wrapped in a 9-year surrender schedule and a market value adjustment. The "MVA" label isn't a separate rider you can add or remove later — electing the MVA Option is a permanent structural choice made at issue that trades a modestly lower credited rate for the 1.50% bonus. You are not buying index-linked upside, a living benefit, or true liquidity; you're buying a rate-of-return contract with an insurer-backed floor and a bonus sweetener.

The core mechanic is simple: EquiTrust credits an initial interest rate guaranteed for the first contract year, then resets it annually on each anniversary, never letting it fall below the contract's minimum guaranteed rate. Because the MVA Option is elected, EquiTrust adds 1.50% to the accumulation value on all premium received in year one — applied to the account balance itself, not to a separate income benefit base, so it compounds with the rest of the contract going forward. The spec's own crediting note states this version's rate runs "slightly lower" than the Base Contract's to help fund that bonus; EquiTrust's materials don't give an exact spread between the two, so shoppers comparing this against the plain Base Contract should ask for both current rates side by side rather than assume the gap is trivial.

The Nursing Home Waiver Rider is included at no extra charge and matters because it's the one built-in safety valve in an otherwise rigid contract. After the first contract year, if the owner is confined to a nursing home or hospital for at least 90 days, the accumulation value becomes available without surrender charges or MVA during that confinement — available at issue through age 80, and not offered in Massachusetts. It's a confinement waiver, not a chronic-illness or long-term-care benefit in the modern sense (it doesn't pay a benefit; it just removes the exit penalty), but paired with the full-accumulation-value death benefit, it's the closest thing this contract offers to an emergency-access plan beyond the interest-only free withdrawal.

Liquidity here is tight by design. Free withdrawals are limited to interest earned in the prior 12 months — there's no percentage-of-account-value free withdrawal the way the sibling Liquidity Rider version offers. Anything beyond that prior-year interest, taken before year 9, runs into both the surrender charge schedule below and a market value adjustment, which can move in either direction with interest rates and could make an early exit more expensive than the surrender charge alone if rates have risen since issue. The Nursing Home Waiver Rider and the death benefit are the two carve-outs where surrender charges and MVA are both waived outright.

There's no explicit rider fee, product fee, or annual contract charge disclosed for this product — it's a traditional fixed annuity, and the "cost" of the bonus and MVA protection is embedded in the crediting rate rather than billed separately. The real tradeoff isn't a line-item fee; it's the rate reduction. EquiTrust's own note says the MVA Option's rate sits below the Base Contract's, without stating the exact gap, so the honest way to evaluate this product is to get both current rate quotes from an agent and do the math on whether 1.50% credited once outweighs a lower rate compounding for up to 9 years. The Minimum Guaranteed Surrender Value floor (interest no lower than 1%, no higher than 3%) is standard for this product category and isn't a differentiator either way.

Legal Entity: EquiTrust Life Insurance Company

A.M. Best Rating: B++