MarketPower Bonus Index review

It depends, and mostly on one question: how long can you leave the money alone? For a buyer who is certain they will not need this money for 14-plus years and wants the head start of a large upfront bonus, it is a reasonable accumulation vehicle. For anyone who might need liquidity, is near or past RMD age, or wants lifetime income, it is the wrong product. The 14-year lockup is not a footnote here — it is the defining feature, and it rules out most people.

The rational case is the bonus. A 12% credit added to your account value on day one gives your money a meaningful head start, and because that bonus is retained even on a full surrender, you are not gambling that you will stay the full term to keep it. On top of that, the crediting menu is unusually deep for a bonus product — ten indexed strategies across four indices, plus a fixed account — so you are not boxed into a single index or method. If you have a lump sum you have already earmarked as untouchable long-term money, the bonus plus index-linked growth potential is the draw.

I think this is best for a younger accumulator — realistically someone in their 40s or 50s, comfortably under 59½ and well under RMD age — with a lump sum they have already decided is long-term money they will not touch. Because income does not vary and there is no income rider, it fits a buyer whose goal is growth and eventual legacy, not a paycheck. It works better in a non-qualified account or a Roth than in a traditional IRA, where required minimum distributions will start colliding with the surrender schedule long before it burns off. It is a poor fit for anyone near retirement, anyone who values liquidity, and anyone who wants guaranteed lifetime income.

You are not buying stock market exposure, and you are not buying a simple fixed rate. You are buying a principal-protected contract that credits interest based on index formulas — caps, participation rates, and performance triggers — with a large bonus bolted onto the front and a very long penalty period bolted onto the back. The honest way to read this product is as a package deal: the insurer gives you 12% up front and, in return, keeps your money working for them for 14 years and holds your crediting rates below what a plain, no-bonus FIA would pay. Bonus annuities are not charity. The bonus is recovered over time through lower caps and the long lockup, and this contract's exceptionally long surrender schedule is what makes a bonus this size possible.

The 12% premium bonus applies to premium paid during the first contract year and is added to your Accumulation Value immediately and permanently — it is not on a separate vesting schedule, and you keep 100% of it even if you fully surrender. That last part genuinely matters: many bonus annuities claw back the bonus if you leave early, and this one does not. From there, your money grows based on how you allocate across the crediting strategies. The menu is broad — ten indexed options including annual point-to-point with cap or participation, a performance trigger, monthly-average and monthly-cap methods, and a two-year point-to-point — spread across the S&P 500, S&P 500 Dynamic Intraday TCA, S&P MARC 5% Excess Return, and Barclays Focus50 indices, plus a fixed account (3.25% as of the 3/10/2026 rate snapshot). The specific caps and participation rates are the lever the insurer uses to pay for the bonus, so expect them to run lower than a comparable non-bonus contract. The Wink rate sheet showed annual caps roughly in the 5.75%–8.00% range and participation rates from 50% to 160% depending on strategy, but treat those as a snapshot — ask for the current rate sheet before you buy, because on a 14-year contract the renewal caps you cannot see today matter far more than the ones you can.

The second thing worth your attention is what happens at death and in a care event, because on a 14-year contract there is a real chance one of those arrives before the surrender period ends. The death benefit is clean: your beneficiary receives the full Accumulation Value, including 100% of the premium bonus, with no surrender charges and no market value adjustment. That turns the long lockup into much less of a problem for legacy purposes — heirs are not penalized for the fact that you were still inside the surrender window. The contract also includes a Nursing Home Waiver (full account access after year one for a confinement of 90-plus consecutive days) and a Terminal Illness Rider (up to 75% of Accumulation Value after a one-year wait), both at no additional charge. These are the escape hatches that make an otherwise unforgiving contract more livable if life goes sideways.

This is where the product demands the most scrutiny. The surrender schedule runs a full 14 years and opens at 20% — meaning a full surrender in the first two years costs one-fifth of your money before any market value adjustment — and it does not reach zero until after year 14. That is the longest and among the steepest schedules we have reviewed. On top of the surrender charge, a market value adjustment (MVA) applies: an MVA means your penalty moves with interest rates, and in a rising-rate environment it can make an early exit cost even more than the schedule alone suggests. You do get a 10% free withdrawal of Accumulation Value each year after the first contract year, and in year one you can pull interest-only via systematic EFT withdrawals from the fixed account — so the contract is not fully locked, but the free amount is modest relative to a 14-year hold. Note the state-by-state wrinkle: in a list of states including TX, PA, IL, OH, NJ and others, a shorter 10-year schedule (starting at 19%) applies instead of the 14-year version, and the product is not approved in California or New York at all. If you live in a 10-year-schedule state, you are buying a meaningfully more liquid contract than the headline 14 years suggests — confirm which schedule applies to you before signing.

There is no explicit annual product, mortality-and-expense, or admin fee disclosed on the base contract, and the care waivers carry no charge — so on paper this looks fee-light. But the real cost here is not a line-item fee; it is structural. You pay for the 12% bonus through held-down caps and participation rates and through 14 years of surrender exposure. If you want richer crediting on the S&P 500, two of the strategies (a point-to-point cap buy-up and a participation buy-up) carry a 1.00% annual fee that is deducted whether or not the index performs — a real drag in flat or negative years. The Minimum Guaranteed Surrender Value is 87.5% of premiums paid, excluding the bonus, accumulated at 1%–3%, which is the standard floor and confirms the bonus is not part of the guaranteed backstop if things go badly. And the carrier itself is a tradeoff: EquiTrust holds an A.M. Best rating of B++, which is below the A-range strength of many competitors — a longer, more important consideration on a contract you may hold for 14 years than on a short one.

Legal Entity: EquiTrust Life Insurance Company

Parent: Magic Johnson Enterprises (controlling interest)

A.M. Best Rating: B++