Prosperity Elite 14 review

It depends, and the dependency is unusually sharp here. This is a good annuity for someone with a long time horizon who wants the upfront bonus or a future income guarantee and is certain they will not need access to the principal for well over a decade. It is a poor fit for anyone who values liquidity, might face an unexpected need for the money, or wants a simpler accumulation product without the layered fees and lengthy lockup.

The main reason to buy Prosperity Elite 14 is the combination of an immediate boost to account value and the option to build a strong future income stream. The premium bonus credits extra value to the contract at issue, and the optional income rider adds an 18% bonus to the benefit base plus a 10% compound roll-up for up to 10 years before income turns on. For a buyer who is deliberately setting aside long-term retirement dollars, that pairing of an upfront bump and a guaranteed income-base growth rate is the draw.

I think this annuity is best for someone in their pre-retirement or early-retirement years who is parking money they will not need for 14-plus years and who specifically wants either the upfront bonus or a deferred lifetime-income guarantee. Because issue ages run from 0 to 85, it can also be used inside estate or legacy planning. It is not a fit for older buyers who may need liquidity, for anyone uncertain about their time horizon, or for someone who just wants straightforward principal-protected accumulation without the bonus-and-rider machinery.

You are not buying stock market participation, and you are not buying a flexible savings account. You are buying a 14-year insurance contract that front-loads value through a bonus and then asks you to stay put long enough to earn it. The bonus is a "vesting" bonus, which means it is not fully yours immediately — it vests over the surrender period, so leaving early forfeits part or all of it. The income-rider bonus and roll-up apply to a separate benefit base used only to calculate future income payments, not to your cash value. Understanding that split between account value and benefit base is the single most important thing to grasp before signing.

The core of Prosperity Elite 14 is its crediting plus bonus engine. Premium goes into a fixed account or one of several index strategies — Annual Point-to-Point, Monthly Point-to-Point, Monthly Averaging, or Performance Triggered — tied to indices including the S&P 500, a Gold Commodity index, the Balanced Asset 5 Index, the GS Global Factor Index, and the Barclays Trailblazer Sectors 5 Index. Index interest is credited based on caps, participation rates, or spreads depending on the strategy, and the contract guarantees credited index interest never falls below 0%. The premium bonus is applied at issue: the Enhancement Package adds 7% (or 4% for ages 71-85), and the Protection Package adds 14% (or 7.5% for ages 71-85). The current cap, participation, and spread rates vary widely by index and strategy and change over time, so the structure matters more than any single rate snapshot — ask for the current rate sheet before committing.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the optional Protection Package income rider. It adds an 18% bonus to the benefit base at issue and grows that base at a 10% compound rate for up to 10 years before income begins, which can build a substantial guaranteed withdrawal amount for someone willing to defer. That rider, combined with surrender-charge waivers for nursing home care, terminal illness, and home health care, gives the contract a genuine retirement-planning purpose beyond simple growth. The tradeoff is cost: the Protection Package carries a rider fee that, per the available materials, can reach up to 1.00% of the income base annually (0.35% income-rider component plus a 0.60% death-benefit component), deducted from account value whether or not you ever turn income on.

This is the heart of the caution. Prosperity Elite 14 has a 14-year surrender schedule that opens at 14.75% in year one and declines slowly, not reaching zero until year 15. A market value adjustment (MVA) also applies — meaning your surrender penalty can move with interest rates, sometimes increasing the cost of an early exit. After the first year you can take up to 10% of the vested account value each year free of surrender charges and MVA, which is standard, but anything above that during the surrender period faces both the charge and the MVA. There is meaningful relief built in: surrender charges are waived for documented nursing home stays in a licensed facility, terminal illness, and qualifying home health care. The product is also designed to be RMD-friendly, though that status is inferred from the product design and marketing materials rather than spelled out precisely in the brochure, so confirm RMD treatment with the carrier if you hold this in a qualified account. Even with the waivers, a 14-year commitment of this length should never be treated as accessible cash.

The base contract itself does not carry an explicit annual product fee disclosed in the materials. The costs come from the optional packages. The Enhancement Package charges 0.60% of the highest guaranteed death benefit annually. The Protection Package charges that same 0.60% plus an income-rider component, for a total that can reach up to 1.00% of the income base per year. Those fees buy you the bonus structure, the enhanced death benefit, and the income guarantees — so the question is whether you will actually use what you are paying for. If you add the Protection Package but never activate income, you are paying for a guarantee you do not use. Beyond the explicit fees, the structural tradeoffs are the long lockup, the vesting nature of the bonus (which you forfeit by leaving early), and index caps and spreads that limit how much of an index gain is credited.

Legal Entity: Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company

Parent: FGL Holdings

A.M. Best Rating: A