ForeAccumulation II 10-Year with Growth Accelerator Rider review

Depends on how you use the crediting menu. If you allocate to the Growth Accelerator strategies, the higher participation rate has to earn back its 1.25% annual fee to be worth it — in strong index years it can, in flat years it won't. If you stick with the base crediting options, you skip that fee entirely. The bones of the product are fine — solid MGSV, a nine-index crediting menu, nursing home and terminal illness waivers, and a bailout provision — so the real question is not whether a hidden cost makes it a bad deal, but whether the enhanced-participation strategies are worth paying 1.25% a year for at current rates.

The main reason to choose the Growth Accelerator strategies over the base ForeAccumulation II crediting options is the higher participation rate — which on some strategies runs well above the base contract's participation rate — that can meaningfully lift credited interest in a good index year. A 10-year annuity gives that enhanced participation more compounding runway to outrun its 1.25% annual fee. A buyer who wants to maximize index upside, is comfortable with a decade-long commitment, and judges the higher rate worth the fee has a reasonable case for these strategies. The secondary reason is access to nine indices with both annual and biennial crediting, which gives slightly more flexibility than single-index FIAs.

I think this product is best suited for someone in their 50s or early 60s using non-qualified or IRA money who wants principal protection and is willing to pay for extra index upside through the Growth Accelerator strategies. It requires true long-term discipline — 10 years before the surrender schedule clears — and it is not appropriate for someone who might need meaningful access beyond the 10% free withdrawal during that window. Given that it is not available in CA or NY, and only available in six jurisdictions total, buyers need to confirm state approval first. Someone who wants income rider guarantees should look elsewhere entirely.

You are buying a 10-year principal-protection contract that links credited interest to external indices without giving you direct market exposure. The Growth Accelerator is not an upfront premium bonus — it is a set of optional crediting strategies that pay higher participation rates in exchange for a 1.25% annual fee on each strategy you elect, charged for the life of the contract. The base mechanism is the same as any FIA: if the index you chose goes up, you receive a credit capped or participation-rate-limited by the terms in your contract; if it goes down, you receive zero but lose nothing from market movement. Electing a Growth Accelerator strategy raises your upside participation but costs 1.25% a year, so the net benefit depends on how much extra the higher rate actually earns.

The Growth Accelerator is a set of optional crediting strategies rather than an upfront premium enhancement. When you allocate to a Growth Accelerator strategy, that portion of your account value earns index credit at a higher participation rate than the base strategies, and a 1.25% annual fee is deducted for that strategy for the life of the contract. The net effect is that you can dial up your index participation on some or all of your money, but you pay 1.25% a year on whatever you allocate to a Growth Accelerator strategy — so it only pays off when the extra participation earns back more than the fee.

The crediting side uses nine indices: S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, Nasdaq-100, BlackRock Diversa Volatility Control Index, Franklin US Index, JP Morgan Cross-Asset Strategy Index, Nasdaq-100 Agile 15%, PIMCO Balanced Index, and S&P 500 Engle 12% VT (USA) ER. Crediting is available in annual point-to-point (with a cap or a participation rate) and biennial term-end formats. As of mid-2026, participation rates on the Growth Accelerator strategies run from roughly 90% up to about 335% depending on the index and term, and the cap-based strategies (S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, MSCI EAFE) are capped around 12% — each Growth Accelerator strategy carrying the 1.25% annual fee. The biennial crediting option can capture gains from a two-year index window rather than resetting every 12 months, which may smooth out short-term volatility but also delays visibility into credited interest.

The Enhanced Death Benefit (EDB) rider is the secondary feature worth understanding. The standard death benefit on this contract is full account value, which already means heirs receive what has accumulated — no haircut at death. The optional EDB goes further by applying a guaranteed 10% simple interest roll-up to the death benefit base for up to 15 years. If the insured passes before the account value catches up to or exceeds the roll-up amount, the EDB pays the greater of the two, so it can produce a larger payout than the account itself. This makes the contract more relevant for buyers who also have an eye on legacy planning. The EDB carries its own fee — 0.75% a year for issue ages 0–70 and 1.20% a year for ages 71–80, assessed on the EDB amount — so it is worth weighing that cost against the roll-up before adding it.

ForeAccumulation II is built for long-term money. The 10-year surrender schedule starts at 9% in years 1 and 2 and steps down 1% per year to 1% in year 10 before dropping to zero. A market value adjustment (MVA) also applies during the surrender period, which means larger surrenders can be affected by two layers of cost — the stated surrender charge plus the MVA, which fluctuates with interest rates. In a rising-rate environment, the MVA can make a partial or full surrender more expensive than the stated schedule suggests.

Free withdrawals help meaningfully here: 10% of premiums in year 1 and 10% of account value in years 2 and beyond. For most buyers, this covers RMD needs from qualified accounts without triggering charges. The contract also includes waivers and a bailout provision. The Nursing Home Waiver drops the withdrawal charge and MVA if you are confined to an approved facility for 90 or more consecutive days after issue; the Terminal Illness Waiver does the same if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness after the first contract anniversary. The bailout provision lets you exit a strategy free of withdrawal charges and MVA if its renewal credited rate falls below the stated bailout rate — a useful protection against rate deterioration, though it only triggers once the renewal rate drops to that floor.

The fee picture on this product is straightforward once you know where the charges sit. Each optional Growth Accelerator crediting strategy carries a 1.25% annual fee, guaranteed for the life of the contract and deducted from account value. That fee only applies to money you allocate to a Growth Accelerator strategy — if you use the base crediting options, you do not pay it. Because the fee is charged every year on the allocated amount, the higher participation rate has to earn back more than 1.25% a year for the strategy to come out ahead.

The Enhanced Death Benefit rider, if added, carries its own fee — 0.75% a year for issue ages 0–70 and 1.20% for ages 71–80, assessed on the EDB amount. The base contract itself has no M&E charge, no annual contract fee, no administrative charge, and no product fee, which is consistent with the commission-channel FIA structure — but the optional Growth Accelerator strategy fees and the EDB fee can add up depending on the elections you make.

The practical tradeoffs are: a 10-year surrender horizon with MVA exposure, narrow state availability, participation rates that vary by strategy and may change at renewal, and a 1.25% annual fee on each Growth Accelerator strategy whose net benefit depends on the higher participation rate outrunning the fee.

Legal Entity: Forethought Life Insurance Company

Parent: Global Atlantic Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A