ForeIncome II 10-Year with Guaranteed Income Builder (Morgan Stanley) review

Yes, for the right buyer. This is a good annuity for someone who wants protected lifetime income, plans to defer for several years before turning income on, and values having the income engine built into the contract rather than added later. It is less appealing for someone who mainly wants accumulation, expects to need access to principal above the 10% free amount, or is uncomfortable paying a recurring rider fee on a guarantee they may not use for a decade or more.

The main reason to buy this version of ForeIncome II is to lock in a future income stream while keeping principal protected along the way, and to do so through a Morgan Stanley advisor relationship. The 10% annual credit to the withdrawal base is contractual, not dependent on index performance, which means the income foundation grows on a schedule regardless of what markets do. A second reason is the chronic illness enhancement included at no extra charge, which gives the contract a care-planning dimension that many income FIAs charge separately for or do not offer at all.

I think this annuity is best for a Morgan Stanley client roughly 55 to 70 who is using long-term money to manufacture a retirement paycheck, expects to defer withdrawals for several years, and wants the certainty of a guaranteed income figure they can plan around. The 45-85 issue-age band is wider than many income products, which allows both pre-retirees and people already in early retirement to fund it. It works in qualified and non-qualified accounts. It is a poor fit for someone who wants strong accumulation, needs frequent access above the free amount, or would rather pay no annual fee on a guarantee they are uncertain they will use.

You are not buying index-market upside. You are buying a guaranteed income framework wrapped around a principal-protected annuity. The contract tracks two separate numbers. One is your actual account value — real cash that grows based on index crediting and passes to heirs. The other is the withdrawal base — an accounting figure used only to calculate your guaranteed income, which grows by the 10% annual credit. The withdrawal base will be larger and grow faster than the account value, but it is not money you can withdraw in a lump sum. It exists to determine how large your lifetime income payments will be once you activate them, and those payments continue for life even if the account value eventually reaches zero.

The Guaranteed Income Builder — technically the Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit XII — is built into the contract automatically. No election is needed at purchase. While you defer, the rider credits 10% to your withdrawal base each contract year for up to 15 years or until you activate income, whichever comes first. That credit is described in the materials as an annual increase to the benefit base, which reads as simple interest on the base rather than compounding growth. Confirm the exact mechanics on the current rate sheet before modeling specific income figures. When you are ready to activate, your age at that point and the size of your withdrawal base together determine the guaranteed annual amount you can take for life. Those payments continue even if the underlying account value is drawn down to zero. The fee for this guarantee is 1.20% per year, deducted from your account value and calculated on the withdrawal base.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the Income Enhancement Benefit, a chronic illness rider included at no separate charge. If you later cannot perform a set number of activities of daily living, the rider can increase your income payout under its terms. That turns this contract into a partial backstop for care costs without requiring a standalone long-term-care policy, and having it bundled at no extra cost improves the overall value equation in a way that a simple income rider does not.

The crediting menu is also notable. The contract offers access to the S&P 500 on an Annual Point-to-Point basis with a cap of 5.00% and a 1.00% spread, a Performance Triggered account at 3.85%, and a Fixed Account at 3.00%. Those are conservative terms by accumulation standards, but they are appropriate for a product that is primarily designed to support a lifetime income guarantee rather than maximize cash growth. The crediting is a modest tailwind for the account value, not the headline feature.

This annuity is built for long-term retirement dollars, not short-term cash needs. You can withdraw up to 10% of the beginning-of-year contract value each year without surrender charges, and in year one the limit is 10% of account value. Anything above that amount during the 10-year surrender period triggers the declining charge schedule below, and a Market Value Adjustment also applies. The MVA means your effective exit cost can move with interest rates — in a rising-rate environment, the MVA can add to your penalty; in a falling-rate environment, it can reduce it.

There are some relief provisions. The contract is noted as RMD-friendly, meaning required minimum distributions should generally be manageable within or alongside the free-withdrawal amount, but confirm this directly with the carrier for your specific qualified account situation. Nursing home and terminal illness waivers can lift surrender charges in qualifying circumstances. Even with those provisions, this is a long-duration contract and should be treated as committed retirement capital, not accessible savings.

The fee that matters is the 1.20% annual rider charge for the Guaranteed Income Builder. It is deducted from your account value each year, but it is calculated on the withdrawal base, which is larger and grows faster than the actual account value. That means the dollar cost of the fee increases over time even if your real account value stays flat. There is no separate base-contract fee disclosed, and both the death benefit and the chronic illness enhancement are included rather than charged separately, so the rider charge is effectively the entire fee story.

Name the trade plainly: 1.20% per year buys you a guaranteed 10% annual increase to your future income base for up to 15 years, plus a lifetime payout that does not stop if the account runs dry. Whether that is worth it depends almost entirely on whether you actually activate income and live long enough to recover the fee cost through the guaranteed payments. If you defer, activate, and live a long time, the guarantee can be highly valuable. If you end up surrendering early or never turning income on, you will have paid the fee for a benefit you did not use, and the conservative crediting will have left your cash value lighter than a pure accumulation FIA would have. That is the structural bargain inside every income-first FIA, and this contract is no exception.

Legal Entity: Forethought Life Insurance Company

Parent: Global Atlantic Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A

ForeIncome II is issued by Forethought Life Insurance Company, part of Global Atlantic Financial Group. The A.M. Best rating of A places the carrier in solid financial-strength territory, which matters more than usual for an income product — the lifetime payout guarantee is only as good as the insurer standing behind it over a multi-decade retirement horizon.