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

Yes, for the right buyer. This is a good annuity for someone purchasing through Morgan Stanley who wants protected lifetime income, is comfortable deferring withdrawals for several years, and finds genuine value in the Income Multiplier's care-event enhancement. It is less appealing for someone who wants a fixed, fully predictable income roll-up, who is shopping outside the Morgan Stanley channel, who needs liquidity in the near term, or who is mainly focused on accumulation.

The main reason to buy this version of ForeIncome II is the same as for the open-market sibling: to build future protected lifetime income while keeping principal shielded from market losses. The secondary reason is the Income Multiplier — a way to plan for higher income during a period of poor health without separately underwriting a long-term care policy. Purchasing through a Morgan Stanley advisor may also appeal to buyers who want this product integrated with a broader managed account or wealth planning relationship. For a buyer in their late 50s to early 70s expecting to defer income for several years, this contract addresses two common retirement worries inside one structure.

I think this annuity is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window, roughly age 55 to 75, who works with a Morgan Stanley advisor, is using long-term money to create a future paycheck, and plans to defer income for a meaningful stretch. It fits a buyer who values a built-in rider rather than relying on annuitization later and who treats the chronic-illness multiplier as a real planning feature. It is less attractive for someone who wants the strongest accumulation terms, needs access to principal above the free amount in the near term, wants more than two index families to allocate across, or prefers a flat guaranteed roll-up they can calculate in advance.

You are not really buying stock market upside. You are buying a lifetime income framework wrapped around a principal-protected annuity, with a care-event enhancement built into the structure. The heart of the contract is the rider. Your premium builds a Withdrawal Base, that base grows before you activate income, and your age at activation sets the percentage you can take for life. The S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE index strategies matter, but mostly as the engine that drives the interest credits that, in turn, feed the income growth. In plain terms, the index account is the fuel; the rider is the machine you actually bought.

ForeIncome II includes a Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit with Income Multiplier Benefit VII built into the contract — you do not elect it separately or pay extra. Before you activate income, the Withdrawal Base grows by **3x the interest credits** earned by your allocated strategies; after you turn income on, it grows by 1x the interest credits. This distinction deserves real attention. A "3x credits" roll-up is not the same as a fixed guaranteed roll-up. If your index strategies earn 4% in a year, the base grows by roughly 12%; if they earn nothing, the base does not grow that year. So the eventual size of your lifetime income depends partly on index performance, which is a genuine difference from income annuities that advertise a flat guaranteed percentage regardless of results.

When you activate, the rider pays a guaranteed percentage of the Withdrawal Base for life based on your age at activation. Those withdrawals continue even if the underlying contract value is later depleted — that is the lifetime guarantee the rider fee is buying. The Morgan Stanley rate sheet lists an S&P 500 cap of 5.75% (annual point-to-point) and an S&P 500 performance-triggered rate of 4.75%, plus a fixed account at 3.25%. Current caps and participation rates on the MSCI EAFE option were not fully disclosed in the available materials; ask for the current rate sheet before committing.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the Income Multiplier Benefit, delivered through the Income Enhancement Benefit. It allows your lifetime income to increase substantially — in designs of this type, often roughly doubling for a defined period — if you become unable to perform a specified number of activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, or eating. That turns a standard income annuity into something closer to a hybrid income-and-care product, without a separate long-term care policy or underwriting.

There is a tradeoff worth naming clearly. Care-enhancement features carry qualifying conditions: a waiting period, a maximum number of years the enhanced payment continues, and requirements about your contract value or rider status. The exact triggers and duration limits are governed by the rider and vary by state. The Lifestyle Payment Option is not available in California, and the product is not available in California or New York through Morgan Stanley. Treat the multiplier as a meaningful planning feature, not an open-ended care benefit, and confirm the specific qualifying terms before counting on it.

This annuity is built for long-term retirement dollars, not short-term cash. Each year you can withdraw up to **10% of the beginning-of-year Contract Value** without a charge; in the first year, access is 10% of premiums paid. Amounts above that during the first ten years trigger a withdrawal charge that starts at 9% and steps down to 1% in year ten. A Market Value Adjustment (MVA) — an adjustment that moves your surrender value up or down with changes in interest rates — can also apply to excess withdrawals during the charge period.

There are genuine relief features. A Nursing Care Waiver can eliminate withdrawal charges and the MVA if you are confined to a nursing facility for 90 or more consecutive days. A Terminal Illness Waiver can do the same after the first contract anniversary. Both are subject to contract and state terms. Even with those provisions, this is a ten-year commitment, and you should not treat it as a place to park cash you might need before year ten.

The main cost is the rider: **1.05% annually of the Withdrawal Base**, charged against contract value. That is competitive for a built-in lifetime income rider with a care-event multiplier — slightly below the 1.10% you see on comparable products — and it covers both the guaranteed lifetime payout and the Income Multiplier. Whether that fee is worth it depends on whether you actually activate income. If you surrender early for cash, you will have paid for a benefit you never used.

Beyond the explicit fee, the structural tradeoffs are real. Your upside is limited by the caps and participation rates on a narrow two-index menu. The income roll-up depends on interest credits rather than a fixed percentage. The MVA can affect larger withdrawals during the surrender period. None of these are hidden costs — they are the price of the principal protection and income guarantees you are buying — but they are worth understanding before you commit.

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 "A" (Excellent) rating reflects an established carrier, which matters more than usual here because the rider's lifetime payments depend on the issuer's long-term ability to honor those guarantees. Global Atlantic's backing provides additional institutional depth behind those promises.