ForeIncome II 5-Year with Guaranteed Income Builder (Wells Fargo) review

It depends on your situation. The product mechanics are solid — the built-in GLWB, the 10% annual roll-up, the chronic illness benefit, and the five-year surrender are the same as the open-market version, and those are genuine strengths. What this version adds is a distribution restriction: you can only access it through Wells Fargo advisors. That is not a product flaw, but it is a meaningful constraint. Buyers who are already working with a Wells Fargo advisor and like the income guarantee design will find this a reasonable fit. Buyers who are not already in the Wells Fargo ecosystem should compare this against the open-market ForeIncome II GIB and other income FIAs before committing.

The main reason is the same as the base product: protected lifetime income with a short surrender commitment and a guaranteed 10% annual roll-up while you wait. The reason someone buys specifically this version rather than the open-market GIB is that they are a Wells Fargo client and their advisor is presenting it. That is a real and common purchase path. If the product terms work for your income timeline — activation somewhere around the end of the five-year surrender — the distribution channel does not change the underlying economics. The chronic illness enhancement remains free, the rider mechanics are identical, and the carrier is the same.

I think this annuity is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window — roughly mid-50s to early 70s — who works with a Wells Fargo advisor, wants to build future lifetime income with principal protection, and values being able to regain full penalty-free access to the contract within five years. It is a weaker fit for someone who plans to defer income for the full 15-year roll-up window (at which point the short surrender is no longer an advantage and the 1.20% fee is hard to justify relative to longer-dated competitors), or for someone who is not in the Wells Fargo distribution channel and would have to restructure their advisor relationship to access it.

You are not buying stock-market upside. You are buying a lifetime income framework wrapped around a principal-protected annuity, distributed through Wells Fargo. The mechanics are the same as the standard GIB version: eligible premium establishes a withdrawal base — a bookkeeping figure, not a cash value — and that base grows by a guaranteed 10% each year you wait, for up to 15 years or until you start income. When you activate, your age and the withdrawal base determine a guaranteed annual payment for life, even if the account value eventually runs to zero. The index crediting on the contract matters less here than it does on a pure accumulation FIA, because this design is built to support the income guarantee first.

The Guaranteed Income Builder Benefit — formally the Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit XII — is built into this contract at issue. Before income activation, the rider credits a guaranteed 10% simple roll-up to the withdrawal base each contract year, for up to 15 years or until you activate income. That credit is not dependent on index performance; it accrues regardless of what the crediting strategies return. The fee is 1.20% of the withdrawal base annually, deducted from contract value. As the base grows by 10% each year, the dollar cost of the fee climbs proportionally. At activation, the rider calculates a guaranteed annual withdrawal percentage based on your age, and that amount continues for life. The withdrawal base is not accessible as a lump sum — it governs only the lifetime income calculation.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the Income Enhancement Benefit — a chronic illness provision included at no additional cost. If you become unable to perform certain activities of daily living, this benefit can increase your income payments, providing a meaningful care-cost layer without requiring a separate long-term-care purchase or an additional rider fee. The contract also includes nursing care and terminal illness waivers at no additional charge, allowing penalty-free access to funds under qualifying circumstances. For buyers who view the annuity as retirement income infrastructure, the fact that care coverage is bundled in for free improves the net value of the 1.20% rider fee.

The surrender period is five years, which is unusually short for an income-focused FIA. The charges start at 8% in years one and two, step down to 7%, 6%, and 5%, then disappear entirely after year five. After year one, you can take up to 10% of the beginning-of-year contract value (or account value in years two and beyond) each year without penalty. A market value adjustment — MVA, meaning your surrender value can move with interest rates — applies to amounts beyond the free withdrawal during the surrender period.

The structural tension here is the same as the base product: the rider's roll-up reward runs up to 15 years, but the surrender charges are gone after five. Once you are past year five, you can fully cash out penalty-free while still paying a 1.20% rider fee to build a bigger income guarantee. That can be a genuine advantage for buyers who plan to activate income close to the end of the surrender window. For buyers planning to defer the full 15 years, the short surrender eventually becomes irrelevant, and the fee comparison against longer-dated income products grows less favorable.

The headline fee is 1.20% per year charged on the withdrawal base. That is on the higher end for built-in income FIAs, and because the base grows by 10% each year of deferral, the dollar amount of the fee compounds upward. The contract has no base contract fee, so the 1.20% is the main explicit cost. The crediting side reflects the income-first design: the fixed account runs at 2.75%, and the indexed strategies use annual point-to-point structures across the S&P 500, Russell 2000, and Nasdaq-100, with spread of 1.00%. Current cap and participation figures were not available in the brochure materials at high confidence — ask for the current rate sheet before committing, because FIA crediting terms change with the interest rate environment. The Wells Fargo channel does not appear to carry a different fee schedule relative to the open-market version, but you should confirm the current rate sheet reflects no channel-specific adjustments.

Legal Entity: Forethought Life Insurance Company

Parent: Global Atlantic Financial Group

ForeIncome II is issued by Forethought Life Insurance Company, a Global Atlantic Financial Group company. For a long-dated income guarantee, carrier financial strength matters, and Global Atlantic is a large, well-established life insurance holding company.