ForeIncome II 7-Year with Income Multiplier (Wells Fargo) review

Yes, for the right buyer — with the same honest caveat that applies to the open-market version. It is a good annuity for someone who wants protected lifetime income, plans to defer for several years, and accepts that the benefit base grows with interest performance rather than a contractual roll-up guarantee. The Wells Fargo distribution label doesn't change the product mechanics, but it does mean the product may not be available if you shop elsewhere. It is less appealing for someone who wants a flat-roll-up income FIA they can model with certainty regardless of index performance.

A Wells Fargo client who wants to build future protected lifetime income while keeping principal safe from market loss has a real reason to look at this product. The multiplier design — benefit base growing at three times credited interest — can build a larger income base than a modest flat roll-up over a multi-year deferral window, assuming the indexed strategies produce. The current rate sheet included in the spec shows a cap range of 5.50% to 8.85% and a 4.75% performance-triggered strategy, so the income engine has visible inputs a buyer can evaluate. The built-in chronic-illness income enhancement is a secondary draw for someone who wants a care contingency built into the contract at no additional stated charge.

I think this annuity is best for a Wells Fargo client in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window — roughly mid-50s through mid-70s — who wants to use long-term dollars to build future income and is comfortable with a benefit base that moves with interest credits rather than a guaranteed schedule. It works in both qualified and non-qualified money. It is less attractive for someone who wants a guaranteed roll-up they can model with certainty, someone who needs liquidity above the 10% free amount during the seven-year term, or someone who is simply shopping the open market and isn't specifically working through Wells Fargo.

You are not buying stock market participation, and you are not buying a guaranteed roll-up. What you are buying is a principal-protected FIA with a two-part income engine. The first part is the indexed crediting that grows your account value. The second part is a separate benefit base — sometimes called the Withdrawal Base — that determines how much lifetime income you can withdraw. The Income Multiplier Benefit credits that benefit base at 300% of the fixed and indexed interest the contract earns during deferral, then drops to 100% of credited interest after you turn income on. In plain terms: while you wait, every dollar the strategies earn adds three dollars to your future income base. That is the whole bet, and it pays off when the strategies credit meaningful interest.

The Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit with Income Multiplier Benefit VII is built into the contract — there is no version of this product without it. During the deferral period, whatever interest your fixed and indexed strategies earn is multiplied by three and applied to the income benefit base. So in a year when a strategy credits 5%, the benefit base is credited 15%. Once you activate income, the multiplier drops to one-for-one. Your lifetime income is then calculated as an age-based payout percentage applied to that accumulated benefit base.

Based on the July 2025 rate sheet in the spec, the S&P 500 strategies carry caps between 5.50% and 8.85%, the performance-triggered strategy credits 4.75% if index growth is zero or positive, and the fixed account pays 3.25%. The specialized indices — S&P 500 Engle 12% VT (USA) ER and Nasdaq-100 Agile 15% — carry embedded volatility controls that can affect how much interest is ultimately credited. As with all FIA crediting rates, these figures change at renewal; ask for the current rate sheet at each anniversary.

The critical thing to understand is that this multiplier is performance-linked, not a guaranteed schedule. A flat 7% roll-up adds 7% to the base every year regardless of what markets do. The 300% multiplier can beat that in a strong interest year, but it can also fall short in a flat or low-return year because three times zero is still zero.

The built-in Income Enhancement Benefit — a chronic-illness provision — can raise your income if you become unable to perform activities of daily living or otherwise qualify for the care benefit. This matters because the years when income gaps are most painful are often the years people can least manage financial complexity, and having the enhancement built into the contract at no separate stated charge gives it real planning value.

The same honest caveat from the base product applies here. Care features like this come with eligibility conditions, waiting periods, and benefit caps that the brochure summary does not fully spell out. Treat it as a meaningful backstop and not a substitute for dedicated long-term-care coverage, and review the rider's actual contract language before relying on it.

This product is built for long-term retirement money. After the first contract year you can take up to 10% of account value annually without a surrender charge — in year one the free amount is 10% of premiums paid. Anything above the free amount during the seven-year schedule triggers a surrender charge.

A market value adjustment (MVA) also applies to withdrawals subject to surrender charges — meaning if interest rates have risen since you bought the contract, the MVA can deepen the cost of cashing out. The spec also notes a bailout provision: if a credited rate renews below the designated bailout rate, you can surrender penalty-free. Required minimum distributions are generally accommodated. Even with those features, the 10% free-withdrawal provision and the income payout are the meaningful liquidity here; this is not emergency cash.

The fee that matters is the 1.05% annual charge for the income rider, deducted from the Withdrawal Base. It runs every year whether or not you have activated income. The trade is clear: you are paying that ongoing fee to own the multiplier mechanism, the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit, and the chronic-illness enhancement. Whether it is worth it depends on two things — whether the indexed strategies credit enough interest to make the 300% multiplier outpace a flat-roll-up competitor, and whether you actually turn income on, since surrendering for a cash payout instead wastes the value you have been paying to build.

Beyond the rider fee, the structural tradeoffs are the standard FIA set. Upside is capped or participation-rate-constrained. The 7-year surrender plus MVA limits access. There is no premium bonus. On the plus side, the death benefit is clean — beneficiaries receive the remaining contract value at no additional charge.

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. Global Atlantic is an established annuity issuer with broad product depth, and this is a mainstream income-focused FIA structure rather than a niche offering.