ForeIncome II Advisory with Guaranteed Income Builder review

Yes, for the right fee-based client. This is a good annuity for someone who wants to use long-term money to create future protected lifetime income inside an advisory account, values having no surrender charge schedule, and is willing to pay 1.20% a year for the income guarantee. It is less appealing for someone who mainly wants accumulation, needs ready access to principal above the 10% free amount, or wants to see exactly how much income they will get before signing.

The main reason to buy ForeIncome II Advisory is to build future protected lifetime income while keeping principal protected along the way, all inside a fee-based account rather than a commission product. The Guaranteed Income Builder grows the Withdrawal Base by 10% a year for up to 15 years, which gives the future income a tailwind regardless of how the index strategies do. For an advisory client, the no-commission structure means the full premium starts working immediately, and the absence of a surrender schedule removes the lockup that comes with the commission version.

I think this annuity is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window who works with a fee-based advisor, wants to earmark long-term dollars for future income, and expects to defer withdrawals for several years before turning income on. It fits both qualified and non-qualified money, and the built-in rider means you do not have to rely on annuitizing later. It is less attractive for someone who wants pure accumulation, expects to need frequent access to principal, or does not plan to ever activate the income benefit, because in that case you would be paying the 1.20% rider fee for a guarantee you never use.

You are not really buying market upside here. You are buying a future income guarantee wrapped around a principal-protected annuity, sold in a fee-based share class. The center of the contract is the Withdrawal Base and the Guaranteed Income Builder rider. Your premium establishes the Withdrawal Base, that base grows by a 10% annual Deferral Bonus for up to 15 years (or until you activate income, whichever comes first), and your age when you turn income on determines the payout percentage applied to that base. The Contract Value, which is what crediting strategies actually grow and what your beneficiaries receive, is a separate number from the Withdrawal Base used to calculate income. That distinction trips up a lot of buyers, so it is worth being clear: the 10% growth is on the income calculation base, not on the cash you can walk away with.

The Guaranteed Income Builder is the headline. It is built in, and it carries a 1.20% annual fee charged against the Withdrawal Base. Before you activate income, the rider applies a 10% Deferral Bonus to the Withdrawal Base each year for up to 15 years or until activation, whichever is earlier. So if you start with $100,000 of premium, the Withdrawal Base used to compute income can climb meaningfully over a long deferral window even if markets are flat. When you activate, a payout percentage tied to your age (and whether you elect a single or joint payout) is applied to the Withdrawal Base to set your guaranteed lifetime withdrawal amount. The brochure does not publish those payout percentages, which is the key number for judging income efficiency, so a current rate sheet is essential before comparing this to a competitor. Note that the 10% Deferral Bonus is a benefit-base credit, not an account-value premium bonus, so it does not increase the cash you can surrender.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the Income Enhancement Benefit, also called the Annual Payment Accelerator Rider, and notably it is included at no additional cost. It is a care-support feature: under qualifying conditions it can increase the income payment, which functions as a modest chronic-illness or care enhancement layered on top of the lifetime income. For an income product, having that built in for free is a genuine plus, because care-cost protection is often sold as a separate paid rider elsewhere. There is also an alternative income design, the Income Multiplier Benefit, which carries a lower 1.05% fee instead of 1.20%. The two options serve different income shapes, so the right choice depends on whether you want a higher base roll-up or a different payout profile, and that is a conversation to have with the advisor before issue.

Because this is the advisory share class, there is no traditional surrender charge schedule, which is the single biggest structural difference from the commission version. You can take up to 10% of the beginning-of-year Contract Value each year without a charge. During the deferral phase, a Market Value Adjustment (an adjustment that moves with interest rates) can apply to withdrawals above that 10% free amount, so larger early withdrawals are not entirely cost-free even without a surrender penalty. The contract is RMD-friendly, so required minimum distributions can generally be taken to satisfy IRS rules. There are also Nursing Care and Terminal Illness Waivers that can waive charges and the MVA under qualifying conditions. Even with no surrender schedule, the product is still designed for long-term income dollars, not emergency cash, because pulling money out reduces the Withdrawal Base proportionately and undercuts the whole point of the rider.

The fee that matters is the 1.20% annual Guaranteed Income Builder charge, deducted from the Withdrawal Base. That is the cost of the income guarantee and the 10% roll-up, and it runs every year whether or not you have turned income on. If you elect the alternative Income Multiplier Benefit instead, the fee drops to 1.05%. There is no stated separate base-contract administrative fee beyond the rider charge, which is appropriate for a fee-based product where the advisory fee is handled outside the contract. The real tradeoff is the one common to every income FIA: you are paying a guaranteed fee for a guaranteed benefit, and that only pays off if you actually activate income and live long enough to draw on it. Layer on the missing crediting disclosures (current caps, participation rates, and spreads are not in the brochure) and the unpublished payout factors, and the honest read is that the structure is fee-reasonable for the income channel, but the value depends on numbers you cannot see in the consumer materials.

Legal Entity: Forethought Life Insurance Company

Parent: Global Atlantic Financial Group