ForeInvestors Choice B-Share review

It depends on your tax situation. This is a good fit for someone who has already filled up their 401(k) and IRA, wants more tax-deferred growth, and is comfortable with full market exposure. It is a poor fit for someone who wants principal protection, guaranteed income, or who hasn't yet exhausted cheaper tax-advantaged options — a variable annuity with no guarantee is the wrong tool for those goals.

The rational reason to buy this is tax-deferred compounding on money you don't need for at least five years, after you've used up the obvious tax shelters. Inside the contract, dividends, capital gains, and rebalancing don't trigger annual taxes the way they would in a taxable account — you only pay when you withdraw. For a high-income investor who wants to keep money invested in the market and let it grow without a yearly tax drag, that deferral is the whole point. The B-share structure adds a second reason: you avoid an upfront sales charge and instead accept a declining surrender schedule that disappears after year five.

I think this is best for a mid-career to pre-retirement investor, typically with non-qualified (taxable) money, who has already maxed out their 401(k), IRA, and HSA and is looking for the next tax-deferred bucket. They should be comfortable with market risk, have at least a five-year horizon, and not be relying on this money for guaranteed income. It is less appropriate inside an IRA or other already-tax-deferred account, where the annuity wrapper adds cost without adding tax benefit. It is also wrong for anyone who wants downside protection — there is none here.

Strip away the annuity label and this is a tax-deferred investment account with an insurance shell around it. Your money goes into mutual-fund-style subaccounts that move with the markets, exactly like a brokerage portfolio. What the insurance company adds is the tax deferral (gains compound untaxed until withdrawal), a standard death benefit (your beneficiaries get the account value), and the option to convert to a guaranteed income stream later. What you pay for that shell is the M&E and administrative charge layered on top of each subaccount's own fee. So you are not buying market protection or guaranteed income — you are buying tax treatment and optionality, and paying an annual toll for it.

The core of this product is the subaccount menu — 93 options spanning equity, fixed income, alternatives, sector funds, and managed-risk strategies, plus fixed-account options crediting 0.85%. You allocate your premium across these subaccounts, and your account value tracks their performance with no cap, floor, or buffer. That means full upside and full downside — a strong market year credits the full gain (less fees), and a bad year takes the full loss. Net subaccount fees range from 0.21% to 3.29%, so the effective cost depends heavily on which funds you choose; the cheaper index-style options keep total cost down, while the alternative and managed-risk sleeves can be expensive. You also get 12 free transfers per year to move between subaccounts. This is the opposite of a fixed indexed annuity: there is no protection mechanism, just direct market participation inside a tax-deferred wrapper.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the share-class flexibility within the ForeInvestors Choice family. The B-share you're reviewing here is the commission class — no upfront load, but a 5-year surrender schedule. The same product is also offered as a C-share (no surrender period, typically a higher ongoing cost) and an I-share (advisory/fee-based, often the lowest internal cost but sold through a fee-charging RIA rather than commission). The B-share suits a buyer working with a commission-based agent who plans to hold the contract at least five years. If you expect to need full liquidity sooner, the C-share's no-surrender structure may fit better despite its cost. If you work with a fee-only advisor, the I-share is usually the cheaper long-term wrapper. The optional Earnings Protection Death Benefit also matters here — for an extra charge, it adds 35% of account value to the standard death benefit, which can help offset taxes heirs owe on the gain.

The B-share carries a 5-year surrender schedule of 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, then 0% in year six. During those years, you can withdraw the greater of 5% of premiums paid or your earnings each year without a surrender charge, and notably, the contract provides 100% access to contract value at any time — the surrender charge applies to amounts above the free withdrawal, but the money is never locked away. Required minimum distributions are surrender-charge friendly (excluding Inherited/Beneficiary IRA plans), so RMD-age holders can take their distributions without penalty. There is no market value adjustment on this contract, which removes one common source of surrender uncertainty. The practical read: this is a five-year commitment if you want to avoid charges entirely, but unlike many annuities, an emergency doesn't trap your money — it just costs a declining penalty to get out early.

The base cost is a 0.80% mortality and expense (M&E) charge plus a 0.20% administrative charge — 1.00% total annually on contract value, which is on the lower side for a commission-class variable annuity. On top of that sit the subaccount fees themselves, ranging 0.21% to 3.29% depending on the funds you pick, so your all-in cost could be as low as roughly 1.2% with cheap index options or well above 4% if you load up on alternatives. There's a $50 annual maintenance fee that's waived once contract value reaches $50,000. A Fund Facilitation Fee of 0.05% to 0.35% (capped at 0.50%) applies to certain subaccounts. The optional Earnings Protection Death Benefit runs 0.25% currently, with a 0.50% maximum. An optional RIA Withdrawal Fee of 1.25% exists for advisory arrangements at client direction. The trade to name plainly: the M&E and admin layer is the price of tax deferral and the death benefit, and whether it's worth paying depends entirely on whether you've exhausted cheaper tax-advantaged options first.