Income 150+ SE Advisory 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 a light surrender schedule, and is willing to pay 1.20% a year (plus the advisor's fee) 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 Income 150+ SE 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 built-in income benefit applies a 20% bonus to the Benefit Base when you activate income, plus a 7.50% Benefit Base credit in deferral years two through five, which gives the future income a tailwind regardless of how the index strategies perform. For an advisory client, the no-commission structure means the full premium starts working immediately, and the flat 2% surrender schedule is a meaningfully lighter lockup than the commission version carries.

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 benefit 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 is not confident they will ever activate income — because in that case you would be paying the 1.20% rider fee, plus the AUM 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 Benefit Base and the Guaranteed Lifetime Income Benefit. Your premium establishes the Benefit Base, that base receives a 7.50% credit in deferral years two through five and a 20% bonus applied at activation, and your age when you turn income on determines the payout percentage applied to that base. The Account Value, which is what crediting strategies actually grow and what your beneficiaries receive, is a separate number from the Benefit Base used to calculate income. That distinction trips up a lot of buyers, so it is worth being blunt: the Benefit Base bonuses grow the income calculation number, not the cash you can walk away with.

The Guaranteed Lifetime Income Benefit (branded the Income 150+ SE benefit) is the headline. It is built in, and it carries a 1.20% annual fee charged against the Withdrawal Base. During deferral, the Benefit Base receives a 7.50% credit in years two through five, and when you activate income the contract applies a 20% bonus to the Benefit Base. At activation, a payout percentage tied to your age (and whether you elect a single or joint payout) is applied to the Benefit Base to set your guaranteed lifetime withdrawal amount. The materials do not spell out a roll-up rate beyond those early-year Benefit Base bonuses, and they do not publish the payout percentages — which is the key number for judging income efficiency — so a current rate sheet and benefit illustration are essential before comparing this to a competitor. Note that the Benefit Base bonuses are benefit-base credits, not an account-value premium bonus, so they do not increase the cash you can surrender.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the Income Enhancement Benefit, 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. The contract also carries a bailout provision on the indexed strategies — if a credited rate renews below the stated Bailout Rate, you have the option to surrender penalty-free. That is a useful escape hatch if renewal terms deteriorate, though it is a feature you hope never to need.

Unlike Forethought's other advisory income products, this one does keep a surrender schedule, but it is light: a flat 2% charge for seven years, then zero. That is far gentler than the commission version's 8% first-year charge, and it is the clearest structural advantage of this share class. You can take 10% of premiums paid in year one and 10% of Account Value in years two and beyond without a surrender charge. A Market Value Adjustment (an adjustment that moves with interest rates) can apply to withdrawals above that free amount, so larger early withdrawals are not entirely cost-free even with the modest 2% schedule. The contract is RMD-friendly, so required minimum distributions can generally be taken to satisfy IRS rules. Even with the light schedule, the product is still designed for long-term income dollars, not emergency cash, because pulling money out reduces the Benefit Base proportionately and undercuts the whole point of the income benefit.

The fee that matters most inside the contract is the 1.20% annual income benefit charge, deducted from the Withdrawal Base. That is the cost of the income guarantee and the Benefit Base bonuses, and it runs every year whether or not you have turned income on. There is no mortality and expense charge, no product fee, and no administration charge — appropriate for a fee-based product. But here is the catch specific to the advisory share class: your advisor's AUM fee is charged on top of that 1.20%, typically against the account value, so the all-in annual drag is higher than the 1.20% rider fee alone suggests. On some indexed strategies a spread of around 10% applies and caps run roughly 6.75% to 11.25% depending on the index and the rate-sheet date, so the growth side is constrained by design. The real tradeoff is the one common to every income FIA, made sharper here by the fee stacking: 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 unpublished payout factors and the absence of a stated deferral roll-up beyond the early Benefit Base bonuses, 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

A.M. Best Rating: A