FIA Plus with Premium Bonus 10 Year review

It depends on the buyer. For someone with a genuine 10-to-11-year horizon who wants real breadth of indexed strategy choice and treats the bonus as a long-term or legacy feature, this is a reasonable, competitively structured FIA. For someone drawn in mainly by the 17.50% number who expects to walk away with the full bonus the moment surrender charges hit zero, it is not a good fit — the bonus isn't actually fully vested until a year after that point.

Someone would buy FIA Plus for the combination of a wide crediting menu — three indices, multiple point-to-point and buffered strategies, and a fixed account — with the ability to lock in tracking gains along the way instead of waiting out the full 10-year term. The bailout feature adds a real safety valve if renewal rates fall off a cliff after the first term. And for a buyer thinking about what happens to the money if they don't live to see the surrender period end, the immediate full bonus vesting at death is a genuine advantage over the standard vesting schedule.

This product fits a buyer roughly in their late 50s to mid-70s (issue ages technically run 0-82, which mainly serves trust and legacy planning uses) with non-qualified or qualified money they don't expect to need for at least 10-11 years, who wants meaningfully more indexed strategy choice than a basic FIA offers and doesn't need a lifetime income rider — none is offered here. It is a poor fit for anyone who might need principal access beyond the 10% free withdrawal during years 1-10, anyone counting on the bonus as accessible money before contract year 11, or anyone who'd rather have a simple single-value contract than manage the Account Value / Tracking Value split.

Strip away the marketing and this is an indexed annuity with an unusual bookkeeping structure. Ibexis tracks two separate numbers: the Account Value, which is never reduced by index performance and is what the surrender schedule and free withdrawals are measured against, and the Tracking Value, which reflects how the chosen indexed strategies actually perform. Those two numbers only come together at the end of the 10-year surrender term — the Tracking Value's gains credit into the Account Value then, not annually — unless the owner uses the "Annual Lock" feature to lock in a specified percentage of gains each year, or a "Periodic Automatic Lock" triggers automatically. In practice, that means the timing of when indexed gains actually get captured is something the owner has to manage, not something that happens by default every contract anniversary the way it does with a standard annual point-to-point FIA.

The crediting menu spans three indices — the S&P 500, the BofA U.S. Strength Fast Convergence Index, and the HSBC AI Global Tactical Index — across three strategy types: a Modified Annual Point-to-Point Indexed Strategy with a 0% floor, a Modified Annual Point-to-Point strategy with a buffer (choices of 2.5%, 5%, 10%, or 15% against losses), and a Fixed Interest Strategy paying a stated rate. Participation rates run from 51% to 162% depending on the index and strategy chosen, and caps of 4.50% to 12.75% apply specifically to S&P 500 point-to-point strategies — the other two indices use a participation rate instead of a cap. That works out to 15 total indexed/structured crediting choices plus two fixed account rate tiers (2.60%/2.80% and 2.80%/3.00% in the brochure on file). These figures are effective as of 8/21/2025 and are a snapshot, not a permanent rate — ask for the current rate sheet before buying.

The 17.50% premium bonus is credited to the Account Value on the single premium at issue, but it vests on a graded schedule beginning in contract year 2 and doesn't fully vest until contract year 11 or later — one year past the point where the 10-year surrender schedule itself reaches 0%. Electing the bonus may also come with a lower cap or participation rate than the non-bonus version of the same strategies, per the brochure, which is the standard tradeoff for bonus annuities, though the materials on hand don't quantify exactly how much lower. The one clean exception: the full bonus vests immediately upon death regardless of contract year, which functionally makes the bonus a stronger legacy feature than a living-access feature for most of the surrender period.

An owner can withdraw up to 10% of the prior contract anniversary's combined Tracking Value and Fixed Interest Strategy Value each year after the first anniversary, free of both withdrawal charges and the market value adjustment (MVA — a mechanism that can move the surrender penalty up or down with prevailing interest rates), as long as at least $5,000 remains in the account. Beyond that, the surrender schedule runs the full 10 years, starting at 9% in years 1-2 and stepping down to 1% by year 10, with the MVA able to apply on top of the stated charge. RMDs aren't available in the first contract year, but after that they're treated as penalty-free withdrawals even if they exceed the 10% free amount, and a systematic withdrawal option (specific-amount or interest-only) is available under the same rules. The bailout feature is a real backstop: if a renewal cap ever falls below Ibexis's declared bailout rate, the owner gets a 30-day window to withdraw the full account penalty-free. Even with those relief valves, this is a 10-year commitment — functionally 11 years if the full bonus matters — not a source of near-term cash.

There's no explicit annual contract fee, mortality-and-expense charge, or administration charge disclosed in the materials reviewed here — that's unusual enough to confirm directly with an agent rather than assume. The real cost isn't a line-item fee; it's structural. Choosing the premium bonus likely means accepting a lower cap or participation rate than the same strategies would offer without it (the brochure flags this tradeoff but doesn't spell out the exact spread), and the Tracking Value mechanic means the owner is relying on the lock features to capture gains rather than having them credit automatically each year. Neither of those costs shows up on a fee schedule, but both affect what an owner actually walks away with.

Legal Entity: Ibexis Life & Annuity Insurance Company

A.M. Best Rating: A-