WealthDefender 5 review

Yes, for a specific kind of buyer. It's a good annuity for someone who wants a shorter FIA commitment, values principal protection over income guarantees, and likes the idea of a death benefit that isn't clawed back by surrender charges. It's a weaker fit for someone who wants a deep menu of crediting strategies or who eventually wants to convert the contract into guaranteed lifetime income, since there's no income rider available at all — not even as an optional add-on.

The core appeal is simple: index-linked growth potential with a guaranteed floor, in a shorter 5-year package than many FIAs require. Someone shopping this product is typically looking to move money out of low-yielding cash or CDs into something with more upside, without taking on direct market risk. The absence of a rider fee also matters — there's no ongoing charge eating into the credited interest, since there's no income rider to pay for in the first place. The full-contract-value death benefit adds a legacy angle that's stronger than what many competing FIAs offer.

I think this product is best for someone in their 50s through 70s with non-qualified or qualified money who wants a 5-year holding period, doesn't need the money liquid beyond the 10% free-withdrawal allowance, and isn't shopping for a lifetime income rider. It's a reasonable fit for legacy-minded buyers too, given the death benefit terms. It's a poor fit for anyone in the excluded states — Ibexis isn't approved in Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Vermont, or Wisconsin — and for anyone who wants more than three indices to choose from.

You're not buying stock market exposure. You're buying an insurance contract that credits interest based on the performance of the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 Engle 10% Index, or the Barclays Tactical Growth Index, subject to caps or participation rates, with your principal protected from index losses. If the index performs poorly, you don't lose money on that segment — you just earn little or nothing for that term. Separately, a Fixed Interest Strategy is available for anyone who'd rather lock in a stated rate instead of tying interest to an index at all. Either way, the guarantee underneath the contract is the minimum guaranteed surrender value (MGSV), not the index itself.

WealthDefender 5 splits your premium across a Fixed Interest Strategy and an Indexed Interest Strategy, and you can allocate between them. On the indexed side, the S&P 500 uses a cap of roughly 8.25%-9.25% with 100% participation, while the Nasdaq-100 Engle 10% Index and Barclays Tactical Growth Index use participation rates instead of caps — 84%-90% on annual terms and 116%-130% on 2-year terms. Initial cap and participation rates are guaranteed for the full 5-year surrender period, which is a meaningful detail: you're not exposed to the carrier repricing the strategy mid-contract the way some annually-renewable products can be. Interest credits at the end of each index term; the fixed strategy resets annually. Rates quoted here are effective as of June 5, 2025 and will move over time, so treat them as a snapshot, not a promise.

The death benefit is the standout secondary feature. On death, the beneficiary receives the full contract value — not a reduced surrender value, and critically, withdrawal charges, MVA, and premium bonus recapture do not apply. A lot of FIAs quietly reduce what a beneficiary receives if death occurs during the surrender period; this one doesn't. Combined with the fact that there's no premium bonus to claw back in the first place, this is one of the cleaner death benefit structures you'll see in this peer group, and it's worth weighing seriously if legacy planning is part of the reason you're looking at this contract.

You can withdraw up to 10% of contract value each year after the first contract anniversary without triggering a surrender charge. Anything above that during the 5-year window runs into the schedule below, and a market value adjustment (MVA) can also apply — meaning the penalty on a larger withdrawal can move up or down depending on where interest rates have gone since you funded the contract, not just the flat surrender percentage.

RMD treatment has a wrinkle worth knowing about: RMDs aren't available during the first contract year, but from year two on, RMD withdrawals are treated as penalty-free even if they exceed the standard 10% free-withdrawal amount. A minimum of $5,000 must stay in the contract at all times. Overall, this should be treated as 5-year money — the free-withdrawal and RMD provisions give you room to breathe, but they're not a substitute for holding this in addition to a real liquid emergency fund.

There's no disclosed base contract fee and no rider fee, because there's no income rider on this product to charge for. That keeps the fee picture simple, but the tradeoff shows up elsewhere: the minimum guaranteed surrender value is 87.5% of premium accumulating at 0.15%-3%. The high end of that range is fine, but a 0.15% floor is on the low side for this category — it's the rate you'd only see credited in a genuinely bad stretch, but it's worth knowing the downside case isn't generous. The other real tradeoff is the index menu itself: three indices is a narrower selection than several competing 5-year FIAs offer, so if you want to spread allocations across a wide range of crediting strategies, this contract gives you less room to do that.

Legal Entity: Ibexis Life & Annuity Insurance Company

A.M. Best Rating: A-