AnnuiChoice II review

It depends on what you want. This is a good annuity for someone who specifically wants variable, market-linked growth inside a tax-deferred contract and values the optional income and death-benefit guarantees. It is a poor fit for someone who wants principal protection — a variable annuity does not protect your account value from market losses the way a fixed or indexed annuity does, and you should not buy this expecting one.

The main reason to buy AnnuiChoice II is to get genuine market participation through professionally managed sub-accounts while deferring taxes on the growth. The secondary reason is the optional guarantees. The Guaranteed Lifetime Income Advantage riders can turn the contract into a future income stream, and the optional enhanced death-benefit riders can lock in a legacy value for heirs. For a buyer who wants both upside and a safety net — and is comfortable paying for the net — that combination is the appeal.

I think AnnuiChoice II is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window who has long-term, non-essential money, wants real equity exposure rather than capped indexed returns, and is willing to pay rider fees to add a lifetime income or enhanced death-benefit guarantee. It works for both qualified and non-qualified money, and the RMD-friendly waiver treatment helps for IRA dollars. It is less attractive for conservative buyers who want their principal protected, for anyone who needs liquidity above the 10% free amount in the early years, or for cost-sensitive shoppers who would do as well in a low-cost brokerage account.

Strip away the brand name and you are buying a tax-deferred investment account wrapped in an insurance contract. The account value goes up and down with the more than 60 variable sub-accounts you allocate to, spanning equity, fixed income, balanced, international, lifecycle, and managed-risk categories. That is the core difference from a fixed or indexed annuity: there is no floor on the variable portion. If you want guarantees, you add them as riders. If you want a stable corner, you can move money into the fixed Guaranteed Rate Options. The insurance company's role is the tax deferral, the optional guarantees, and the death benefit — not protecting your day-to-day account balance.

The engine of this contract is the sub-account menu. You allocate premium across the variable sub-accounts, and your account value tracks their performance net of fund expenses, which run from 0.25% to 3.29% depending on the fund. On top of that, the base contract charges a 1.15% mortality and expense (M&E) charge annually, which does not apply to money held in the fixed accounts.

Alongside the variable side, AnnuiChoice II offers Guaranteed Rate Options (GROs) — fixed accounts at set rates for 5, 7, or 10 years. As of the 5/1/2026 rate sheet, those were roughly 3.90% for 5 years, 3.60% for 7 years, and 3.70% for 10 years, though rates reset and these are snapshots, not permanent. There is also a Systematic Transfer Option for 6 or 12 months that dollar-cost-averages money into the sub-accounts over time. One important catch: the fixed accounts are not available if you elect the GLWB income rider, and the GROs are not offered in Washington at all.

The most meaningful optional feature is the Guaranteed Lifetime Income Advantage rider, available in two flavors. The standard GLIA uses an age-banded simple roll-up on the benefit base — ranging from 3.75% for buyers under 65 up to 6.25% for those 80 and older — for up to 10 years. GLIA Plus uses a flat 6.00% simple roll-up for up to 10 years. In either case, the roll-up grows a separate benefit base used only to calculate guaranteed income, not your actual withdrawable account value, and the roll-up pauses in any year you take a withdrawal. Both versions currently charge 1.60% of the benefit base annually, with a 2.00% contractual maximum.

This is what lets a variable annuity double as future income insurance: even if the market does poorly, the rider can still guarantee a lifetime withdrawal based on the rolled-up benefit base. Whether it is worth 1.60% a year depends entirely on whether you actually turn income on and live long enough for the guarantee to pay off relative to simply spending down the account.

This is a 7-year commitment, but the structure is more forgiving than a flat schedule. Each contract year you can withdraw 10% of account value (10% of initial premium in year one) with no withdrawal charge. The surrender charge itself is contribution-based — it applies separately to each contribution based on how long ago that specific contribution was received, not to your whole account value at once — so additional premiums each start their own clock.

A market value adjustment (MVA) applies to early withdrawals from the Guaranteed Rate Options, meaning the penalty on those fixed-account dollars can move up or down with interest rates. The contract also carries a generous set of hardship waivers at no extra charge: withdrawal charges and MVA can be waived for nursing-home or hospital confinement, terminal illness, disability, and unemployment, and RMDs qualify for waiver treatment as well. Some of those waivers carry state exclusions — the unemployment waiver is excluded in IN, MT, NJ, SC, TX, and WA, and the hardship waiver is not available in SD. Even with the relief features, this is long-term money, not an emergency fund.

The base cost is the 1.15% M&E charge, deducted from the variable account value but not from fixed-account holdings. On top of that sit fund expenses of 0.25% to 3.29% depending on which sub-accounts you pick — a meaningful spread, so fund selection matters. There is also a $30 annual administrative charge, waived once account value reaches $75,000, and a $20 transfer fee after 12 free transfers a year.

The optional guarantees are where the real cost lives. The GLIA or GLIA Plus income rider runs 1.60% of the benefit base (max 2.00%), charged quarterly. The Highest Anniversary Death Benefit rider adds 0.20% of account value, and the Enhanced Earnings Benefit adds 0.20% to 0.50% based on issue age. Layer a living benefit and a death benefit together on top of the M&E and fund fees, and the all-in drag can climb well past 3% a year. The trade is straightforward: each rider buys a specific guarantee, and the math only works if you actually use the feature you are paying for.

Legal Entity: Integrity Life Insurance Company

Parent: Western & Southern Financial Group

AM Best Rating: A+