Why it earned this rating
Our assessment
Elite Access Advisory II is a fee-based (advisory) variable annuity built for the RIA channel, and on its own terms it is a clean design: no surrender charges, no M&E charge, and a deep subaccount lineup. It lands in the middle of its category because a variable annuity without a living benefit is competing against ordinary taxable and IRA investing, and the case for the annuity wrapper rests almost entirely on tax deferral. It is competitive for the narrow audience it targets, but it is not a product most shoppers should reach for by default.
The short version
This is a tax-deferred investment account in an annuity wrapper, sold through fee-based advisors in New York. You are not buying guaranteed income or principal protection here. You are buying access to a wide menu of variable subaccounts, no surrender lock-up, and tax deferral on the gains, with an annual fee structure that is unusually light for a variable annuity because there is no mortality and expense charge. Whether that wrapper is worth it depends entirely on whether tax deferral inside an annuity beats the alternatives for your situation, which is a conversation to have with the advisor recommending it.
The full review
Is Jackson Elite Access Advisory II (NY) a Good Annuity?
It depends on why you are buying an annuity. If you want tax-deferred investment access through a fee-based advisor and have no need for a guaranteed income rider, this is a reasonable, low-friction wrapper. If you are shopping for protected lifetime income, principal protection, or a guaranteed rate, this is the wrong product entirely. There is no living benefit here, so it should not be compared against income-focused annuities.
Why Someone Would Buy This Annuity
The rational reason to buy Elite Access Advisory II is tax-deferred growth without surrender handcuffs. Because it is an advisory (I-share) contract, the insurance company is not charging an M&E fee or imposing a multi-year surrender schedule, so the cost drag is far lighter than a traditional commission-based variable annuity. For a high-income investor who has already filled tax-advantaged accounts and wants another bucket of tax-deferred money inside a managed-account relationship, the wrapper can make sense. The subaccount menu is broad enough to build a diversified portfolio inside the contract.
Who This Annuity Is Best For
I think this is best for a New York resident, working with a fee-based (fiduciary) advisor, who has maxed out IRAs and 401(k)s and wants additional tax-deferred space for investment dollars they do not expect to touch for years. It fits someone comfortable with market risk who does not want or need an income guarantee. It is a poor fit for anyone who wants principal protection, guaranteed lifetime income, or short-term liquidity for money they may need soon. It is also not for someone buying through a commission-based agent, since this is specifically the advisory share class.
What You're Really Buying Here
Strip away the annuity label and this is a tax-deferred investment account holding variable subaccounts, which are essentially mutual-fund-like portfolios that rise and fall with the market. Your money is fully at risk in the markets you choose, exactly as it would be in a brokerage account, with no floor and no cap. What the annuity adds is tax deferral on the gains and an optional death-benefit guarantee. What it does not add, in this configuration, is any income guarantee. So the honest framing is: this is your investment money, with the same upside and downside as the funds you pick, wrapped for tax timing.
How the Core Feature Works
The engine of this contract is the variable subaccount lineup. The spec lists roughly 115 subaccounts with net expenses ranging from about 0.56% to 2.30% per year, depending on which underlying funds you choose. You can hold up to 99 investments at once and make up to 25 transfers per contract year with no transfer fee, with a $25 charge per transfer after that. Because there is no fixed account option, every dollar is invested in market-based subaccounts. Returns are whatever those underlying funds deliver, net of their fund expenses and the contract fee. There is no crediting formula, no cap, and no participation rate here, unlike an indexed annuity, this is direct market exposure inside a tax-deferred shell.
Why the Secondary Feature Matters
The optional add-ons are where this contract can be tailored. There is an optional Return of Premium Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit II, available through age 85 for an extra 0.20% per year, which guarantees beneficiaries at least the premiums paid even if the markets fall. Jackson also offers a Principal Guard guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit (GMAB) that guarantees your contract value back at the end of a 7- or 10-year term, priced at 1.02% annually for the 7-year term and 0.90% for the 10-year term. These are optional, so the base contract carries no guarantee at all. If you want any downside protection, you are paying separately for it, and those fees stack on top of the subaccount fund expenses.
Liquidity and Surrender Schedule
Liquidity is one of this contract's genuine strengths. There is no surrender charge period and no market value adjustment, so you can withdraw all or any portion of the contract value at any time before the income date without an insurance-company penalty. If a withdrawal would leave less than $2,000 in the contract, it is treated as a full surrender. Systematic withdrawals are available, and the contract is RMD-friendly for qualified money. The usual caveats still apply: withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income on the gains, and amounts taken before age 59½ may face a 10% IRS penalty. So the lock-up risk here is tax-driven, not contractual.
Fees and Tradeoffs
The fee picture is simpler than most variable annuities, but read it carefully. There is no M&E charge and no surrender charge, which is the main reason an advisory share class exists. The base contract carries a flat $20 monthly fee ($240 per year). The materials disagree on the waiver threshold, the quick-reference sheet says the fee is waived at $250,000 in account value while the Wink product sheet says $1,000,000, so confirm the exact threshold before relying on it. On top of that, you pay the underlying subaccount fund expenses (roughly 0.56% to 2.30%), any optional rider fees (0.20% for the death benefit, 0.90%–1.02% for Principal Guard), and your advisor's separate advisory fee, which is billed outside the contract. The trade is straightforward: low insurance-company cost, but you are still paying fund expenses plus advisory fees, so "fee-based" does not mean cheap in total.
Final take
Elite Access Advisory II is a competent fee-based variable annuity for a narrow, specific buyer: a New York investor in an advisory relationship who wants tax-deferred market exposure, no surrender lock-up, and no need for income guarantees. On its own terms it is clean, no M&E, no surrender charges, and a deep subaccount menu. But a variable annuity with no living benefit has to justify itself against simply investing in a taxable or retirement account, and the only real edge it offers is tax deferral. If that tax deferral genuinely helps your situation and you trust the advisor's rationale, it is a defensible wrapper. If you want protected income or principal protection, this is not the product, look at a contract built around a living benefit instead.