Elite Access II (NY) review

It depends on your tax situation. It is a reasonable annuity for a New York investor who has already filled up their 401(k) and IRA, wants more tax-deferred room, and likes having a wide fund menu inside the wrapper. It is a poor fit for someone who could simply invest in a taxable brokerage account at a fraction of the cost, or for someone whose real goal is guaranteed lifetime income — this product does not offer an income rider at all.

The rational reason to buy Elite Access II (NY) is tax deferral on investment growth after other tax-advantaged accounts are exhausted. Gains inside the contract are not taxed until you withdraw, which can matter for a high-income investor with a long horizon. The deep subaccount menu lets you build a diversified portfolio inside that wrapper, and the shorter 5-year surrender schedule means you are not locked in as long as you would be with most variable annuities. For someone who wants market exposure plus the option to bolt on principal protection later, the platform flexibility is the draw.

I think this is best for a non-qualified (after-tax) investor, generally 45 to 65, who is still in the accumulation phase, has already maxed out their qualified accounts, and is comfortable with market risk. It suits someone who actually wants to manage allocations across many funds rather than hold one or two. It is not a good fit inside an IRA, where the tax deferral is redundant, and it is not for anyone who needs the money liquid in the near term, wants a simple low-cost vehicle, or is shopping primarily for guaranteed income.

Strip away the brochure framing and this is a brokerage-style investment account inside an insurance contract. Your money goes into "subaccounts," which are essentially mutual funds, and your return is whatever those funds do minus the contract's fees. The insurance company is not guaranteeing your principal or your growth on the base contract — the only guarantee on the standard contract is a death benefit equal to your account value, which is no guarantee at all in a down market. The value you are paying for is tax deferral and the optional ability to add a principal-protection or return-of-premium rider on top.

The core of the product is the subaccount platform. There are 115 variable subaccounts, with net fund-level expenses running from 0.56% to 2.30% depending on which funds you choose, plus two fixed-account options and a six-month dollar-cost-averaging account currently crediting 2.40%. You can hold up to 99 of these allocation options at once and make up to 25 transfers a year without a transfer fee, which is a lot of latitude to move money around. The fixed account carries a guaranteed minimum interest rate that floats between 1% and 3% based on the 5-year Treasury (CMT) rate, with a current guaranteed minimum of 2.40%. There is no indexed or structured (buffer/floor) crediting here — this is a straight invest-or-park-in-cash menu, not an indexed annuity.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the set of optional protection riders, because they are the only way to put a floor under this contract. The Principal Guard guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit (GMAB) comes in 7-year and 10-year versions, currently 1.02% and 0.90% a year respectively, and guarantees your principal back at the end of the benefit term regardless of market performance. Separately, the Return of Premium GMDB II death benefit (currently 0.20% a year, available through age 80 at election) pays heirs the greater of account value or premiums paid, less pro-rata adjustments for withdrawals. These matter because the base contract has no downside protection — if you want any, you add it, and you pay for it.

The surrender schedule runs 6.5%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3%, then 0% in year six, so this is a 5-year commitment — shorter than the 7-year schedules common on investment VAs. Each contract year you can withdraw the greater of your earnings at any time or 10% of remaining premium still subject to charges without a penalty. A market value adjustment (MVA) applies to withdrawals from the 5-year and 7-year fixed-account options, meaning the penalty on those amounts moves with interest rates; the variable subaccounts are not subject to MVA. One sharp edge to know: if a withdrawal drops your contract value below $2,000, the whole contract is treated as a full surrender. The brochure does not flag any RMD surrender-charge waiver, so confirm RMD treatment directly if you plan to hold this in a qualified account.

The fee stack is where this product has to earn its keep. The base contract charge (mortality and expense, or M&E) is 1.00% a year, dropping to 0.85% for larger contracts (quarterly values of $250,000-plus, or $1,000,000-plus at issue). On top of that you have fund-level expenses of 0.56% to 2.30%, a 0.15% administration charge per the Wink product spec, and a flat $30 annual maintenance fee that is waived once your contract value or surrender value hits $50,000. Add an optional rider and you stack more: roughly 0.90% to 1.02% for Principal Guard, 0.20% for the return-of-premium death benefit (riders are current rates and can rise to stated maximums of 3.00% and 0.40%). So a typical loaded contract can easily run well above 1.7% all-in. The trade is simple to state: that cost only pays off if tax deferral plus the menu and optional guarantees are worth more to you than investing the same funds in a far cheaper taxable account.