Retirement Latitudes (Raymond James) review

It depends entirely on whether you want and will use the optional guarantees. As a plain tax-deferred investment wrapper, a variable annuity like this is hard to justify against a low-cost taxable brokerage account or an IRA, because you are paying an insurance charge for a benefit you are not using. As a vehicle for someone who specifically wants market exposure plus an optional lifetime-income or enhanced death-benefit guarantee, and who is already a Raymond James client, it makes more sense. The product is fine; the fit is narrow.

The rational reason to buy Retirement Latitudes is to combine market participation with tax deferral and the option to layer on a guarantee later. If you have already maxed out other tax-advantaged accounts and want continued tax-deferred growth, the wrapper does that job. The deeper draw is the optional rider menu — the Flex Suite of living benefits offers roll-ups from 5% to 7% simple interest on a separate benefit base, which can underwrite future lifetime income regardless of how the subaccounts perform. For someone who wants that floor under future income, the structure has a clear purpose.

I think this is best for an existing Raymond James client in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window who wants tax-deferred market exposure and is seriously considering a living or death-benefit guarantee. It fits someone who has the time horizon to ride out the 7-year surrender schedule and the account size to make the $25,000 minimum and the fee load worthwhile. It is a poor fit for a younger accumulator who just wants growth — a taxable account or IRA will be far cheaper — and for anyone who wants the simplest possible annuity or expects to need liquidity in the early years.

You are not buying a fixed return or principal protection on the investment side. You are buying a tax-deferred container that holds variable subaccounts — mutual-fund-like portfolios whose value rises and falls with the market — plus the right to attach optional insurance guarantees. The base contract gives you 94 subaccounts spanning equity, bond, and managed strategies, four fixed-account options with a guaranteed minimum interest rate that resets annually between 1% and 3%, and a standard death benefit at no extra charge. Everything beyond that — lifetime income, enhanced death benefits — is an add-on you pay for. The honest framing is that the subaccounts are where your money grows or shrinks, and the riders are insurance you buy against that volatility.

The core of the contract is the variable subaccount platform. You allocate your premium across up to 94 subaccounts, and your account value tracks their net performance directly — there are no caps, participation rates, or buffers limiting the upside or cushioning the downside the way an indexed or structured annuity would. Net subaccount expenses run from 0.52% to 2.30% per year depending on the funds you pick, and that is layered on top of the contract's 1.15% mortality and expense charge. You also get four fixed-account options carrying a guaranteed minimum interest rate (Jackson calls it the FAMIR) that floats between 1% and 3%, redetermined each January based on the 5-year Constant Maturity Treasury rate. The 1-year fixed account is notable because it is the one place in the contract where the market value adjustment does not apply.

The optional living benefits are the secondary feature, and they are what separate this from a bare investment account. The Flex Suite includes several riders with simple-interest roll-ups on a benefit base — 5% on Flex Net Value IV, Flex Strategic Income V, and Flex Value IV; 6% on Flex Core VIII and Flex Net Core VII; and 7% on Flex Plus VII — over a 10-year roll-up period that can step up and runs to age 90. Most also add a benefit-base bonus of 5% to 7% for each year you take no withdrawal, for up to ten years. There is also a MarketGuard Stretch II guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit. The important nuance is that these roll-ups grow a benefit base used to calculate guaranteed withdrawals — not your actual cash value. You only capture the value if you activate income and live long enough to draw it down. The current rider charges range from 0.30% to 1.75% per year, but the contract reserves the right to go as high as 3.00%, and the fee is assessed against the benefit base, which can be larger than your account value.

This is a 7-year commitment. The withdrawal-charge schedule starts at 8.5% in year one and steps down to zero in year eight, and a market value adjustment applies on top of surrender charges — meaning your penalty can move with interest rates, except on the 1-year fixed account where the MVA is waived. The relief valve is the free-withdrawal provision: each contract year you can take the greater of all earnings, or 10% of the premium still subject to charges, without penalty. There are also no-cost waivers for nursing-home confinement (the Extended Care Waiver, not available in California) and terminal illness. Required minimum distributions are supported. One important caveat for rider owners — 72(t) and 72(q) substantially-equal-payment distributions are not treated as RMDs for the purpose of preserving the living-benefit guarantees, so taking them can disrupt the very benefit you are paying for. Treat this contract as long-term money, not a flexible savings account.

This is where the product demands honesty. The base mortality and expense charge is 1.15% per year, assessed daily on the variable subaccounts (it drops to 1.00% once your quarterly contract value reaches $1 million). On top of that sit subaccount fund expenses of 0.52% to 2.30%. So before any optional features, a typical allocation can carry roughly 2% to 3% in annual drag. Add a Flex Suite living benefit and you stack another 0.30% to 1.75% currently — up to 3.00% if Jackson raises it — charged on the benefit base. Add an enhanced death benefit and that is another 0.30% (Highest Quarterly Anniversary Value), 0.90% (6% Roll-Up), or 1.00% (Combination). There is also a $35 annual contract charge, waived at $50,000 in value, and a $25 transfer fee after 25 free transfers a year. The trade to name plainly: every layer of fee is the price of a guarantee, and guarantees you do not use are pure cost. The roll-up rates and benefit-base bonuses sound generous, but they apply to a hypothetical income base, not your spendable account value — so the fee is real money paid every year, while the benefit only materializes if you turn on income and draw it for a long time.

Legal Entity: Jackson National Life Insurance Company

Parent: Jackson Financial Inc.

A.M. Best Rating: A

Jackson is one of the largest variable annuity writers in the United States, with an A rating from A.M. Best. This is a mainstream, full-featured VA platform rather than a niche product — the Raymond James version simply packages Jackson's standard contract for distribution through that broker-dealer.