ChoicePlus Assurance Series B-Share (NY) review

It depends. This is a good annuity for a New York buyer who specifically wants market participation inside a tax-deferred annuity and is willing to either accept full market risk or pay for optional guarantees. It is a poor fit for someone whose main goal is protecting principal — a variable annuity puts your money directly in subaccounts that can lose value, and the base contract does nothing to stop that. If protection is your priority, a fixed indexed annuity or a fixed annuity is a more direct way to get it.

The rational reason to buy ChoicePlus Assurance Series B-Share is to combine market investing with tax deferral and an optional income guarantee. Someone who has already maxed out other tax-advantaged accounts and wants more tax-deferred growth, or who wants the ability to convert market gains into guaranteed lifetime income later, is the natural buyer. The B-share structure trades an upfront sales-load arrangement for a finite 7-year surrender schedule, which suits a buyer who plans to hold the contract but wants the charges to eventually fall away.

I think this is best for a New York resident roughly in the 50-70 range who is comfortable with market risk, has a long enough horizon to ride out volatility, and wants either tax-deferred accumulation or the option to turn on guaranteed income down the road. It works for both qualified and non-qualified money, though in a qualified account (IRA, Roth, SEP) the tax deferral is redundant — you'd be buying it for the optional income or death-benefit guarantees, not the wrapper. It is not for conservative savers, anyone who needs liquidity inside the first several years, or someone who wants a simple, low-cost product.

Strip away the annuity label and you are buying a basket of mutual-fund-like subaccounts inside an insurance contract. Your account value rises and falls with whatever funds you choose — there is no cap, no floor, and no buffer on the base contract. What the insurance wrapper adds is tax deferral, the ability to move between 127 subaccounts without triggering taxes (12 free transfers a year), and the option to purchase guarantees. The guarantees are the real reason most people choose a variable annuity over a plain brokerage account: a GLWB that promises lifetime income even if the market falls, or an enhanced death benefit that locks in a high-water mark for your heirs.

The core of the contract is the subaccount platform. You allocate your premium across up to 127 variable subaccounts spanning stock, bond, and balanced strategies, with net subaccount fees running roughly 0.48% to 1.46% depending on the funds you pick. Those fund costs are layered on top of the contract's own charges. Your value tracks the underlying funds directly — if the market is up, you participate fully in the gain; if it's down, you take the loss. That full participation is the trade you make versus an indexed annuity, which limits both your upside and your downside. There is no fixed or indexed account option in this version, so you cannot park money in a guaranteed bucket inside the contract.

The optional living-benefit riders are what give this product a reason to exist beyond a regular investment account. The Market Select Advantage GLWB carries a 5.00% simple annual rollup on the benefit base for up to 10 years (to age 85), with an annual step-up if your account value grows past the benefit base, in exchange for a 1.50% current fee (2.25% maximum) charged on the benefit base. That rider buys you a guaranteed income floor for life regardless of market performance. Separately, the i4LIFE Advantage rider (a GMIB structure at 0.40% on account value) is Lincoln's mechanism for converting the contract into guaranteed lifetime income while keeping some access to the account. Whether either is worth the cost depends entirely on whether you actually turn income on — if you never do, you've paid for a guarantee you didn't use.

The free-withdrawal allowance is reasonable for a variable annuity: each year you can take the greater of 10% of account value or 10% of premiums paid, available immediately. Beyond that, withdrawals during the 7-year surrender period trigger a charge that starts at 7%, holds at 7% in year two, then steps down to 0% after year seven. A market value adjustment (MVA) also applies — an MVA can raise or lower your surrender cost depending on where interest rates have moved since you bought the contract, so a large early withdrawal can cost more than the schedule alone suggests. RMDs are accommodated, and surrender-charge waivers are available for nursing home confinement, terminal illness, and disability. Treat this as a long-term holding, not a flexible cash reserve.

The base contract runs 1.25% a year (1.15% mortality and expense plus 0.10% administration), and that's before fund costs of roughly 0.48% to 1.46%. So even a bare-bones holding can cost well over 1.5% all-in. There's also a $35 annual contract fee, though it's waived once your account value hits $100,000 or after 15 years. The riders stack on top: the GLWB adds 1.50% (up to 2.25%) on the benefit base, the i4LIFE/GMIB adds 0.40%, and an enhanced death benefit adds 0.30% to 0.50%. A buyer who adds the GLWB and an enhanced death benefit could easily be paying 3% or more annually all-in. That fee load is the central tradeoff — you're paying for market access plus optional insurance guarantees, and it only pencils out if you genuinely value and use those guarantees.

Legal Entity: Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York

Parent: Lincoln Financial

A.M. Best Rating: A