LiveWell Preferred FIA 8-Year review

It depends on what you need it to do. For someone who wants principal protection, an 8-year time horizon, and a reputable carrier, this is a reasonable choice. For someone who mainly wants income and is adding the rider from day one, the math on a 1.20% annual fee — potentially rising to 3.00% — is worth examining carefully against alternatives that build income in from the start. For someone who needs liquidity above 10% per year within the surrender window, this is not the right structure.

The most straightforward reason is carrier quality. Midland National carries an A+ from A.M. Best, which puts it in a short list of carriers with the top available independent financial strength rating. Beyond that, the contract offers a $10,000 minimum premium — lower than many FIAs — which makes it accessible without requiring a large initial transfer. The optional income rider adds a future-income backstop for buyers who are not ready to turn on income today but want to preserve that option.

I think this product fits a conservative pre-retiree or early-retiree who has a meaningful portion of retirement savings they genuinely will not need to access for at least eight years, who values principal protection over direct market participation, and who wants the option to convert to income later without buying a separate contract. It is less suited for someone close to needing the money, someone primarily shopping for current income, or someone who wants the most aggressive FIA crediting potential available.

You are buying a principal-protected insurance contract, not a market investment. When the indices in this contract go up, you earn credited interest based on a cap rate, a participation rate, or a spread formula — not the full raw index gain. When indices go down, you earn zero on those strategies, but you do not lose principal to index losses. That zero-floor protection is the core value proposition. The practical result is a contract that can credit meaningful interest in positive markets while shielding account value from direct market drawdowns.

The four indices offered include the plain S&P 500 alongside three volatility-controlled indices — the S&P 500 Low Volatility Daily Risk Control 5%, the Nasdaq-100 Volatility Control 12%, and the Fidelity Multifactor Yield Index 5% ER. Volatility-controlled indices are engineered to smooth out market swings, which typically allows carriers to offer higher participation rates on those strategies. The tradeoff is that they tend to underperform the raw index in strong bull markets. Neither is inherently better — they are different risk/reward profiles inside the same contract.

LiveWell Preferred offers two primary crediting method types: annual point-to-point and two-year point-to-point, plus a fixed account. On the annual strategies, interest is measured from one contract anniversary to the next. On the two-year strategies, the measurement period is two years, which can allow for different cap or participation structures.

Rate banding applies here — rates differ based on account value, not premiums paid, which is somewhat unusual. This matters because a contract that grows above a band threshold may qualify for different crediting terms than one that stays below. For the S&P 500 annual cap strategy, rates disclosed in the available materials ranged from 8.80% to 11.25% depending on the strategy and rate band. For the volatility-controlled indices, participation rates ranged from 35% to 210% on biennial strategies. These are rates effective as of April 2026 and will change — treat them as structure context, not a purchase guarantee.

The optional LiveWell Income for Life XVIII rider is the most consequential secondary feature. It adds a benefit base that rolls up at 10% simple interest annually to a cap of 200% of net premium. That roll-up is straightforward to understand: if you put in $100,000 and wait 10 years without activating income, the benefit base grows to $200,000, which then becomes the base for calculating guaranteed income payments.

The catch is the fee structure. The rider costs 1.20% currently, with a contractual maximum of 3.00%. That maximum is real — carriers can raise the fee up to the cap — and 3.00% is above average for this type of rider. If you buy this contract intending to add the income rider from day one, model what happens to your actual account value under the 3.00% fee scenario over an 8-year surrender period. The benefit base grows at 10% simple interest while the account value absorbs the rider fee plus any index underperformance. That gap can become material.

The 8-year surrender schedule starts at 8% for years one through three, then steps down through 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, and 3% before reaching zero in year nine. A market value adjustment — MVA — also applies during the surrender period. The MVA adjusts the surrender penalty up or down depending on interest rate movements relative to when the contract was issued. In a rising rate environment, the MVA can add to your effective penalty; in a falling rate environment, it can reduce it. Most buyers who trigger surrenders outside the free-withdrawal amount end up paying more than the stated schedule percentage when an MVA is in effect.

The 10% annual free withdrawal provision (after year one) provides meaningful access for typical distributions. RMDs attributable to this contract are allowed without surrender charges, which makes the contract workable inside IRAs. A nursing home waiver is also available for situations requiring extended care access. Still, this should not be funded with money you have a reasonable chance of needing within eight years.

The base contract carries no stated annual fee, which is standard for this FIA structure. The optional income rider runs 1.20% annually on the benefit base, not the account value — a distinction worth understanding, since the benefit base can exceed account value during the deferral phase, making the effective fee drag higher than the percentage alone suggests. The optional Legacy Protector death benefit rider adds 0.35% annually.

The spread on some strategies is 5%, which is above average and should factor into strategy selection. A high spread effectively lowers the net index participation on those strategies compared to a cap-based alternative. The fixed account rates — disclosed at 2.15% to 2.55% by rate band — are not competitive with current MYGA alternatives, so the fixed account functions more as a parking option than a primary growth strategy.

Legal Entity: Midland National Life Insurance Company

Parent: Sammons Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A+