Bonus Annuity review

Depends. For a buyer who genuinely intends to hold ten years, wants principal protection, and likes the idea of starting with an immediate bump to account value, it is a reasonable option. It is a poor fit for anyone who might need meaningful access to the money before the surrender period ends, because the front-loaded 12% charges and the unvested portion of the bonus can erase a large slice of the contract value on an early exit. The B++ carrier strength is adequate but not top-shelf, which matters more on a 10-year commitment than on a short one.

The main reason to buy Nassau Bonus Annuity is the premium bonus combined with downside protection. Adding 10% to your starting account value gives the contract a head start that a non-bonus FIA does not have, and everything after that grows through index-linked crediting with no risk of market loss to principal. The secondary reason is optionality: you can leave it as a pure accumulation contract, or you can elect the income rider at issue and use the bonus-inflated account value plus a roll-up to build future lifetime income. For a conservative saver who wants more upside than a fixed annuity but no exposure to market declines, that package has real appeal — provided the ten-year horizon is honestly there.

I think this is best for someone in their late 50s through mid 70s using qualified or non-qualified retirement dollars they will not need for at least a decade, who values principal protection over maximum growth and is drawn to the upfront bonus. Issue ages run 0-85, but the full 10% bonus and the riders are only available through age 80; ages 81-85 get a reduced 7% bonus and no riders or waivers. It is less attractive for someone who wants short-term liquidity, wants the simplest possible annuity, or is shopping primarily for the highest guaranteed rate — a plain MYGA or a shorter-surrender FIA would serve those buyers better.

You are not buying stock market participation, and you are not really buying "free" 10% money either. You are buying a principal-protected insurance contract that credits interest using index formulas, wrapped around a bonus that the insurer recovers through a long surrender schedule and a vesting rule. The bonus lands in your account value immediately, which flatters the early statements, but it only becomes fully yours if you stay the full ten years. Think of the bonus and the surrender schedule as two sides of the same deal: the insurer fronts the bonus and protects itself with a decade of low liquidity and gradual vesting. That framing matters, because the honest value of this contract shows up only for the buyer who actually holds it to term.

The headline feature is the premium bonus. At issue, Nassau credits a bonus to your contract's account value — 10% for issue ages 0-80 on premium between $15,000 and $1,000,000, or 7% for ages 81-85 on premium between $15,000 and $500,000. This is an account-value bonus, meaning it goes to work alongside your premium in whatever crediting accounts you choose, not merely to an income benefit base. The catch is vesting: the bonus is subject to a 10-year vesting schedule, and the portion that has not yet vested is recovered if you surrender the contract, take withdrawals above the free amount, or trigger the nursing-home waiver during the surrender period. It fully vests at death, and required minimum distributions do not trigger recovery. In tax terms, the bonus is treated as gain, so withdrawals of it are taxable. The practical takeaway is that the bonus rewards holding the contract for its full life and penalizes early exit — it is a patience incentive, not a giveaway.

Note that some states use a different, faster-vesting bonus paired with a lower surrender schedule (see the availability note), so the exact vesting and charge grid depends on your state of issue.

Behind the bonus sits a fairly broad crediting menu and an optional income rider, and both matter to how the contract actually performs. There are thirteen indexed accounts spanning the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100, and the Sunrise Smart Passage SG Index, offered as 1-year and 2-year point-to-point and "Sunrise" monthly-change strategies using caps, participation rates, or enhanced participation rates, plus a fixed account with a current rate of 3.30% and a guaranteed floor between 1% and 3%. The current cap on the 1-year S&P 500 point-to-point-with-cap strategy is 7.75%, and participation rates run roughly 33% to 165% depending on the index, term, and whether you pick the enhanced version. These are a 12/1/2025 snapshot per Wink and will drift, so confirm the live rate sheet before you buy.

The optional income rider — Amplified Income Plus Rider II or the Rising Income Opportunity version, only one may be elected — adds a 3.00% simple annual roll-up on the income benefit base for up to 15 years, plus a "stacking" credit of 150% of the contract's net fixed and indexed gains. It costs 0.95% of the benefit base annually today, potentially rising to 1.50% after year 15. Because the income rider is optional rather than built in, this stays an accumulation product first; the rider is there for buyers who later decide they want a guaranteed income stream.

This is a long, illiquid contract, and the surrender schedule is where that shows most. The captured schedule runs 12%, 12%, 12%, 11%, 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, then 4% — three full years at 12% and still 4% in year ten is steep relative to many peers. A market value adjustment (MVA — an interest-rate-linked adjustment that can raise or lower your surrender proceeds) also applies during the surrender period, adding a second variable to any early exit. You can withdraw up to 10% of account value each year free of surrender charges and MVA, and required minimum distributions on this contract are exempt from surrender charges, MVA, and bonus recovery, which softens the lockup for older qualified buyers. Withdrawals are taken from the fixed account first, then proportionately from the indexed accounts. Nursing-home and terminal-illness waivers can waive the surrender charge, but note the nursing-home waiver still allows recovery of the non-vested bonus and MVA — so it is not a clean escape hatch. Bottom line: treat this as money you will not touch beyond the free amount for ten years.

The base contract itself does not disclose an explicit annual product, mortality-and-expense, or administration fee in the available materials, though that "no fee" reading is a lower-confidence point and worth confirming on the current product profile. The real costs here are structural and optional rather than a flat annual charge. If you elect the income rider, you pay 0.95% of the income benefit base per year, which can rise to a maximum of 1.50% after the 15th contract anniversary. If you use any of the Enhanced Participation Rate accounts, those carry a 1.00% annual strategy fee (contractually up to 2.00%), deducted at the end of each 1- or 2-year segment before any index credit is applied — you are paying for a higher participation rate, which only pays off if the index performs. And the largest implicit cost is the bonus-vesting-plus-surrender structure itself: the trade for the 10% bonus is a decade of limited liquidity and the risk of giving the bonus back if plans change. None of these are hidden, but they add up, and they reinforce that this contract works best held to term with the simpler capped strategies unless you specifically want the enhanced sleeves.