Growth Annuity 7-Year review

Yes, for a specific kind of buyer. It's a good annuity for someone who wants principal protection, a competitive cap and participation-rate structure, and the flexibility to spread money across multiple index strategies inside a single contract. It's a weaker fit for someone who wants the simplest possible fixed-rate product, needs an income rider now, or is uncomfortable evaluating a menu with more than a dozen crediting options.

The core appeal is index-linked growth potential without direct market exposure, paired with a menu deep enough to let a buyer diversify across strategies rather than betting everything on one crediting method. Someone who has already decided they want an FIA, has a 7-year horizon, and wants more than a bare-bones cap strategy would be drawn to this contract. The 10% free-withdrawal provision and RMD-friendly design also make it workable for a qualified account where required distributions are expected.

I think this product is best for someone in their late 50s to 70s, funding it with qualified or non-qualified retirement money, who wants principal protection with real upside potential and is comfortable committing to a 7-year surrender schedule. It's not well suited to someone who needs income turned on soon — Nassau explicitly reserves the optional Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit riders for the 10-year (9-year in CA) version of this same policy family, so an income-focused buyer should be looking at that version instead, not this one.

You're not buying market participation. You're buying an insurance contract that guarantees you won't lose principal to market declines, in exchange for accepting that your upside is shaped — capped, shared through a participation rate, or run through a fee-adjusted "enhanced" formula — rather than open-ended. The menu size here is real, but it doesn't change that underlying trade: protection first, growth potential second, with the insurer controlling how much of any index gain actually reaches your account value.

The contract offers six broad crediting approaches, each available on one or more of the three underlying indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Nassau's own Sunrise Smart Passage SG Index): a 1-year point-to-point cap (currently 9.00% on the S&P 500 version), 1-year and 2-year point-to-point with a standard participation rate, 1-year and 2-year point-to-point with an Enhanced Participation Rate, and 1-year and 2-year "Sunrise" (monthly change with replacement) strategies in both standard and enhanced-participation form. Participation rates as of the brochure date range from 32% up to 187% depending on which index and strategy you pick — that spread is wide enough that the specific account matters more than the general "participation rate" label. There's also a fixed account paying a guaranteed daily rate, currently 3.70%.

The Enhanced Participation Rate accounts are the feature that most changes the math here. In exchange for a materially higher participation rate, you pay a 1.00% annual strategy fee per index-term year, deducted before any index credit is applied — up to 2.00% total on the 2-year segments. That fee is charged whether or not the index moves in your favor. If the index credit for the period comes in below the fee, your account value can actually decline in an FIA, which is a real departure from the "worst case is zero" framing most buyers associate with indexed annuities. The enhanced accounts aren't a bad choice, but they're a meaningfully different risk profile than the standard participation-rate accounts, and it's worth running both versions side by side before choosing.

You're trading 7 years of full liquidity for the crediting structure above. The surrender charge schedule runs 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3% across the seven contract years, and a market value adjustment (MVA) — a mechanism that can increase or decrease your surrender penalty based on interest-rate movement since issue — applies on top of that during the same window. Each year you can withdraw up to 10% of account value free of both the surrender charge and the MVA, and withdrawals taken to satisfy RMDs tied to this contract skip both charges as well (with some Year 1 restrictions). Withdrawals draw from the fixed account first, then proportionately across the indexed accounts. This is workable for RMD purposes, but it's not a source of discretionary cash beyond the 10% allowance.

The base contract and the standard crediting strategies carry no explicit annual fee — the cost shows up as a capped or shared upside instead. The Enhanced Participation Rate accounts are the exception: that 1.00% annual strategy fee buys a higher participation rate, and whether it's worth it depends entirely on how the chosen index performs over the term. Beyond that, there's no income rider to evaluate, no premium bonus complicating the account value, and the death benefit and chronic-illness waivers come at no separate charge. The main structural tradeoff is the menu itself — 13 indexed accounts is a lot to choose among, and a buyer who picks poorly among them can underperform a simpler product with fewer, better-understood options.

Legal Entity: Nassau Life and Annuity Company

Parent: Nassau Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: B++