Income Accelerator review

Depends on what you want it for. For a buyer whose goal is guaranteed lifetime income they can defer for several years, this is a good annuity — the built-in rider, the 10% income-base bonus, and the 10% simple roll-up give it a clear purpose, and the 0.95% rider fee is on the lower side for this feature set. It is not a good annuity for someone who mainly wants accumulation, wants the flexibility to skip an income rider, or wants the reassurance of an A-rated carrier, since Nassau Life and Annuity carries a B++ A.M. Best rating.

The main reason to buy Income Accelerator is to lock in a growing base of future lifetime income while keeping your principal protected from market losses along the way. The 10% bonus added to the income benefit base at issue and the 10% simple annual roll-up mean the amount your future income is calculated from can grow substantially during the deferral years, even if the index side of the contract is flat. The choice among three income riders — Flex-Forward, Income Horizon: Early, and Income Horizon: Later — lets a buyer match the payout timing to their retirement plan rather than accept a single fixed design.

I think this annuity is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window, roughly age 50 to 70, who wants to use long-term money to create future income and expects to defer withdrawals for several years before turning them on. It fits a buyer who values a built-in income guarantee over maximum growth and is comfortable with a B++ carrier. It works in both qualified and non-qualified money, and the RMD-friendly withdrawal treatment makes it workable inside an IRA. It is a poor fit for anyone who wants short-term liquidity, wants the option to skip the income rider entirely, or is primarily chasing accumulation.

You are not buying stock market upside, and you are not really buying an accumulation annuity. You are buying a lifetime income framework wrapped around a principal-protected contract. There are actually two separate values in this contract that grow differently. The account value is your real money — it earns index-linked interest and is what you can walk away with. The income benefit base is a separate accounting number, not cash you can withdraw in a lump sum; it exists only to calculate your future guaranteed income. The 10% bonus and the 10% simple roll-up apply to that benefit base, not to your account value. That distinction is the whole point of the product: the benefit base can look impressive while the account value grows more modestly, because you are paying for the guarantee of lifetime income, not for the size of the surrender check.

Income Accelerator requires you to choose one of three guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) riders at application: the Flex-Forward Income Benefit Rider, Income Horizon: Early, or Income Horizon: Later. At issue, a 10% Income Benefit Base Bonus is applied to the benefit base — again, this affects the income calculation, not your account value, and you only capture it by actually taking income under the rider. Before you turn income on, the benefit base receives a 10% simple interest credit each year for up to 10 years or until you exercise the rider, whichever comes first. Simple interest means the 10% is calculated on the original base each year rather than compounding on a growing balance, so the growth is linear rather than accelerating. When you activate income, your age and the rider you selected determine the withdrawal percentage applied to that base, which sets your guaranteed annual payment for life. The three rider choices differ in when income is designed to start and how the payout is structured — "Early" and "Later" signal the intended deferral window — so the right choice depends on your own retirement timeline.

The most meaningful secondary feature is the death benefit, which is stronger than many income-focused FIAs offer. The overall death benefit is the greater of your full contract value, a Return of Premium Death Benefit (your contract value at death is never less than the premiums you paid, less prior withdrawals and cumulative rider fees), or the Total Guaranteed Value. Importantly, this death benefit is unaffected by whether you have exercised the income rider, so turning on lifetime income does not erase what your heirs receive. The one asterisk is that the index credit for the year of death is excluded from the calculation. This matters because it means the money you commit to future income isn't stranded if you die before or during the payout phase — there is a floor protecting what passes to beneficiaries.

This is a long-term contract, and the surrender schedule makes that plain. You can take up to 10% of contract value penalty-free each year, and that access is available immediately in year one, which is more generous than products that make you wait. Anything above the 10% free amount during the surrender period is subject to a withdrawal charge that starts at a steep 12% for the first three years and grinds down to 4% in year 10, plus a market value adjustment — an MVA, which means your surrender penalty can move up or down with interest rates at the time you withdraw. The surrender schedule itself varies by state; the 12/12/12/11/10/9/8/7/6/4 schedule shown here applies in about half the states, while California, Texas, and several others use gentler versions. RMDs associated with the contract are exempt from both surrender charges and the MVA, which makes it workable inside an IRA. Nursing home and terminal illness surrender-charge waivers are available in most states (the nursing home waiver is not available in California). One caution: withdrawals taken before you exercise the rider, or in excess of your guaranteed income, reduce the income benefit base and shrink your future guaranteed payments — so casual early withdrawals undercut the very feature you bought this for.

The main fee is the income rider charge: 0.95% of the income benefit base each year, deducted from your contract value. That is guaranteed not to rise until the 10th rider anniversary, after which it can increase but never above 1.50%. At 0.95%, this is actually on the lower end for a built-in GLWB, and the trade is straightforward — you pay it for the 10% income-base bonus, the 10% simple roll-up, and the lifetime income guarantee. Whether that is worth it comes down to whether you actually turn income on; if you never do, you paid for a guarantee you never used. The second cost to watch is on the index side: the "Enhanced Participation Rate" indexed accounts carry a 1.00% annual strategy fee, deducted from your account value at the end of each segment regardless of whether the index gained. Those accounts trade a higher participation rate for that certain fee, so they only pay off if the index performs. The base crediting terms are modest — the current fixed account rate is 1.50%, and the one S&P 500 cap strategy caps annual credits at 3.50%, though most strategies use participation rates rather than a cap. Those figures are effective 1/1/2026 and reset at each new segment, so treat them as a snapshot, not a permanent rate.

Legal Entity: Nassau Life and Annuity Company

Parent: Nassau Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: B++