Advisory Retirement Income Annuity (NY) review

It depends on how you're being advised. For a New York investor whose money is already managed by a fee-only RIA, this is a good way to get tax deferral, full liquidity, and an optional income guarantee without paying an upfront commission. It's a poor fit for someone who wants principal protection, a fixed crediting rate, or a product they can buy directly — this is a market-risk contract sold through advisors only.

The rational reason to buy NARIA is to wrap tax-deferred, advisor-managed market exposure in a contract you can exit at any time. Because it's a fee-based (I-Share) design, there's no commission baked into the contract and no surrender period holding your money hostage. On top of that, advisory fees of up to 1.50% can be pulled out to pay your advisor without being treated as a withdrawal against the income or death benefit base — a meaningful detail for anyone in a managed account. And if your plan calls for guaranteed income later, you can add the lifetime withdrawal rider rather than buying a separate income product.

I think this is best for a New York resident, typically in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window, who already works with a fee-only or fee-based advisor and wants tax-deferred growth with the optionality of turning on lifetime income down the road. It suits both qualified and non-qualified money, though the tax deferral matters most for non-qualified dollars. It is not for someone who wants downside protection, a guaranteed minimum rate, or a hands-off product — the subaccounts carry full market risk, and the value here is realized through an advisor relationship.

You are not buying a guaranteed return. You're buying a tax-deferred investment account, wrapped in an insurance contract, with the option to attach a lifetime income guarantee. The core of the chassis is its cost structure: a 0.15% mortality & expense charge plus a 0.05% administrative charge — 0.20% all in for the base contract — and then whatever the 156 underlying subaccounts charge, which Nationwide lists at 0.11% to 2.58% net. There's no surrender schedule and no market value adjustment, so the contract behaves much more like a managed brokerage account than a traditional annuity. The "annuity" parts — the lifetime income rider and the optional enhanced death benefit — are à la carte features you choose and pay for separately.

The headline feature is the optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB). Nationwide offers several versions; the flagship for this New York contract is the Nationwide Lifetime Income Rider Plus Empire Advisory New York III. It runs on a Benefit Base, which is a bookkeeping value used only to calculate your guaranteed income — not your actual account value. During a 10-year accumulation period, the Benefit Base grows at a 6.00% simple-interest roll-up. More precisely, it's set as the greater of (1) your highest anniversary account value plus any additional premiums, or (2) your premiums grown at 6.00% simple for 10 years. If your actual account value climbs above the Benefit Base on a contract anniversary, the base steps up to match. When you turn income on, your age determines a withdrawal percentage applied to the Benefit Base, and that payment is guaranteed for life even if the account value runs to zero. The roll-up is simple interest, not compound, so it's less generous than it first sounds — a distinction worth understanding before you pay for it.

The second feature worth attention is the death benefit. By default, the contract simply returns your full account value at no extra cost. For 0.15% annually, you can add the Return of Premium Death Benefit, which pays the greater of account value or premiums paid (less withdrawals). That option bundles in a Spousal Protection Death Benefit Feature — it's annuitant-driven, so the death benefit pays out regardless of which spouse dies first — and an Enhanced Surrender Value for Terminal Illness Feature, available after the first contract anniversary. For a market-risk contract, a return-of-premium floor on the death benefit is a reasonable add-on if leaving the contract to heirs is part of the plan, but it's a cost you should only take on if you actually value it.

There is no surrender schedule. This is a fee-based (I-Share) contract, so you can withdraw assets at any time, for any reason, without a surrender charge and without a market value adjustment. That's the standout liquidity feature here — your money is never locked up by the contract itself. The usual tax rules still apply: withdrawals of earnings are taxed as ordinary income, and distributions before age 59½ may carry the 10% IRS early-withdrawal penalty. Required minimum distributions are accommodated. One nuance if you add the Empire Advisory NY III rider: one non-lifetime withdrawal is permitted after the first contract anniversary, and any excess withdrawals reduce the Benefit Base proportionally — so taking out more than your guaranteed amount can quietly shrink your future income. Advisory fees of up to 1.50% don't count as withdrawals for benefit-base purposes.

The base contract is genuinely cheap at 0.20%, and the lack of a surrender charge is a real advantage. The costs come from the parts you choose. The subaccounts themselves run 0.11% to 2.58% net depending on what you pick, and a low-cost fund platform fee of 0.10% to 0.35% may apply to certain subaccounts. The lifetime income rider is the big number: the Empire Advisory NY III charges 1.45% current (1.60% maximum) for a single life and 1.60% current (1.90% maximum) for joint coverage, calculated on the Benefit Base and charged annually. Lower-cost rider options exist — the Pro 4 Income Rider runs just 0.45% current — but they buy a different, lower guarantee. The trade is straightforward: the income rider buys you a 6% simple roll-up and a lifetime payout floor, and whether 1.45%–1.60% a year is worth it depends entirely on whether you actually activate income. If you never turn the rider on, you've paid for a guarantee you didn't use.