Secure Horizon Choice 5 review

It depends on your priorities. If you want a 5-year FIA with principal protection, multiple index choices, and the flexibility to add an income rider for 0.50% per year, this product fits that description well. The honest limitation is that the actual cap rates and participation percentages for the various index strategies were not available in the brochure materials, so comparing the specific crediting terms against peer products requires requesting the current rate sheet directly. Structure-wise, this is a clean product. Rate-competitiveness cannot be confirmed from the available materials alone.

The main reasons to consider Secure Horizon Choice 5 are the shorter surrender window, the breadth of the index menu, and the optional income rider at a low fee. In real terms, this is the kind of product a buyer selects when they want FIA-style downside protection with more index choices than a basic two-option design, and they either plan to take the income rider or want to leave that decision open at issue. The 0.50% fee for the Retirement Benefits Rider — which also bundles chronic illness benefits — is on the lower end for this type of rider, and the benefit base adjustment based on 150% of credited interest is an unusual design worth evaluating for buyers who expect meaningful index credits.

I think Secure Horizon Choice 5 fits best for buyers in their mid-50s to mid-70s who want a 5-year accumulation vehicle with the option to convert to an income-generating contract. It is a particularly natural fit for buyers who are not yet in distribution mode but want to preserve the option to turn on lifetime income within a few years. It is less well-suited for someone who needs immediate access to principal above the free-withdrawal amount, since those withdrawals are unavailable in year one and subject to the surrender schedule and MVA thereafter. Buyers who want a simple two-index contract without a wide menu will find this product has more moving parts than they need.

You are not buying stock market returns. You are buying a principal-protected insurance contract that credits interest based on the performance of selected indices, subject to caps, participation rates, and in some cases a Strategy Charge. Your premium does not go into the stock market — North American holds it in the general account and uses derivative instruments to provide the index-linked returns. That means downside is protected, but upside is shaped by whatever crediting terms apply to your chosen strategy, and those terms can change at renewal. The fixed-rate option is the floor; indexed strategies can potentially exceed it but offer no guarantees in any given contract year.

Secure Horizon Choice 5 offers four crediting methods across six indices. The annual point-to-point strategies measure the index level at the start and end of each contract year, then credit interest up to a cap (cap-rate strategies) or as a percentage of the gain (participation-rate strategies). The Performance Strategy Ladder is a multi-year structured approach; its specific mechanics were not fully described in the available brochure materials, so if this strategy is relevant to your evaluation, ask for the rider or strategy supplement that explains the measurement period and how interest is determined.

The six indices are a mix of mainstream and non-traditional. S&P 500 is the benchmark; the S&P 500 Distance Stabilizer Index, S&P PRISM Index, Loomis Sayles Managed Futures 2 Index, NYSE GEARS Index, and Research Affiliates Global Multi-Asset Index are volatility-managed or multi-asset designs that typically offer higher participation rates than the raw S&P 500 in exchange for more conservative underlying construction. That is a known FIA design tradeoff — the non-traditional indices often look appealing on participation-rate terms but have embedded index costs and can behave differently in strong-market years.

The optional Retirement Benefits Rider is the second most important feature, and it bundles more than a standard GLWB. For 0.50% per year deducted from accumulation value, the rider provides a benefit base that grows by 150% of the dollars of interest credited annually, plus access to ADL (Activities of Daily Living) benefits, a PlanGap benefit, enhanced death benefit, and enhanced payout benefit. That multi-benefit structure is more than most optional income riders include at this price point. The ADL waiver in particular can meaningfully change the product's value proposition for buyers who are weighing long-term care costs alongside retirement income planning.

This is a 5-year commitment, but the liquidity structure has one important limitation: free withdrawals are not available in the first contract year. Beginning in year two, 10% of the beginning-of-year accumulation value can be withdrawn annually without surrender charges. Amounts above that threshold are subject to the surrender schedule and a Market Value Adjustment — meaning if interest rates have risen since your contract was issued, you could receive less than the stated surrender charge alone would imply.

The MVA applies to surrenders and excess withdrawals during the charge period. This is a meaningful risk layer for buyers who might need access to funds in a rising-rate environment. The Nursing Home Waiver may be available in some states, which can provide relief if an extended-care event occurs before the surrender period ends.

The base contract carries no disclosed annual fee. The Retirement Benefits Rider costs 0.50% of accumulation value per year — this is the only explicit ongoing fee if you elect the rider. Some crediting strategies may also carry a Strategy Charge deducted annually from accumulation value, though the specific amount was not disclosed in the brochure materials. If you are evaluating a participation-rate strategy on a non-traditional index, ask whether a Strategy Charge applies and what the current rate is, since it directly reduces net credited interest.

The structural tradeoffs are: (1) no free withdrawals in year one, (2) MVA risk on excess withdrawals during the charge period, (3) actual crediting rates not disclosed in available materials. The last point is not unusual for an FIA that updates rates periodically, but it does mean the product cannot be fully evaluated from brochure alone.

Legal Entity: North American Company for Life and Health Insurance

Parent: Sammons Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A+