Investors Benefit Advisory Variable Annuity (NY) review

It depends on how you are buying it. For someone already in a fee-based advisory relationship who wants tax-deferred growth and the flexibility to add lifetime income later, this is a reasonable, low-cost wrapper. For a do-it-yourself buyer paying no advisory fee, an annuity wrapper like this is harder to justify against a plain taxable brokerage account or an IRA — and in any case, you can only buy it if you live in New York.

The main reason to buy this is cost-efficient tax deferral inside a managed portfolio. At 0.30% in base annuity charges, the insurance "wrapper" is cheap enough that an advisor can use it to hold subaccount investments while deferring taxes on gains and rebalancing without triggering capital-gains events. The secondary reason is optionality: you can add the SecurePay II lifetime income rider when retirement income becomes a priority, rather than paying for it from day one.

I think this is best for a mid-to-late-career investor in New York who already works with a fee-based (RIA) advisor, wants to defer taxes on a portion of their portfolio, and may want guaranteed income down the road but does not want to commit to that cost today. It is less attractive for a self-directed buyer with no advisor, for anyone who wants income guarantees locked in immediately, and for anyone outside New York — this exact contract is not approved in any other state.

You are not buying market protection here — there is no buffer, floor, or principal guarantee on the investment side. You are buying a tax-deferred container for ordinary investment risk. Your money goes into variable subaccounts that rise and fall with the markets they track, just like mutual funds, and the value at any point is whatever those subaccounts are worth. The "I-share" or advisory-share label simply means the contract is built without an embedded sales commission, so the internal cost is low and your advisor's fee is charged separately. The optional income rider is the only piece that adds a guarantee, and it is exactly that — optional.

The core of the contract is the subaccount lineup: 142 variable investment options from managers including AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, PIMCO, and T. Rowe Price, with net subaccount expense ratios running from 0.09% to 3.29%. You allocate premium across these the way you would across funds, and the contract layers a 0.30% base charge (0.20% mortality and expense, 0.10% administration) on top. A DCA+ (Dollar Cost Averaging Plus) feature lets you park money short-term at a fixed rate — quoted as 5.00% for the six-month option and 3.00% for the 12-month option as of the 5/1/2026 data — while it is gradually moved into the subaccounts. There are no indexed or structured-return accounts; this is a straight market-participation product.

The optional SecurePay II guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB) is the feature that turns this from a pure accumulation vehicle into a retirement-income tool. It carries a 1.50% current charge (2.00% maximum) on the benefit base, with a 0.10% surcharge if you add it after issue through the RightTime feature. There is no roll-up; instead the benefit base grows through annual step-ups when your account value finishes a year higher than the base. Lifetime withdrawal percentages scale with your age at the time you start income — for a single life, roughly 4.55% at age 60, 4.95% at 65, 5.40% at 70, and higher at older ages, with joint-life percentages about half a point lower. A built-in Nursing Home Benefit can double the withdrawal percentage (up to a 10.00% cap) if you qualify. Because it is elective, you only pay for this if you actually want the income guarantee.

This is one of the more flexible variable annuities on the liquidity front because there is no surrender charge schedule at all — the I-share design trades sales commissions for full access to your money. You can move among the 142 subaccounts up to 12 times a year with no transfer fee. A $30 annual contract fee applies but is waived once contract value reaches $100,000. The usual annuity tax rules still apply, though: withdrawals of gains before age 59½ may trigger a 10% IRS penalty on top of ordinary income tax, and excess withdrawals reduce your account value, death benefit, and any income-rider base. Required minimum distributions are accommodated for qualified accounts (the contract supports IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), Keogh, and non-qualified money). There is no market value adjustment.

The headline number is how low the base cost is: 0.30% per year in annuity charges. On top of that you pay the expense ratio of whichever subaccounts you choose (0.09% to 3.29%, so your real cost depends heavily on which funds you pick) and the separate advisory fee your RIA charges — and that advisory fee is the unspoken part of the math. This product only makes economic sense if you are getting advisory value for that fee. Optional features add their own costs: SecurePay II runs 1.50% to 2.00% on the benefit base, and the two enhanced death-benefit riders cost 0.20% (Return of Purchase Payments) or 0.35% (Maximum Anniversary Value). A 2% annuitization bonus is credited if you annuitize for at least a 10-year period after the 10th contract anniversary. The trade is clear: you get a very cheap insurance wrapper, but only if you are already paying for advice elsewhere.

Legal Entity: Protective Life and Annuity Insurance Company

Parent: Protective Life Insurance Corporation

AM Best Rating: A+