Excelera Plus 5-Year review

It can be, for the right buyer, but it's not a slam dunk. If you have money you're comfortable not touching for 5 years, a 4.00% guaranteed fixed rate is a fair (not exceptional) rate in today's MYGA market, and the free option to instead capture 55% of the S&P 500's move over the same 5 years (with a 10% guaranteed minimum participation) is a real value-add that most MYGAs simply don't offer. Where I'd pump the brakes: the total absence of free withdrawals during the term is stricter than most competing MYGAs, and Revol One's B++ rating means you're accepting more carrier risk than you would with an A-rated competitor. I think this product is good, not great -- it's worth a look specifically for the indexed kicker, but the liquidity design and carrier strength both need to fit your situation before this makes sense.

The main reason to buy this is the combination of a guaranteed floor with a free chance at more. Someone who already likes MYGAs for their simplicity and safety, but who has occasionally wondered "what if the market does well during my term," is exactly who this product is built for. Because the Best Interest Crediting feature is bundled in automatically -- it's not an optional rider you have to pay for or elect -- every dollar in this contract gets the same shot at the higher of the two outcomes. That's a meaningfully different proposition than a plain fixed-rate MYGA, where the rate you're quoted is the rate you get, full stop.

I think this is best for someone who has already decided a 5-year MYGA fits their plan, has no expectation of needing this specific money before the term ends, and wants some optionality tied to the stock market without giving up the guaranteed floor to get it. It's a reasonable fit for a buyer comfortable with a B++ carrier in exchange for that upside potential.

It is not a good fit for anyone who might need partial access to this money during the 5-year term for anything other than an RMD -- the zero free-withdrawal design means even a modest emergency withdrawal both costs a surrender charge and forfeits the indexed upside. It's also not the right fit for someone who wants the strongest possible carrier rating for a multi-year lock-up, or someone who would rather just take the highest flat guaranteed rate on the market without the added complexity of an index-linked comparison.

You're buying a 5-year fixed annuity with an automatic upgrade attached. The base contract guarantees a 4.00% fixed rate compounded for the full 5-year term. Layered on top, at no separate cost, is the MYGIA (Best Interest) feature: at the end of the term, Revol One compares that guaranteed fixed-rate value against an alternative calculation tied to the S&P 500's move from the start of the term to the end, multiplied by a participation rate (55% currently, with a 10% guaranteed minimum floor on that rate), and pays whichever number is larger. You are not buying direct market exposure -- there's no annual reset, no daily crediting, just a single measurement at the finish line.

One number worth knowing precisely: the minimum initial premium is $50,000 for non-qualified money and $25,000 for qualified (IRA/Roth IRA) money -- it isn't a flat $25,000 across the board, and that gap can matter depending on which account you're funding this from.

Here's the mechanic in plain terms. For the full 5-year term, your money grows at a guaranteed 4.00% fixed rate -- that's the floor, and it's locked in at issue. Separately, Revol One tracks the S&P 500's total change from your contract's start date to the exact end of the 5-year term (not year by year, just those two points). If the index is higher at the end than the start, that percentage move gets multiplied by a participation rate -- currently 55% for this 5-year duration, though it can never fall below a guaranteed 10% minimum -- to produce an alternative accumulation value. At the end of the term, whichever of the two values is larger (the guaranteed fixed-rate value or the indexed alternative) is what you actually get.

There's no cap and no spread deducted from the indexed side, which is unusual and a genuine plus -- most indexed strategies shave your upside with a cap, spread, or asset fee. The tradeoff for that generosity is that it's a single term-end measurement rather than an annual reset, so a strong single year in the middle of the term that's later given back won't show up in the final number the way it might with an annual point-to-point design. And it's a one-shot decision at the 5-year mark -- there's no partial locking-in of gains along the way.

The other feature worth calling out is what happens if you die or become seriously ill during the term. The death benefit here pays the full account value -- your accumulation value plus any positive MVA -- to your beneficiaries with no surrender charge deducted, and a negative MVA doesn't reduce it either. That's a cleaner death benefit than some MYGAs offer.

Layered on top of that, Revol One includes nursing home and terminal illness waivers at no extra cost. If you're confined to a nursing home for at least 90 days, or diagnosed as terminally ill with a life expectancy of 12 months or less, the surrender charge and MVA are both waived on a withdrawal. These aren't long-term care insurance, and they won't be available in every state, but as a built-in, no-fee safety valve for exactly the kind of life event that could otherwise force an expensive early withdrawal, they add real value to a contract that's otherwise quite restrictive on liquidity.

This is the part of the contract that deserves the most attention before buying. Unlike most MYGAs, which typically let you withdraw around 10% of the account value each year penalty-free, Excelera Plus 5-Year offers no free partial withdrawal at all during the initial 5-year term. IRS Required Minimum Distributions are the one exception -- those can always be taken without triggering a surrender charge or MVA. Outside of an RMD, any withdrawal during the term hits the full surrender schedule below, can also trigger a market value adjustment, and -- importantly -- permanently forfeits the Best Interest Crediting feature for that term, meaning you'd be left with just the fixed-rate value even if the indexed side would have paid more.

At the end of the 5-year term, there's a 30-day window to fully surrender penalty-free. If you don't act in that window, the contract renews for a second term at newly declared rates, and during that renewal term you can withdraw 10% of the accumulation value each year penalty-free -- a meaningfully more flexible design than the initial term. No further renewals are allowed after that second term. In short: treat the first 5 years as fully locked-up money, with RMDs as the only exception.

There's no separate fee for any of this. Revol One doesn't disclose a mortality and expense charge, product fee, administration charge, or annual contract fee on the base contract, and the MYGIA (Best Interest Crediting) rider along with the nursing home and terminal illness waivers are all included standard with no additional cost layered on top. That's genuinely good news -- you're not paying extra for the indexed upside chance or the illness waivers.

The real tradeoffs aren't fee-based, they're structural: the total lack of free withdrawals during the term, the B++ carrier rating (a notch below the strongest end of the MYGA market), and the $50,000 non-qualified minimum premium (versus $25,000 for qualified money), which is a higher bar than some competing MYGAs set. And remember that the rates quoted here -- the 4.00% fixed rate and the 55% participation rate -- reflect a snapshot from November 2025. Rates on new MYGA issues move regularly, so confirm current numbers before assuming these are still on the table.

Legal Entity: Revol One Insurance Company

A.M. Best Rating: B++ (Good); Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating bbb (Good); Outlook Stable (as of 3/27/2024)