Safe Solution 9-Year review

It depends on your time horizon. For someone who genuinely has 9-year retirement dollars and wants a simple FIA with predictable surrender terms, this is a reasonable choice. For someone shopping for a more feature-rich accumulation FIA or expecting to need the money inside that window, the combination of a long surrender period and a narrow S&P-only menu makes it harder to justify over competing products that offer more crediting flexibility at similar durations.

The practical case for this annuity is uncomplicated principal protection tied to S&P 500 performance at a low minimum premium. At $5,000, it's accessible to buyers who can't meet the $25,000 or higher floors that many competing FIAs require. The no-MVA structure is also meaningful — buyers who accept a 9-year commitment can do so knowing their worst-case early surrender penalty is the stated charge, not a charge plus an interest-rate-dependent adjustment.

I think this product is best for a buyer in their mid-50s or younger who has qualified or non-qualified retirement dollars they won't need for at least a decade, wants passive exposure to S&P 500 performance with a floor of zero, and places more value on simplicity and predictable penalties than on index variety. It is less appealing for someone in their late 60s or beyond who may need flexibility sooner, for someone who wants multi-index diversification, or for someone whose primary goal is protected lifetime income.

You are not buying S&P 500 shares or mutual funds. You are buying a long-term insurance contract that credits interest based on S&P 500 performance — subject to a cap on the point-to-point strategy, or a fixed declared rate if the trigger condition is met. Your principal is protected from market losses; your upside is limited by the contract's crediting terms. The real commitment is the 9-year surrender period, which is longer than many buyers realize when they first look at FIA marketing materials.

Safe Solution 9-Year offers three crediting choices, all linked to the S&P 500:

The **1-Year Point-to-Point with Cap** measures the S&P 500's change at the end of each contract year. If the index is up, you earn the gain up to the cap (10% as of the brochure date; the guaranteed minimum cap is 1% annually). If the index is flat or down, you earn zero for that year — no loss, but no gain either.

The **Annual Performance Trigger** works differently. If the S&P 500 finishes flat or positive at the end of the contract year — any amount of gain, including zero — you earn the declared trigger rate (7.00% as of the brochure date). If the S&P 500 declines, you earn zero. This strategy does not capture gains in strong bull markets beyond the fixed trigger rate, but it can be valuable in flat or modestly positive market years where the point-to-point cap would credit little or nothing.

The **Fixed Rate Account** credits 4.25% annually (as of the brochure date) regardless of index performance. Rates are declared annually and can change.

All three are annual-reset strategies. Each contract year starts fresh, with gains locked in and the next measurement period beginning at the new accumulation value.

The most practically significant secondary feature on this product is the absence of a market value adjustment. Many FIAs with 8-to-10-year surrender periods impose an MVA on top of the stated surrender charge when you take a withdrawal that exceeds the free amount. An MVA adjusts the penalty up or down based on where interest rates have moved since you bought the contract — meaning in a rising-rate environment, your effective surrender cost can be substantially higher than the schedule alone suggests.

Safe Solution 9-Year has no MVA. The surrender charge in a given year is exactly what the schedule says it is. For buyers who feel uncertain about potentially needing funds before surrender expiration, that clarity has real value — though it does not eliminate the surrender charge itself.

This product is designed for money you will not need for nine years. The free withdrawal provision allows 10% of account value per year (10% of the single premium in the first contract year), but that applies only to the first withdrawal taken in each contract year — unused amounts do not roll forward.

Withdrawals must be at least $500 and are subject to a minimum remaining balance. Amounts withdrawn from an indexed account during a crediting period will not earn indexed interest for that period; the brochure recommends keeping expected withdrawal amounts in the fixed account.

Beyond the free amount, surrender charges step down as follows:

No MVA applies. The death benefit pays the full accumulation value plus interest accrued from the date of death, without surrender charges or MVA — a meaningful protection for beneficiaries if the owner dies during the surrender period.

RMD treatment is not specified in the available materials. Buyers funding this with qualified money should confirm with S.USA Life that required minimum distributions attributable to the contract are handled without triggering surrender charges.

There is no income rider on this product and therefore no rider fee. The base contract carries no stated annual contract fee. The fixed account and indexed strategies do not advertise a spread or separate fee — the cap and trigger rates are the mechanism through which S.USA Life prices its own costs into the contract.

The structural tradeoffs are what matter most here. The S&P 500-only menu is narrow. Competing 8-to-10-year FIAs commonly offer five to ten crediting strategies across multiple indices, giving buyers more flexibility in how they pursue growth. Safe Solution 9-Year does not offer that. The 10% cap and 7% trigger rate are competitive within the product's peer group, but they are the only tools available.

Nine years is also a long time to test the patience of buyers who might be tempted to access money after a few years. Even with the no-MVA structure, years 1-7 carry meaningful surrender charges.

Legal Entity: S.USA Life Insurance Company, Inc.

Parent: Prosperity Life Group

AM Best Rating: A-

S.USA Life is a regional carrier operating under the Prosperity Life Group umbrella. The A- rating from AM Best is a solid investment-grade designation, though S.USA Life does not have the scale or brand recognition of the large national FIA carriers. For a buyer placing a $5,000 to moderate-sized premium, the carrier rating is adequate; for buyers placing very large sums, the size difference relative to carriers like Athene or Allianz is worth considering.