Select Choice Plus MVA 5-Year review

It depends on whether you will hold to maturity. If you are confident you will not need to exit the contract early, the MVA is mostly a non-issue and this is a reasonable 5-year MYGA from a solid regional carrier. If there is meaningful uncertainty about your liquidity needs over the next five years, the MVA introduces a real risk that a comparable non-MVA MYGA does not carry. For buy-and-hold MYGA shoppers in the mid-market, this is a legitimate option worth pricing against the field.

The clearest reason to choose the MVA version of Select Choice Plus is the declared rate. MVA products typically clear a slightly higher declared rate than their non-MVA siblings because the carrier takes less interest-rate risk — it transfers a portion of that risk back to the policyholder. If rates as of your application date are favorable and you plan to hold the full five years, you pocket that extra yield without ever triggering the MVA. The low $2,000 minimum also makes this accessible for buyers who are not moving a large IRA rollover — it works for smaller qualified or nonqualified dollars where most MYGA carriers require $10,000 or more.

I think this product is best for a retirement-age buyer — roughly 60 to 75 — who has already set aside emergency reserves elsewhere and wants to park a tranche of low-risk money in a guaranteed rate for five years without any equity exposure. It works for both qualified (IRA, 403b rollover) and nonqualified money given the wide issue-age window. It is a poor fit for someone who might need liquidity within the five years, someone who wants index-linked upside, or someone specifically shopping for lifetime income. It is also not the right choice for someone unwilling to engage with the MVA concept — if the mechanics of a Market Value Adjustment feel too complicated, a no-MVA MYGA is a cleaner answer.

You are buying a promise: a specific interest rate applied to your premium from day one, guaranteed for five years, with your principal protected as long as you hold to maturity. At the end of the five-year guarantee period you get a 30-day window to surrender penalty-free or roll into another guarantee period. The MVA label means that if you exit before that window — by surrendering or taking a withdrawal above the free amount — the amount you receive is adjusted for the movement in prevailing interest rates since you bought the contract. If rates have risen, the adjustment works against you on top of the surrender charge. If rates have fallen, it can partially offset the charge. That is the full deal: a guaranteed rate for the committed buyer, with added exit risk for anyone who leaves early.

Select Choice Plus MVA 5-Year credits a single declared fixed interest rate, set at issue and guaranteed for the entire five-year period. Rates are banded by deposit size. As of September 2025, the carrier posted 4.65% for deposits below $50,000, 4.65% for the $50,000-$99,999 band, and 4.85% for $100,000 and above. Those are the guaranteed rates for the full term — not introductory teaser rates that reset annually.

If you elect the optional Return of Premium rider, the credited rate drops by 0.15 percentage points. If you elect the optional Penalty-Free Withdrawal rider, the rate drops by 0.10 points. Electing both costs 0.25 points. The rate reduction is the price of the added flexibility, and whether the trade is worth it depends on how likely you are to actually use those features.

The optional riders are the most useful structural element here beyond the rate itself. The Penalty-Free Withdrawal rider — which allows up to 10% of contract value per year after year one without surrender charges or MVA — is material for buyers who want an emergency valve. Without it, the base contract has no built-in free-withdrawal allowance at all, which is more restrictive than most competing MYGAs. The Return of Premium rider guarantees that if you surrender the contract at any time after the first contract year, you receive at minimum your original premium back. For buyers who are uncomfortable with the idea that an MVA could theoretically push a surrender value below premium, the ROP rider provides a contractual floor. Together, the riders let buyers calibrate the level of protection they want against the rate they earn.

The surrender charges on the base contract are steep in early years — 9% in year one — and step down to 5% by year five. That alone is a significant exit cost. The MVA compounds it: on any surrender or excess withdrawal during the charge period, the contract applies a Market Value Adjustment on top of the surrender charge. The MVA is tied to changes in prevailing interest rates since contract issue. Rising rates since purchase push the MVA negative, reducing your proceeds further. Falling rates push it positive, partially softening the surrender charge.

Waivers soften the picture. The Confinement Waiver eliminates charges and MVA if you spend 90 or more consecutive days in a qualifying skilled-nursing, intermediate-care, or hospital facility. The Terminal Illness Waiver allows one full or partial withdrawal with charges and MVA waived if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. RMD distributions on qualified contracts are also exempt from withdrawal charges and MVA, which is important for anyone who expects to take systematic IRS-required distributions. Even with those waivers in place, this is a contract for money you can genuinely commit to for five years.

There are no explicit base-contract fees — no annual contract charge, no administrative fee drawn from the account. The cost of the product is embedded in the spread between what the carrier earns on its investment portfolio and what it credits to you. That is standard MYGA design.

The only explicit costs are rider-related: the Penalty-Free Withdrawal rider reduces the credited rate by 0.10 percentage points, and the Return of Premium rider reduces it by 0.15 points. Electing both together costs 0.25 points off the declared rate. At a 4.85% base rate, electing both brings you to 4.60% — still competitive, but worth modeling explicitly rather than treating as free optionality. The MVA itself is not a fee, but it is a risk — one that has no guaranteed upper or lower bound in the brochure materials available.

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

Parent: Prosperity Life Group

AM Best Rating: A-