SecureDesigns L-Share review

It depends on what you are trying to solve. For someone who specifically wants tax-deferred subaccount investing with a shorter exit window, yes, it does what it says on the tin. For someone shopping a VA for protected lifetime income, no — this share class does not offer a living benefit rider at all. For a buyer focused purely on accumulation cost-efficiency, the recurring L-Share charge plus base M&E plus subaccount expenses make this a hard sell against a brokerage account or a fixed indexed alternative.

The rational reason to buy SecureDesigns L-Share is that you want VA-style tax deferral but you do not want to commit your money for the seven, ten, or longer surrender periods that traditional B-share variable annuities require. The 4-year schedule means you are out clean by year five. A secondary reason is the subaccount menu — 85 options across most major asset classes gives you real allocation flexibility while the money is inside the contract. The death benefit, especially with the optional Annual Stepped Up rider, is a third reason for buyers focused on legacy planning.

I think this annuity is best for someone in mid-career or pre-retirement who has already maxed out qualified accounts, wants tax-deferred growth on non-qualified dollars, and does not want a long surrender commitment. The shorter schedule fits people who expect a meaningful life change in the next five years — retirement, a move, a liquidity event — and want flexibility on the other side of that. It is not a good fit for someone who needs guaranteed lifetime income, for fee-sensitive accumulators who could use a brokerage account instead, or for buyers who actually have the time horizon to use a longer-surrender B-share at a lower annual cost.

You are buying a tax-deferral wrapper around a portfolio of mutual-fund-style subaccounts, plus a standard death benefit, plus a shorter-than-usual exit door. You are not buying principal protection — your contract value rises and falls with the subaccounts you choose. You are not buying an income guarantee — no living benefit rider is offered with the L-share. The product is essentially a brokerage account inside an insurance contract, with the insurance company taking annual fees in exchange for tax deferral, the death benefit, and the option to annuitize later. The L-Share label is shorthand for "shorter surrender, higher recurring fee" — that is the whole product thesis.

The core feature is the variable subaccount platform combined with the L-Share surrender structure. You allocate premium across up to 85 subaccounts spanning equity, fixed income, and balanced strategies, and the contract value moves with the underlying funds. Subaccount expenses run from 0.61% to 2.44% net, depending on the funds you pick, and those are charged at the fund level on top of the contract-level fees.

The L-Share piece changes the surrender geometry compared with the standard B-share sibling. You exit the surrender period in four years rather than seven, but the L-Share rider charge of 0.60% runs every year for the life of the contract — not just during the surrender period. That is the structural tradeoff in plain terms: you pay a higher recurring fee in perpetuity in exchange for getting your money free of surrender penalties sooner. Whether that math works depends on how likely you actually are to surrender between years five and seven of the contract, when the B-share would still be charging penalties.

The optional Annual Stepped Up Death Benefit, at 0.20% annual charge, is the meaningful secondary feature. It locks in the highest contract anniversary value before age 81 as the floor on the death benefit, plus subsequent premiums and minus withdrawals. For someone using the contract partly for legacy planning, that ratchet feature can be more useful than the standard "greater of premiums or contract value" base benefit, because it captures market highs along the way rather than just guaranteeing the original deposit.

The fixed account is not available with the L-Share rider, which is worth flagging. If you wanted to park a portion of the contract in a stable-value-style holding rather than market-exposed subaccounts, that option is off the table on this share class.

The 4-year withdrawal-charge schedule runs 7%, 7%, 6%, 5%, then 0%. Year-one free withdrawal is 10% of premiums paid; years two through four, the free amount is 10% of account value. That is a fairly generous free-withdrawal provision for the share class. The contract also includes a chronic-illness-related Waiver of Withdrawal Charges at a 0.05% annual fee, which can release the surrender penalty entirely if you qualify under the waiver terms.

State availability matters here. The Nursing Home Waiver is not available in CA and MA, the Terminal Illness Waiver is not available in CA and NJ, and the product is not approved in NY at all. If you live in one of those states, the liquidity safety net is meaningfully narrower than the brochure default suggests. Withdrawals before age 59.5 may also trigger the 10% IRS penalty tax, which is the standard rule for any annuity, not unique to this contract.

The fee stack is the central editorial point of this review. The M&E charge is tiered: 0.85% on contract values below $25,000, 0.70% from $25,000 to $100,000, and 0.60% above $100,000. On top of that runs a 0.15% annual administration fee, a $30 annual policy fee that is waived above $50,000 in contract value, and the 0.60% L-Share rider charge that is the whole reason this share class exists. Then come the subaccount expenses themselves, which range from 0.61% to 2.44% net.

For a mid-balance contract using middle-of-the-road subaccounts, the all-in annual cost easily clears 2% before any optional features. Add the 0.20% stepped-up death benefit and you are at roughly 2.2% in recurring drag. That is a meaningful headwind against any subaccount performance, and it is the reason a variable annuity without a living benefit is genuinely hard to recommend against a taxable brokerage account for most buyers. The honest framing is that you are paying for tax deferral and the death benefit ratchet — the L-Share structure adds shorter surrender as a third thing you are paying for. Whether all three are worth roughly two points of annual drag depends entirely on your specific situation.