SecureLink Chronic Illness Access review

It depends entirely on why you are buying. For someone whose goal is to leave a larger, guaranteed sum to heirs or to build a self-funded cushion against chronic-illness or terminal-illness costs, yes — this is a well-designed, A+-backed way to do it, and the ability to access the full death benefit while living is genuinely useful. For someone shopping for index-linked growth, guaranteed lifetime income, or the cheapest way to protect principal, no — the mandatory fee and narrow purpose make it the wrong tool.

The rational reason to buy this is that it solves two related worries with one contract. The 8% compounding Death Benefit Base gives heirs a benefit that can grow well beyond what the account value alone would leave, and the same pool can be turned inward — accessed by the owner while living — if chronic or terminal illness makes care expensive. Because it accelerates a death benefit rather than paying a formal long-term-care claim, there is no separate care-insurance underwriting maze, and the money is available with no surrender charge or market value adjustment once the conditions are met. For a buyer who wants that dual protection from a highly rated carrier, it is a coherent package.

I think this fits a fairly specific buyer: someone in their late 50s through 70s, working with non-qualified or qualified money they do not expect to spend on day-to-day living, who wants a guaranteed legacy floor and a built-in way to pull that money forward if their health declines. It suits people who do not already carry dedicated long-term-care or hybrid LTC insurance and who like the certainty of an 8% roll-up on the legacy side. It is a poor fit for anyone whose main goal is lifetime income (there is no income rider at all), anyone chasing maximum index growth, and anyone who already has robust LTC coverage and would simply be paying twice.

Strip away the branding and you are buying two things bundled together. The first is an ordinary fixed indexed annuity: your premium is protected from market losses, and it earns interest linked — through caps and participation rates — to indices like the S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE. The second, and the reason this product exists, is the mandatory Accelerated Death Benefit riding on top of it. That rider maintains a separate Death Benefit Base that compounds at 8% a year regardless of how the index accounts perform, and it lets you reach that larger base while living under defined health conditions.

The indexed engine underneath uses a two-tier rate structure — a lower "band" for contracts under $100,000 and a higher band at $100,000 and up. The rates below are a snapshot from Securian's rate sheet effective April 1, 2026, and like all FIA rates they can be reset on renewal; treat them as a structure, not a promise.

| Index / Strategy | Under $100,000 | $100,000 or More |

|---|---|---|

| S&P 500 — 1-Year Point-to-Point Cap | 7.10% | 7.50% |

| MSCI EAFE — 1-Year Point-to-Point Cap | 8.10% | 8.50% |

| Barclays All Caps Trailblazer 5 — Participation (uncapped) | 165% | 175% |

| SG Climate Prepared — Participation (uncapped) | 170% | 180% |

| 1-Year Fixed Account | 4.30% | 4.50% |

The S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE strategies are also available on a 100% participation basis. Contractual floors guarantee the cap strategies never fall below a 1.00% cap with 100% participation, and the participation-rate indices never below 10% participation — thin floors, but they exist.

The mechanics matter here more than in most reviews, so read them carefully. When you buy the contract, a Death Benefit Base is set equal to your premium. That base grows at 8% interest, credited daily and compounded annually, and it keeps growing until the earliest of three events: the contract anniversary on or after the oldest owner's 85th birthday, the day you accelerate the benefit for illness, or death. The base is capped at 200% of contract value (in New Jersey, 200% of premiums paid less withdrawals). Because it compounds, the base can double in roughly nine years if left untouched — which is exactly why the 200% ceiling exists to cap it.

At death, beneficiaries receive the greater of the account value, the guaranteed minimum surrender value, or this 8% Death Benefit Base. Withdrawals reduce the base — pro-rata for ordinary withdrawals, dollar-for-dollar for required minimum distributions — so taking money out during the surrender period works against the very feature you are paying for. If a spouse inherits, they get a choice: take the Death Benefit value immediately and end the rider (and its charge), or continue the 8% roll-up based on their own age. Both paths are worth modeling before a spouse decides, because one locks in the larger number now while the other keeps compounding.

The "Access" in the product name is the part that separates this from a plain enhanced-death-benefit annuity. After the first contract year, if a licensed health care practitioner certifies that you cannot perform two of six Activities of Daily Living, that you have severe cognitive impairment, or that you have a life expectancy of 12 months or less, you can withdraw or surrender the entire Death Benefit value — not just the account value — with no surrender charge and no market value adjustment. There is a 90-day elimination period, which can run at the same time as a mandatory one-year contract-in-force waiting period, so the earliest realistic access is roughly a year in.

This is the feature that makes the product a hybrid rather than a straight legacy vehicle. But be precise about what it is: it accelerates a death benefit you already own, it is not long-term-care insurance and does not pay a formal LTC claim. Any death benefit value above your current account value is moved into the fixed account at the then-current rate when you accelerate, acceleration is irrevocable once elected, and — importantly — the annual rider charge stops the moment you accelerate.

This is a 7-year commitment with a declining surrender charge that starts at 9% and steps down to 3% before falling off. A market value adjustment (MVA — an interest-rate-based adjustment that can raise or lower your surrender proceeds) applies during the surrender period in most states, though not in California. You can take up to 10% a year free of charge — 10% of the purchase payment in year one, then 10% of the prior anniversary value after that — plus RMD amounts above the 10%, with a $250 minimum withdrawal. The free-withdrawal allowance does not apply to a full surrender.

The important liquidity nuance is that the deepest access — reaching the full 8% Death Benefit Base with no surrender charge or MVA — is unlocked only by the illness triggers, death, or annuitization, not by ordinary need for cash. And ordinary withdrawals cut into the Death Benefit Base, so pulling money out early does double damage: you pay any applicable charge and you shrink the benefit you are paying a fee to grow. This is not a contract to treat as accessible savings.

The headline cost looks modest and is not. The rider charge is 0.75% a year for issue ages 0-70, or 1.15% a year for ages 71 and up, with a 1.50% contractual maximum. Here is the catch worth doing the arithmetic on: that percentage is charged against the Death Benefit Base, but it is deducted from your account value. At issue the two are about equal, so the drag starts near 0.75%. But the base compounds at 8% while the account value grows at index-linked rates that are usually lower, so the base steadily pulls ahead. By the time the base approaches its 200%-of-contract-value cap, a 0.75% charge on a base that is twice your account value costs roughly 1.5% of that account value every year — effectively double the stated rate. For an older buyer paying 1.15%, the effective drag can climb toward the neighborhood of 2.3% of account value. The charge does stop entirely once you accelerate for illness, which softens the cost exactly when you need the money most.

The honest tradeoff is this: the fee buys a guaranteed 8% legacy-and-care pool, and if you value that, the growing drag is the price of a growing benefit. If you do not value it, there is no way to opt out — the rider is built in — and you are paying an escalating cost for a feature you did not want. That mandatory nature is the single biggest reason to be sure this product matches your actual goal before buying.

One data caveat worth surfacing alongside the cost picture: state availability here has a genuine source conflict. Securian's consumer brochure footnote implies the rider is sold in Illinois, Texas, and Virginia under a different name ("Roll-up Death Benefit with Enhanced Surrender Value Rider"), but Wink's April 1, 2026 approval table lists Illinois and Texas as not approved (Virginia is approved, consistent with the footnote). We treat the dated Wink table as the operative current-availability source, which suggests the IL/TX filing may have been withdrawn or discontinued. If you are shopping this in any of those states, confirm current availability directly with Securian before relying on either source.

Legal Entity: Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Parent: Securian Financial Group, Inc.

A.M. Best Rating: A+