SecureLink Ultra 5 review

Depends on how you treat the bonus. As a plain 5-year accumulation FIA from an A+ carrier with a competitive cap and no explicit fee, yes — it's a solid, clean contract. But if you're being sold it primarily on the 10% bonus, the answer gets shakier, because that bonus doesn't arrive until year 10 and its terms aren't documented in the consumer materials. Judge it on the caps and the carrier, not the bonus headline.

The rational reason to buy Ultra 5 is short-commitment accumulation with downside protection from a financially strong insurer. You get principal protection, a competitive primary S&P 500 cap, a reasonably deep menu of index strategies, and a surrender schedule that fully releases after five years — shorter than most FIAs. For a buyer who wants indexed growth potential without a decade-long lockup and doesn't need an income rider, that's a coherent package on its own merits, before the bonus enters the picture at all.

I think Ultra 5 is best for a conservative accumulation buyer, roughly age 55 to 75, who wants principal protection with some index upside and prefers a shorter surrender window. It works for either qualified or non-qualified money, and the RMD-friendly free-withdrawal terms make it reasonable inside an IRA. It is a poor fit for anyone who needs frequent access to principal above the 10% free amount, anyone shopping specifically for guaranteed lifetime income (there is no income rider of any kind here), and anyone being told the 10% bonus is "free money" credited up front — because it isn't.

You are not buying stock market participation. You are buying a principal-protected insurance contract that credits interest based on index formulas — caps, participation rates, spreads, and performance triggers — rather than the raw index return. And despite the marketing weight placed on the bonus, you are primarily buying a five-year accumulation FIA whose real economics live in its caps and participation rates. The persistency bonus is a retention incentive layered on top: a 10% credit on premiums-paid-less-withdrawals, paid once, at year 10. It is not money added to your account at issue, and treating it as an upfront bonus would be a mistake.

The core of Ultra 5 is a menu of one-year crediting strategies across five indices — the S&P 500, Barclays All Caps Trailblazer 5, MSCI EAFE, SG Climate Prepared, and (per the rate sheet) the Nasdaq-100. You can choose a point-to-point cap strategy, an uncapped participation-rate strategy, a 2%-spread-plus-participation strategy on the volatility-controlled indices, or performance-trigger designs that credit a set rate when the index is flat or positive.

Rates are premium-banded across three tiers — under $100,000, $100,000 to $499,999, and $500,000 and up — with the caps and participation rates rising as premium size increases. As of the May 1, 2026 rate sheet, the primary S&P 500 one-year point-to-point cap ran 9.55% / 9.75% / 9.95% across those three bands, and the fixed account credited 4.40% / 4.50% / 4.60%. Those are current, non-guaranteed declared rates — only the contractual floors are guaranteed, and rates like these reset and should be read as a snapshot, not a permanent feature.

One honest caveat on the index menu: the May 1, 2026 rate sheet lists a Nasdaq-100 strategy, but neither the Quick Facts sheet nor the consumer brochure names Nasdaq-100 among the offered indices. I'd treat the broader menu cautiously and confirm exactly which indices are available on your contract before allocating.

The persistency bonus is where this product earns — and loses — its distinctiveness, so it deserves plain arithmetic. It's a 10% credit calculated on premiums paid less withdrawals, paid on the 10th policy anniversary. Spread a one-time 10% credit across a decade and you're looking at under 1% per year of extra simple yield equivalent — and less than that once you account for the fact that every withdrawal you take shrinks the base it's calculated on. It is not nothing, but it is not the outsized sweetener the "10% bonus" label suggests.

Two things make it harder to bank on. First, the mismatch: surrender charges end at year 5, but the bonus doesn't vest until year 10, so collecting it means voluntarily staying in a contract five years after you're free to leave. Second, the disclosure: this bonus appears only in a data-vendor's free-text field, not in Securian's own Quick Facts sheet or its 16-page consumer brochure, and no vesting schedule, bonus-specific fee, or cap reduction is documented anywhere in the materials I reviewed. There's a strong hint the bonus is priced in — sibling Ultra 7 carries a smaller 7% bonus and runs modestly higher caps (9.80% / 10.00% / 10.20% on the same S&P 500 strategy and rate sheet), consistent with a larger bonus being funded by a lower cap. Before you count on this bonus, get its full terms from the carrier in writing.

Ultra 5 allows penalty-free withdrawals of 10% of the prior anniversary value each year after year one (10% of the purchase payment in year one), free of both surrender charge and MVA. RMD amounts above 10% are also penalty-free, which makes it workable inside an IRA. Withdrawals above the free amount during years one through five are subject to the declining surrender charge in the table above, plus a market value adjustment — an MVA, meaning the penalty flexes with interest-rate movements and can add to or offset the stated charge.

The contract also waives surrender charges and MVA after the first anniversary for a qualifying nursing-home or hospital confinement of 90-plus days, a terminal condition with a life expectancy of 12 months or less, annuitization, or death. The minimum withdrawal is $250. Even with those provisions, this is a five-year commitment, not an emergency fund — and if you're chasing the year-10 bonus, effectively a ten-year one.

There's no explicit rider fee here because there's no income rider, and no separate base-contract fee is disclosed in the materials. That's genuinely good for a buyer who doesn't want to pay for features they won't use. The real costs are structural rather than line-item: your upside is capped or participation-limited, the performance-trigger strategies can lag in strong markets, and the 2%-spread strategies skim the first two points of index gain before crediting.

The subtler tradeoff is the bonus itself. If Ultra 5's caps are lower than Ultra 7's because the larger bonus is baked into the pricing — as the rate comparison strongly suggests — then you are paying for that bonus every year in the form of a lower cap, whether or not you stay the ten years to actually collect it. A buyer who leaves at year 5 or 6 gets the lower caps without ever seeing the bonus. That's the trade to weigh.

One documentation note: the guaranteed minimum surrender value is presented here as 87.5% of purchase payment growing at 1%-3%, per Securian's own Quick Facts sheet and brochure. A third-party profile lists 91% at 1%-3% instead; where the carrier's own literature and the data vendor conflict, I've gone with the more conservative carrier figure, but it's worth confirming on your contract.

Legal Entity: Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Parent: Securian Financial Group, Inc.

A.M. Best Rating: A+