Strategic Growth Annuity 7 review

Yes, for the right buyer. It is a good annuity for someone who wants principal-protected accumulation over seven years, values having multiple index strategies to choose from, and does not need a guaranteed lifetime income rider. It is less compelling if your main goal is income, if you want flexibility in the first contract year, or if you are comparing against shorter surrender-period alternatives.

The primary reason to buy Strategic Growth Annuity 7 is accumulation with downside protection over a 7-year horizon. The secondary reason is the breadth of the crediting menu. Security Benefit has bundled standard strategies — S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, MSCI EAFE, and Russell 2000 annual point-to-point caps — alongside more complex options like the UBS Market Pioneers, the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Barclays VC 7%, and a Morgan Stanley Global Equity Allocator. A buyer who wants to spread allocations across different market exposures and risk-management approaches will find more to work with here than in a simpler FIA.

I think this contract is best for someone in their mid-50s to early 70s who wants to defer a lump sum of $25,000 or more, has no plans to touch the money for at least seven years, and is comfortable making allocation decisions among a wide variety of strategies. It works in both qualified and non-qualified accounts. It is not a good fit for someone who needs distributions during the surrender period, wants the contract to generate lifetime income directly, or is shopping primarily on a single quoted rate.

You are buying a principal-protected insurance contract, not a market investment. Security Benefit holds your premium in their general account and credits interest according to whichever formulas you select. On a positive index year, the contract may credit some portion of that gain based on a cap, participation rate, or spread; in a flat or negative year, the floor is zero — you do not lose principal because the index went down. That guarantee of principal is the core value proposition. The index menu is the vehicle for pursuing upside within that protected structure.

Strategic Growth Annuity 7 offers eleven index crediting strategies plus a fixed account, split across two general types: familiar benchmarks and proprietary volatility-controlled indices. The familiar group includes annual point-to-point strategies on the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, MSCI EAFE, and Russell 2000, each subject to a cap. The proprietary group includes the S&P 500 Dynamic Intraday TCA, the S&P 500 Factor Rotator Daily RC2 7%, the S&P MARC 5%, the Morgan Stanley Global Equity Allocator, the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Barclays VC 7%, the UBS Market Pioneers, and the UBS Multi Asset Inflation Aware strategy.

The standard indices work in a familiar way: if the S&P 500 gains 15% and your cap is 9.5%, you get credited 9.5%. The proprietary volatility-controlled indices typically use a participation rate rather than a cap, and they embed a risk-management mechanism that damps down the index level in exchange for a higher participation rate. Both 1-year and 2-year crediting terms are available for select strategies. Security Benefit also offers a Rate Buy Up Feature that allows contract holders to pay a monthly charge in exchange for improved crediting terms — current rates as of January 2026 showed caps ranging from 9% to 13.5% on standard strategies and participation rates from 50% to 252% on participation-based options, though those figures are snapshots and will change at renewal.

The most meaningful secondary element here is the Rate Buy Up Feature. For certain strategies, paying a monthly charge unlocks a higher cap or participation rate. This adds a layer of optionality that simple FIAs do not offer: if the standard rate environment is particularly low at your renewal date, you can elect the buy-up and pay for incrementally better terms. That flexibility matters for buyers who expect to hold the contract through one or more renewal cycles and want to be able to respond to the rate environment rather than just accepting the declared rate.

This contract is designed for long-term money. Free withdrawals of up to 10% of the prior Contract Anniversary's Account Value are available starting in year 2 — not year 1. That restriction matters: in the first contract year, there is no free-withdrawal access at all. Withdrawals above the free amount trigger the 7-year charge schedule below and a market value adjustment (MVA). An MVA means the effective surrender cost can be higher or lower than the stated charge depending on whether interest rates have moved since issue.

A Terminal Illness Waiver and Nursing Home Waiver are available in most states, though both are excluded in California and New Jersey (terminal illness) and California and Massachusetts (nursing home). The contract is not available to Iowa residents.

There is no base contract fee and no income rider fee because there is no income rider. The one explicit cost is the optional Rate Buy Up Feature, which carries a monthly charge that varies by strategy — this is elective and not part of the base contract. The structural tradeoffs are more important than any explicit fee: caps and participation rates limit the upside you can capture, and the proprietary volatility-controlled indices embed risk-management mechanisms that will cause them to lag a rising market in exchange for smoother participation. Neither of those is a hidden cost, but both require understanding before you allocate to them.

Legal Entity: Security Benefit Life Insurance Company

Parent: Eldridge Industries

S&P Rating: A-