New Horizon 10 review

Depends on the buyer. If you specifically want a straightforward accumulation FIA with no rider fees and don't mind a full 10-year commitment, New Horizon 10 is a reasonable, uncomplicated option. If you're comparing it against FIAs from higher-rated carriers with deeper index menus, or if you think there's a real chance you'll want guaranteed lifetime income later, this product's narrower design is a real limitation.

The rational case for New Horizon 10 is simplicity and cost. There's no income rider fee eating into the accumulation value, because there's no income rider at all — every dollar of interest, cap, or participation is happening inside a plain accumulation chassis. For someone with a genuinely 10-year-plus time horizon who wants principal protection with some index-linked upside, and who doesn't want to pay for a feature they won't use, that's a legitimate reason to buy.

This fits a buyer roughly in their late 50s to 70s with non-qualified or qualified money they don't need for a decade, who wants downside protection with some growth potential and has already decided they don't need — or already have — a separate income solution elsewhere. It's not a fit for someone who might need liquidity in the next several years, who wants exposure to more than the S&P 500, or who is shopping specifically for guaranteed lifetime income — this product structurally can't provide that.

You're not buying stock market exposure — you're buying a principal-protected contract where interest is credited according to one of three formulas you choose from: a flat fixed rate, a capped share of the S&P 500's annual gain, or an uncapped-but-throttled participation rate in that same annual gain. There's no benefit base, no roll-up rate, and no rider stack to interpret. What's in the spec sheet is essentially the entire product, which is refreshing in a market full of layered riders, but it also means there's no lifetime income feature to fall back on if your plans change down the road.

New Horizon 10 offers three annual crediting strategies, all tied to a single index. The Cap strategy currently credits 100% participation in the S&P 500's annual gain up to a 7.10% cap, with a guaranteed minimum cap of 1.00% that can't be breached even if the carrier lowers rates in the future. The Participation strategy has no cap at all but credits only a stated percentage of the index gain — currently 28%, with a guaranteed minimum participation rate of 10% — so a big index year gets diluted more than it would under the cap strategy. The Fixed Interest strategy is a plain declared rate, currently 2.00%. Important caveat: all of these current figures come from a Wink product profile dated February 2023. Crediting rates on this kind of contract move with the broader rate environment, so treat these numbers as a historical snapshot of what the strategies looked like rather than today's pricing — ask the carrier or your agent for a current rate sheet before assuming any of these figures still apply.

The feature that does the most real work here, apart from crediting, is the death benefit: the full annuity value — not a reduced surrender value — passes to beneficiaries, and no surrender charges apply if the annuitant dies during the surrender period. Paired with a minimum guaranteed surrender value of 87.5% of premium accumulating at 1% to 3%, that gives the contract a real floor on the downside even if the index strategies underperform. For someone using this partly as a legacy vehicle alongside accumulation, that combination matters more than the headline cap rate.

New Horizon 10 allows free withdrawals of 10% of the Annuity Value per contract year starting in year one, minus any withdrawals already taken that year, or the RMD amount if greater — a standard allowance for the category. Anything withdrawn above that triggers the surrender schedule below, starting at 9.3% in year one and stepping down to 1% by year ten, and because an MVA applies, a withdrawal during a period of rising rates could cost more than the surrender-charge table alone suggests. Nursing home confinement of 90 or more consecutive days and a terminal illness diagnosis with a life expectancy of 12 months or less each waive surrender charges — worth noting these are surrender-charge waivers, not chronic-illness acceleration benefits, but they're a genuine backstop for the scenarios that actually cause people to need money early. Outside of those triggers, this is money that should be earmarked for the full decade.

There's no rider fee to disclose because there's no rider — this product doesn't charge a percentage of account value for an income guarantee the way many competing FIAs do. The real cost shows up structurally instead: the Cap strategy limits your upside to 7.10% even in a strong index year, and the Participation strategy dilutes gains to 28% of whatever the S&P 500 returns. Either way, you're trading full market upside for principal protection. The other cost worth naming is the carrier itself — Western United Life's B++ A.M. Best rating is a step below the A- rating many shoppers use as a screening floor, which is a real consideration for a contract you're committing to for ten years.

Legal Entity: Western United Life Insurance Company

Parent: ManhattanLife Group

A.M. Best Rating: B++