New Horizon Plus 10 review

Yes, but only for a fairly specific buyer. It's a reasonable annuity for someone who wants principal-protected, S&P 500-linked accumulation over a full 10 years and has no intention of touching the contract in the early years. It's a weaker fit for someone who values first-year flexibility, wants a diversified index menu, or is shopping across FIAs partly on carrier financial strength — Western United Life's B++ rating trails many of its FIA competitors.

The main reason to buy New Horizon Plus 10 is straightforward accumulation with downside protection: premium is never at risk from market declines, and the current 30% uncapped participation rate on the S&P 500 point-to-point strategy gives meaningful upside potential in strong years. A secondary reason is the low $10,000 minimum premium, which is more accessible than the $25,000+ minimums common among larger-carrier FIAs. In practice, this is the kind of contract someone buys when they've already decided on a 10-year time horizon and want simple, single-index crediting rather than a menu of specialty strategies to evaluate.

I think New Horizon Plus 10 is best for someone with a true 10-year horizon — money earmarked for retirement that they won't need to touch, especially not in the first contract year, when there is no free-withdrawal access at all. It's a reasonable fit for a buyer who specifically wants S&P 500 exposure and doesn't want or need an income rider bundled in. It's a poor fit for anyone who wants a cushion of accessible cash early in the contract, who wants exposure to indices beyond the S&P 500, or who is prioritizing carrier financial strength near the top of the ratings scale.

You're not buying stock market exposure — you're buying a 10-year insurance contract that credits interest based on S&P 500 performance while guaranteeing your premium against market loss. It's worth being clear about the name here: "Plus 10" does not refer to a premium bonus. This product carries no premium bonus of any kind. The "Plus" instead refers to a different, and notably less generous, free-withdrawal formula than the base "New Horizon 10" sibling product. The non-Plus New Horizon 10 offers a 10%-of-current-value free withdrawal available every year starting in year one. This Plus version offers nothing in year one, then a flat 5%-of-original-premium withdrawal (or the RMD amount, if larger) starting in year two. A shopper who sees "Plus" and assumes it means better terms across the board would be wrong — on liquidity specifically, it's the opposite.

New Horizon Plus 10 offers three ways to earn interest, all tied to the S&P 500: a fixed account currently crediting 2.25%; a point-to-point strategy with a cap, currently set at 8.00% (100% participation up to the cap, with a guaranteed minimum cap of 1.00%); and an uncapped point-to-point strategy using a participation rate, currently 30% of index gains with no cap, guaranteed never to fall below 10%. In practice, that means a buyer allocating to the participation-rate strategy in a year the S&P 500 gains 15% would be credited roughly 4.5% (30% of 15%), while the same year under the capped strategy would credit the full 8.00% cap. Which strategy performs better depends entirely on how far the index moves — the uncapped participation option rewards bigger index years, while the cap protects against a mediocre one. Both current rates are sourced from a Wink product profile dated February 2023; a more recent carrier fact sheet (November 2025) confirms the same three crediting strategies are still offered but doesn't republish updated current rates, so a shopper should confirm today's cap and participation figures directly with the carrier before assuming these numbers still apply.

The second most important feature here is the combination of the Minimum Guaranteed Surrender Value (MGSV) and the death benefit. The MGSV guarantees at least 87.5% of premium, accumulated at 1% to 3%, as a floor under the contract — a fairly standard protection for this product type. More notable is the death benefit: if the annuitant dies before income payments begin, the full annuity value passes to the beneficiary with no surrender charges applied at all, regardless of where the contract sits in its 10-year schedule. That's a meaningful protection for a buyer worried about locking up money for a decade and then not living to use it — the estate isn't penalized for an early death the way it would be under a lump-sum surrender.

Liquidity is the weakest part of this contract relative to its FIA peers. There is no free withdrawal at all in contract year one — none of the premium is accessible without triggering a surrender charge. Starting in year two, the contract allows one penalty-free withdrawal per year equal to 5% of the original single premium (not of the grown contract value) or the RMD amount, whichever is greater, minus anything already withdrawn that year. That 5%-of-premium design means the dollar amount of your free withdrawal stays flat over time even as the contract value (hopefully) grows, which is a less favorable structure than a percent-of-current-value free withdrawal that grows alongside the account. Withdrawals beyond the free amount trigger the surrender schedule below, and a market value adjustment (MVA) can also apply — meaning your penalty could be larger or smaller than the stated percentage depending on where interest rates have moved since issue. The contract does waive surrender charges and MVA at no extra cost if the annuitant is confined to a nursing home for 90+ consecutive days or diagnosed with a terminal illness giving 12 months or less to live, which is a genuine relief valve, but not one anyone should plan around.

There's no explicit rider fee here, since no income rider is offered on this contract — that keeps the fee picture simple by design, not by omission. The available materials don't disclose a separate base contract fee, which is fairly typical for a straightforward FIA like this one but wasn't explicitly confirmed either way in the brochures reviewed. The real tradeoffs are structural rather than fee-based: the single-index, three-strategy crediting menu is narrower than what many competing 10-year FIAs offer, the 5%-of-premium free-withdrawal formula erodes in relative value as the contract grows, and the MVA adds interest-rate risk to any withdrawal beyond the free amount during the surrender period. Buyers should also weigh the B++ A.M. Best rating against higher-rated alternatives, particularly given the 10-year time horizon involved.

Legal Entity: Western United Life Insurance Company

Parent: ManhattanLife

A.M. Best Rating: B++