Athene Aviator 10 Annuity Review (2026)

What is the Athene Aviator 10?

The Athene Aviator 10 is a single premium fixed index annuity from Athene Annuity and Life Company with a 10-year surrender period. You fund it once, choose how to split the money among index-linked and fixed strategies, and earn interest tied to those strategies. A term in which the index falls credits zero, so index losses never come out of your balance.

It is the longer of the two Aviator contracts. The Athene Aviator 5 has the same features with half the surrender period. The Aviator 10 pays more on every strategy for taking the longer commitment, and it accepts buyers up to age 80 rather than 85.

Aviator's design is intentionally stripped down. There is no bonus, no optional rider and no strategy charge anywhere in the contract. Athene competes on crediting instead: three custom indexes, 2-year and 5-year terms with much higher participation rates than the 1-year terms, and tools that show and use gains before a term finishes.

Our Athene company review covers the carrier's ratings, ownership and history.

Key contract terms

For qualified money, such as an IRA rollover, the owner and annuitant must be the same single person, and an inherited IRA is accepted only from a surviving spouse of the original owner. Nonqualified contracts can have an individual or a non-person entity as owner, joint owners when the owner is a person, and a separate annuitant only if that annuitant is the owner's spouse.

Beneath the index strategies sits the Minimum Guaranteed Contract Value, a floor that grows a portion of your premium at a minimum interest rate, less withdrawals. The rate and percentage are set in the contract for your state; your strategist can show them to you before you sign.

Surrender charges and the market value adjustment

The schedule falls by one point a year. It applies to what you take above the free withdrawal, so pulling an extra $40,000 in year three would cost $3,200 at 8%, and the same $40,000 in year nine would cost $800 at 2%. A market value adjustment is layered on top during the ten years. It tends to reduce your payout when interest rates have climbed since purchase and can increase it when rates have dropped.

On a full surrender Athene pays whichever is larger: your accumulated value plus Free Withdrawal Gains after charges and the MVA, or the Minimum Guaranteed Contract Value.

The free withdrawal allows 10% of the prior anniversary's accumulated value each year, beginning in year one, with no surrender charge and no MVA. For IRA owners, required minimum distributions are treated as part of that free amount. Our free withdrawals guide explains how these provisions usually work.

Crediting strategies and rates

Every index strategy on the Aviator 10 uses point-to-point crediting: the index level at the start of the term is compared with the level at the end, and Athene applies your participation rate or cap to the change. No strategy has a spread or a strategy charge.

Your rates depend on your premium band. Premiums up to $100,000 fall in the Low Band; $100,000 and above is the High Band.

Rates effective May 1, 2026 (guaranteed for the initial term, then subject to change):

These figures come from Athene's product guide dated May 1, 2026. They change over time, and a licensed strategist will confirm the current rate for your state before you apply.

Hypothetical math on the High Band: a custom index that finished a 5-year term up 10% would earn a 29% credit at a 290% participation rate. On the 1-year S&P 500 strategy, a 15% index year would be credited at the 9.75% cap, and a negative year at zero.

The three custom indexes

Each custom index is built with Bank of America's patented Fast Convergence (FC) technology, which adjusts exposure during the trading day, and each aims for 7% annualized volatility.

• BofA Multi-Asset FC 7 Index (BOFAMFC7), launched October 31, 2025. Mixes the S&P 500 and the Invesco QQQ ETF with U.S. Treasuries, gold, industrial metals, currencies and commodities.
• Invesco QQQ FC 7 Index (QQQFC7), launched October 23, 2025. Centered on the Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100.
• S&P 500 FC 7% Index (SPFCDUE7), launched October 17, 2025. Its full name is S&P 500 FC 7% VT TCA 0.50% Decrement Index (USD) ER.

Understand what the high rates are applied to. These are excess return indexes, so they count only the return above a cash-like benchmark, and each carries an embedded fee and trading costs that come out of the index result. The volatility target limits the swing in both directions. A 290% participation rate multiplies a quieter number than the plain S&P 500 would produce. Our proprietary indices guide explains the trade-off in more depth.

Diversified Blend Strategies

The Diversified Blend Strategy holds all three custom indexes in one allocation, weighted 40% BofA Multi-Asset, 30% Invesco QQQ FC 7 and 30% S&P 500 FC 7%, and rebalances to that mix on its own. It is offered in 1-year, 2-year and 5-year terms at the same participation rates as the single-index strategies of the same length. Use it by itself or next to individual strategies, and change allocations when a term ends.

Multi-year point-to-point strategies

Term length drives the rate. On the Aviator 10's High Band, a custom index strategy pays 140% on a 1-year term, 180% on a 2-year term and 290% on a 5-year term, all with no charge. What you give up is annual crediting: a 5-year term credits once, at the end.

A 10-year surrender period means you can run two full 5-year terms back to back before the multi-year options close. Once the surrender period ends, any new point-to-point term is 1-year only. Money coming out of a multi-year term goes to the 1-year strategy on the same index unless you direct it elsewhere, or to the fixed strategy if there is no matching 1-year strategy, and Athene declares rates annually from then on.

Strategy Preset

Strategy Preset is Athene's automated allocation option. You choose Conservative, Balanced or Growth when the contract is issued; Athene handles the mix, rebalances it every year and moves money between term lengths for you. Starting allocations on the Aviator 10:

The Growth profile here works differently from the Aviator 5 version. It starts with 85% in 1-year terms and only 15% in 5-year terms, then on each contract anniversary moves a targeted slice of the original premium from the 1-year strategies into a new 5-year term. Over the first several years that builds a ladder of overlapping 5-year terms, so some part of the contract is typically credited each year. Athene notes that interest credits and withdrawals will shift the amounts moved, so the target is not guaranteed. Balanced splits the money between 1-year terms and staggered 2-year terms. Conservative stays in 1-year terms with no laddering.

Some rules to know before choosing. Strategy Preset has to be elected at issue and cannot be added later. You pick either a preset or a Diversified Blend Strategy, not both, and only one preset profile. Individual strategies can sit alongside the preset, but rebalancing applies only inside it. If a withdrawal taken outside the contract's default order empties one of the preset's strategies, the automatic transfers end and you manage the allocations yourself.

Daily Value, Index Lock and Free Withdrawal Gains

On a 5-year term, waiting for the end of the term to see a credit can feel like a long time. Aviator adds three features that work inside a term.

Daily Value shows each day what the contract is worth including index growth earned so far in unfinished terms. It is used for death benefits, annuitization, terminal illness and confinement claims. In Athene's hypothetical, a $100,000 contract one year into a 2-year term with the index up 20% shows $100,000 of accumulated value but $120,000 of Daily Value.

Free Withdrawal Gains add a pro-rated share of term-to-date index growth to money you take through the free withdrawal. Athene's hypothetical continues: a $10,000 free withdrawal earns an $833 gain, the remaining value is $90,833 rather than $90,000, and the next year's free withdrawal rises from $9,000 to $9,083. The 1-year S&P 500 cap strategy is excluded.

Index Lock fixes the index level for a strategy for the rest of its term, and the locked level then sets your credit, Daily Value and Free Withdrawal Gains. It can be used once per eligible strategy per term, not on the 1-year S&P 500 cap strategy. Athene's hypothetical uses $100,000 in a 1-year strategy at a 120% participation rate, locked in month eight: $114,400 at term end compared with $109,600 without the lock. Keep in mind that a lock also gives up any further gain for the rest of that term, which matters more on a 5-year term than a 1-year one.

These examples are Athene's hypothetical illustrations and are not a prediction of results.

Death benefit and waivers

At death, your beneficiary can take a lump sum equal to the greater of the Daily Value and the Minimum Guaranteed Contract Value, or a spousal beneficiary can continue the contract. Because the benefit uses Daily Value, a death in year three of a 5-year term still passes along the index growth built up to that point. More on how these benefits work in our death benefit guide.

Starting after the first contract anniversary, you can take up to 100% of your value with no surrender charge under either waiver:

• Terminal illness: the annuitant is diagnosed, after the contract date, with an illness expected to cause death within a year.
• Confinement: the annuitant spends at least 60 consecutive days in a qualified care facility, with the stay beginning after the contract date.

Neither waiver is long-term care insurance, and Athene notes that availability and terms vary by state. Over a 10-year surrender period, these waivers carry more weight than on a shorter contract.

Aviator 10 vs Aviator 5

Rates effective May 1, 2026. The biggest gap is on the 1-year custom index terms (140% versus 120% on the High Band). If you would rather keep more money in annual terms, the Aviator 10 pays noticeably more for it; if you can commit only five years, the Aviator 5 keeps most of the multi-year rate.

How Aviator differs from Performance Elite

Athene's other growth-focused FIA family is Performance Elite, offered in 7-year, 10-year and 15-year versions. The Performance Elite 10 is the natural comparison here, and the design philosophy is the opposite of Aviator's.

• Bonus. Performance Elite 10 pays a premium bonus that depends on age and state and vests over time. Aviator has no bonus, so there is nothing to recapture.
• Fees. Performance Elite offers strategies with a 1.25% annual strategy charge for higher rates, and its Plus version adds a 0.95% annual rider charge. Aviator has neither.
• Term lengths. Performance Elite uses 1-year and 2-year terms. Aviator's top rates are on 5-year terms.
• Indexes. Performance Elite spreads across a longer menu of indexes from several providers. Aviator sticks to three Bank of America FC indexes plus the S&P 500.
• Mid-term tools. Daily Value, Index Lock and Free Withdrawal Gains are Aviator features. Both families offer a Strategy Preset; Aviator's adds automatic laddering into multi-year terms.

A buyer who wants an upfront bonus or likes the option of paying a fee for a higher rate will lean toward Performance Elite. A buyer who wants a fee-free contract with no vesting schedule will lean toward Aviator.

Who the Aviator 10 is best for

• Savers who are confident the money can stay put for a decade and want the most upside Aviator offers.
• Buyers who want a contract with no fees and no bonus vesting to track.
• Retirement savers up to age 80 using money from a maturing CD, a savings account or an IRA rollover who want protection from index losses.
• People who like the idea of a laddered 5-year strategy but do not want to manage it themselves.

It is a weaker fit if you might need more than 10% a year in the next ten years, if you need guaranteed lifetime income (an income-focused product such as the Athene Ascent Pro 10 Bonus is built for that), if you are over 80, or if you live in California or New York.

Other annuities to consider

• Athene Aviator 5 review: the same design with a 5-year surrender period
• Athene Performance Elite 10 review: a bonus-paying 10-year Athene FIA with optional strategy charges
• Athene Agility 10 review: a 10-year Athene FIA built around an income rider rather than pure accumulation
• Participation rate guide: how participation rates are applied

How to get an Athene Aviator 10 quote

Your rate depends on your state, premium band and application date. Start an Athene Aviator 10 quote and a licensed strategist will confirm today's rates, show the Minimum Guaranteed Contract Value for your state and compare the Aviator 10 with the Aviator 5 side by side. Tax Free Wealth Plan is a licensed independent insurance agency appointed with 25 companies, so we can also set it against other top-rated carriers before you decide.