Global Atlantic ForeIncome II Annuity Review (2026)

What the Global Atlantic ForeIncome II is built to do

ForeIncome II is a fixed index annuity issued by Forethought Life Insurance Company, part of Global Atlantic Financial Group, which KKR owns outright. Unlike a typical accumulation-focused index annuity, this one only exists to eventually produce a paycheck you cannot outlive. Before you can buy it, you have to pick one of two guaranteed income riders, then let that rider build your future income base until you are ready to turn it on.

That upfront choice is the whole personality of the contract. Choose the Income Multiplier and your future income tracks index performance, amplified. Choose the Guaranteed Income Builder and you get a flat, fully predictable growth rate instead, no market exposure at all. Either way, once you activate income, the payment is locked in for life, regardless of what happens to the contract afterward.

Two numbers, not one: contract value and withdrawal base

Every guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit works this way, and ForeIncome II is no exception: it tracks two entirely separate figures.

Your contract value is the real account balance. It moves with index credits or a fixed rate, you can withdraw from it (subject to any surrender charge), and it is what your beneficiary inherits if you die. Your Withdrawal Base is a second, larger number used only to calculate your eventual income. You cannot access it directly, and it grows faster than the contract value specifically because of the rider you elected.

When you flip the switch on income, Global Atlantic multiplies the Withdrawal Base by an age-based payout percentage to set your annual check. If the contract value eventually hits zero from withdrawals and fees outpacing growth, the income keeps coming anyway, paid from the insurer's general account rather than from your original deposit.

This split is exactly why an income rider costs something every year: you are effectively paying Global Atlantic to take on the risk that you (or you and your spouse) live longer than the contract value alone could fund. The fee buys a promise, not a product feature you can see or touch, which is also why it makes little sense to elect a rider you never intend to use for income.

Option one: the Income Multiplier, at a 1.05% annual fee

Before you activate income, every dollar the contract earns in index credits adds three dollars to your Withdrawal Base, a 3-to-1 multiplier. A year that credits $4,000 in index interest, for example, adds $12,000 to your Withdrawal Base rather than $4,000.

Once you start taking income, that multiplier drops away: index credits from that point forward add to the Withdrawal Base one dollar at a time, the same as the contract value earns. The fee for this option is 1.05% of the Withdrawal Base annually, taken from the contract value.

The Multiplier rewards patience. The longer you leave income switched off, the more those 3-to-1 credits compound the Withdrawal Base, though a run of flat or zero-credit years slows that growth just as it would slow the contract value itself. Because the multiplier only applies before you start income, a buyer who plans to activate quickly after purchase gets little benefit from choosing this option over the flat Builder rate, while a buyer with a long runway before retirement has the most to potentially gain from it.

Option two: the Guaranteed Income Builder, at a 1.20% annual fee

The Builder trades any market linkage for total predictability: your Withdrawal Base grows by a flat 10% of your original premium every year, for up to 15 years or until you activate income, whichever happens first. The fee runs slightly higher, at 1.20% of the Withdrawal Base a year, for that certainty.

As an example, a $100,000 deposit into the Builder option grows its Withdrawal Base by $10,000 a year regardless of the market. After a full 10-year deferral with no withdrawals, the Withdrawal Base reaches $200,000, twice the original deposit, with zero dependence on how any index performed along the way.

This option suits a buyer who wants a number they can write down on day one and trust completely, even if it means giving up any chance at faster, index-linked growth. If you deferred that same $100,000 deposit for a shorter 5 years instead of 10, the Withdrawal Base would only reach $150,000, a reminder that the Builder's payoff scales directly with how long you are willing to wait before turning income on.

What the guaranteed payout table looks like

Once you turn income on, Global Atlantic applies an age-based percentage to your Withdrawal Base to set your annual payment, and that percentage rises the longer you wait to start. Younger retirees who activate in their early 60s see a lower percentage than those who wait into their 70s, and a single-life election always pays a higher percentage than a joint election at the same age, since joint coverage is priced to last over two lifetimes instead of one.

Applying an approximate age-70 single-life percentage to the $200,000 Withdrawal Base from the Builder example above works out to roughly $13,000 a year, guaranteed for life. That figure moves up or down with your actual age, election type and the payout table in effect when you activate, so treat it as an illustration of the mechanics rather than a promise, and confirm your own numbers with a licensed strategist before you buy.

The Income Enhancement Benefit, included at no cost

Both rider options come bundled with the Income Enhancement Benefit automatically, with no separate fee. Losing the ability to independently handle two or more of six basic self-care tasks, bathing, dressing, eating, staying continent, using the toilet, or moving in and out of a bed or chair, doubles your income payment for up to five consecutive years.

A few conditions apply: you must be under age 75 at issue to qualify for this benefit, there is a one-year wait after your contract starts before you can claim it, a 90-day elimination period follows once you first qualify, you can only use it once per contract, and it is not offered in California. For a household worried about a long-term-care event derailing a retirement budget, this is a meaningful, built-in hedge that many competing riders charge extra for or skip entirely. Our glossary explains more about how long-term-care riders work across different annuity contracts.

The Lifestyle Payment Option

Buyers who would rather spend more in the early, more active years of retirement and less later can elect the Lifestyle Payment Option instead of a level income stream, as long as they do so before age 70 (and it is not available in California).

It runs in three stages. During the Active Phase, roughly ages 55 to 72, payments run higher than the standard level amount. During the Steady Phase, roughly ages 73 to 82, payments settle into a level, guaranteed amount. During the Legacy Phase, from about 83 onward, payments step down, preserving more remaining value in the contract. It is a genuinely different shape of retirement income, built for someone who expects to spend more on travel and hobbies early and less later on.

Choosing between a level payment and the Lifestyle option is really a question about your own spending curve, not about which one pays more over a full retirement. A retiree planning an active decade of travel right out of the gate may prefer the front-loaded shape even though it means smaller checks later, while someone who expects flat, predictable expenses throughout retirement is usually better served sticking with the standard level structure.

Index crediting options

ForeIncome II currently credits interest through a fixed account and two index-linked strategies, each using a one-year point-to-point crediting method with a cap: one tracking a volatility-controlled S&P 500 strategy, the other tracking a similarly constructed Nasdaq-100 strategy. Both are proprietary, engineered indices rather than the plain S&P 500 you would find on a simpler contract.

Current caps and the fixed account's declared rate change periodically and are not something we publish here; use the quote box on this page for what is available today. What is worth knowing regardless of the current numbers: a capped point-to-point strategy credits the index's full gain up to the stated ceiling, so strong years get capped while flat or negative years simply credit zero.

Carriers build proprietary, volatility-controlled indices like these specifically to smooth out the swings a plain S&P 500 or Nasdaq-100 strategy would show, which usually lets the carrier offer a higher cap than it could on the uncontrolled version of the same index. That trade, a higher cap in exchange for a manufactured index you cannot look up in the newspaper, is worth understanding before you allocate any premium to one.

A disclosure worth reading before you allocate

Both of the proprietary indices ForeIncome II currently offers are recent creations, so any historical chart you see in an illustration covering the years before each index existed is backtested, hypothetical math, not real trading history, and should not be mistaken for a return forecast.

That matters less here than it would on a pure growth-focused contract, because your actual guarantee, the Withdrawal Base growth and the payout percentage it produces, comes from the rider you elected and is fixed by contract terms rather than by how either index performs. Whether an index credits its full cap or nothing at all in a given year, your guaranteed income calculation does not change.

Surrender schedule

A market value adjustment can add to or subtract from a surrender charge on withdrawals beyond the free amount during these 10 years, tied to broader interest-rate movement. The 10% annual free withdrawal allowance covers most ordinary needs, but a full surrender inside the schedule will run into both the surrender charge and the adjustment together.

Who the ForeIncome II fits

Best for:

• Someone who wants a guaranteed lifetime income stream and is comfortable committing to that goal at the time of purchase
• A buyer who is 5 to 15 years from turning income on and wants that time to build the Withdrawal Base
• A household that values the Income Enhancement Benefit as a long-term-care hedge
• A couple who wants a joint-life payout so a surviving spouse keeps collecting

A weaker fit for:

• A buyer who wants pure accumulation without any income commitment attached
• Anyone who needs liquidity beyond the 10% annual free withdrawal
• A buyer unwilling to pay 1.05% to 1.20% a year in rider fees indefinitely
• Someone who wants the flexibility to decline an income rider altogether

Other annuity products to consider

If you are weighing ForeIncome II against other contracts, these are worth comparing:

• Reliance Standard Accumulator 7: an accumulation-focused alternative with no required income rider
• F&G Power Accumulator 7: another growth-focused option for buyers who do not want to commit to income at issue
• NAC BenefitSolutions 10: a comparable income-rider contract worth pricing side by side
• Global Atlantic's own carrier review: more on the company's ownership, ratings and full lineup

We can quote ForeIncome II next to these and other top-rated carriers so you see the guaranteed dollars each one produces for your age and deposit.