Security Benefit Strategic Growth Annuity Review (2026)

What is the Security Benefit Strategic Growth Annuity?

The Security Benefit Strategic Growth Annuity is a fixed index annuity issued by Security Benefit Life Insurance Company. Your premium is never invested directly in the market; instead, interest is credited each year based on how one or more external indexes perform, with no risk of losing principal to a market downturn. It is aimed at retirement savers who want more upside potential than a MYGA or CD offers but are not willing to risk a loss.

The basics: a $25,000 minimum premium, a 10-year surrender period, and no income rider built in. It is sold in most states, though not in Guam, New York, Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands.

About Security Benefit Life Insurance Company

Security Benefit has been operating since 1892, more than 130 years, and is headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, where it focuses primarily on retirement products for individual savers. Because your guarantee is only as strong as the company standing behind it, the carrier's financial strength matters as much as the contract's design.

The company is privately held rather than publicly traded, and it operates without outside shareholders, which the company has framed as a structure that favors long-term policyholder interests over short-term earnings pressure. Confirm the current AM Best rating with your strategist before you commit funds, since ratings can change between updates to this page.

How the Strategic Growth Annuity works

Like other fixed index annuities, this contract does not put your premium directly into stocks or funds. Security Benefit instead uses it to buy fixed income assets and options tied to your chosen index, and at each contract anniversary your account is credited with interest based on that index's performance, filtered through a participation rate, spread, or cap.

The built-in protection is simple: if the index falls or stays flat, you are credited 0% for that period, never a loss. Once interest is credited, it becomes part of your account value and cannot be taken away by a later market decline. You choose from three underlying strategies, described below, and you can also mix them inside a single contract.

Strategy 1: Morgan Stanley Global Equity Allocator

This is a proprietary, volatility-controlled index that launched in 2022. It shifts its allocation between global equities and cash-equivalent holdings to try to keep its swings in check. The contract applies an annual point-to-point crediting method to this index, meaning your credited interest is based on the index's value at the start and end of each contract year, filtered through a participation rate and, in some cases, a spread. Premiums from $25,000 up to $1,000,000 can be allocated here, and the rate resets annually.

Because this index only launched in 2022, its real trading history is short. Anything shown for years before that date reflects a backtest, not live results, which is worth keeping in mind for a strategy with this little seasoning.

Strategy 2: S&P 500 annual point-to-point

The second option ties crediting to the S&P 500, the benchmark most people already recognize, which has tracked large U.S. companies since 1957. This strategy also uses an annual point-to-point method, applying a participation rate and a spread to the index's yearly move.

As an illustration only, using round hypothetical figures rather than today's actual terms: say your contract carried a 75% participation rate and a 3% spread. If the S&P 500 gained 20% for the year, your credited interest would work out to (20% multiplied by 75%) minus the 3% spread, or 12%. If the index were flat or negative, you would be credited 0% for the year. The genuine benefit of this design shows up in a down market: an index decline that would cost a direct investor real money simply credits zero here, protecting the principal you have already accumulated.

Strategy 3: BlackRock Adaptive U.S. Equity, an alternative allocation

Security Benefit also offers an alternative strategy tied to the BlackRock Adaptive U.S. Equity index, which can be used in place of one of the two strategies above. This is another volatility-controlled index: it dials equity exposure up or down to keep its swings near a 5% annual target, shifting toward lower-risk holdings when markets get choppy.

That design tends to produce a steadier, less dramatic pattern of annual credits than an unconstrained equity index, at the cost of lower highs during strong bull-market stretches. It launched on March 13, 2023, so figures from before that date reflect backtested data rather than a live track record. Buyers who value consistency over chasing the biggest possible year in a hot market are the natural fit for this option.

Surrender charges and liquidity

The Strategic Growth Annuity carries a 10-year surrender period. Any withdrawal beyond your free amount during those 10 years triggers a surrender charge and, in most states, a market value adjustment.

Standard surrender charge schedule (most states):

A number of states use a different schedule with no market value adjustment attached. California runs from 8.1% down to 0.9% over the 10 years. Florida runs from 10% down to 4%. A larger group of states, including Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington, use a schedule running from 9% down to 0.9%, also with no MVA.

Once your second contract anniversary has passed, one tenth of whatever your account was worth on that date is yours to pull free of both charges every year after. Skip a year and that allowance does not roll into the next one, it simply resets. If you are funding this contract with IRA money, confirm with your strategist how required minimum distributions are handled inside the contract before you buy.

Death benefit

Should the owner pass away during the surrender window, or the annuitant when a non-person entity owns the contract, whoever inherits gets the bigger of two numbers: a contractually set floor on cash surrender value, or your accumulated balance with only a premium tax deduction, if one applies, taken out. In most real-world cases that means heirs walk away with everything you had built up, not a discounted exit figure, which counts for the most while the exit charges above are still steep.

There is one narrower case: when a co-owner dies who was not married to the annuitant, whatever gets paid out caps at the surrender value instead of the larger account balance.

The rate buy-up rider

The contract offers an optional Rate Buy-Up rider. For a monthly charge, you can access better crediting terms, such as a higher participation rate, a higher cap, or a lower spread, than the standard terms available without it.

The notable twist: if your total buy-up charges over the full surrender period end up costing more than the extra indexed interest they earned you, Security Benefit refunds that difference into your fixed account once the surrender period ends. That protection does not apply if you take withdrawals beyond your free amount during the surrender period. For a buyer planning to hold the contract the full term, this reduces the downside of paying for a feature that might not pay for itself.

No income rider on this contract

The Strategic Growth Annuity is built purely for accumulation. There is no optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit and, because of that, no rider fee for one. Income riders on other contracts commonly run somewhere around 1% of value a year, so skipping one here means your full premium stays in the indexed strategies rather than funding a guarantee you might not use.

If guaranteed lifetime income is what you are after, a contract built around an income rider, such as the Nationwide Peak 10 or the Athene Agility 10, would be a better starting point. If your goal is principal-protected growth you can annuitize or draw down later on your own terms, the absence of a rider here keeps the contract lean.

Who is the Strategic Growth Annuity best for?

A strong fit if you:

• Are roughly age 55 to 67 with at least a 10-year horizon before you need the funds
• Have $25,000 or more to commit, and treat it as "safe money" you want growing without market risk
• Are rolling over a 401(k) or other qualified account into a Traditional IRA and want continued tax deferral
• Can live with the 10% annual free withdrawal as your only planned liquidity for the first decade

A weaker fit if you:

• Might need more than 10% of the account value in any given year during the surrender period
• Are already taking required minimum distributions and have not confirmed how they are handled in this contract
• Live in New York, where the product is not sold
• Want a guaranteed fixed rate instead of index-linked, variable crediting

If a shorter commitment matters more than upside, a MYGA locks in a guaranteed rate for 3 to 7 years instead. If a shorter surrender period on an indexed contract is the priority, look at FIAs with 5 or 7-year terms rather than this 10-year design.

Growth potential versus a direct market investment

A direct S&P 500 investment can outrun an indexed annuity like this one during a long, strong bull market, since the annuity's participation rate and spread cap how much of the index's gain you actually receive. That trade-off is the whole point of the floor: in a sharp downturn, a direct investor absorbs the loss in real time, while this contract's worst outcome for any given year is a 0% credit.

The real value of that floor shows up specifically in volatile or declining markets, and especially in the years right after you retire, when a large loss is hardest to recover from because you are also drawing income out of the account. For more on that trade-off, see our guides to fixed annuities versus fixed index annuities and to fixed index annuity pros and cons.

Bottom line

The Security Benefit Strategic Growth Annuity is one of the more ambitious accumulation FIAs available, built for a buyer who genuinely will not touch the money for a decade. Three indexed strategies, including a proprietary global allocator alongside the S&P 500, give you real diversification inside one contract, the 0% floor rules out a down year costing you principal, and the Rate Buy-Up rider's refund provision is a genuinely buyer-friendly touch rarely seen elsewhere. A death benefit that pays the full account value, with no rider fee dragging on growth, rounds out a strong chassis.

The honest trade-offs are liquidity and newness. A 12% surrender charge in the first two years is among the steepest in the category, a market value adjustment applies in most states, and the flagship Morgan Stanley index has only traded live since 2022. Add in the missing income rider and this is clearly a tool for building the balance, not for turning on a paycheck. For a buyer with the right time horizon and risk tolerance, and after confirming the current AM Best rating, it is worth a serious look.