F&G Pathsetter IUL Review (2026)

How F&G Pathsetter works

F&G Pathsetter is indexed universal life insurance. It pays a death benefit when the insured dies. While the insured is alive, part of each premium builds a cash value that can earn interest tied to stock indexes. F&G says Pathsetter is "specifically designed to maximize your cash accumulation." It has been sold since 2019 and is issued by Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company, which AM Best rates A (Excellent). For the company's ownership, ratings and record, see our F&G company review.

Here is the money flow in plain terms:

1. You pay a premium. F&G takes an expense charge: 9% in policy years 1 to 10, 5% after that. The brochure calls it an annual expense charge; your illustration shows exactly how it is applied.
2. The rest goes into your account value. You split it between a fixed account and up to eight index options.
3. Every month, F&G deducts a $9 expense charge, a unit expense charge, the cost of insurance and any rider charges.
4. At the end of each one-year segment, each index option earns a credit based on how its index moved, within its cap, participation rate or spread. The credit is never below 0.25%.
5. Later, you can borrow against or withdraw from the cash value, often to supplement retirement income.

The key point: the 0.25% guaranteed minimum protects the interest credit, not your cash value. F&G's brochure promises "100% protection from market turbulence." That is true of the credit only. In a year the index falls, you get 0.25%, but the monthly charges still come out, and they are usually larger. The cash value can shrink.

This is life insurance, not an investment account. If you are weighing it against one, read is IUL a good investment first.

Index options and current rates

Pathsetter offers eight index options plus a fixed option. The rates below come from F&G's public rate history tool, for segments starting August 15, 2026. They are current rates, not guarantees. F&G can change them for new segments, and it notes that some products pay lower caps and participation rates to issue ages 18 to 45 and face amounts under $150,000.

Every option, and the fixed account, carries a 0.25% guaranteed minimum each year. None of the S&P 500 options include dividends. The Barclays and Morgan Stanley indexes use volatility control, which aims for smoother returns but can also limit gains. F&G's disclosures say Morgan Stanley deducts a 0.85% yearly servicing cost inside its index, which lowers the index's returns before your participation rate applies. See volatility-controlled indexes.

What the terms mean

• Cap: the most the option can credit in a segment.
• Participation rate: the share of the index gain that counts. At 140%, a 5% gain counts as 7%, up to the cap.
• Spread: an amount subtracted from the gain. On the Barclays option it is currently 0%.
• Monthly point-to-point: each month's change is capped, with no monthly floor, then the 12 months are added up. One sharp down month can erase several capped up months. The 0.25% minimum applies only to the yearly total.

The bonus tradeoff

From policy year 2, the options labeled with a bonus earn a 1.00% Account Value Bonus. Separately, from year 11 F&G adds a 0.25% persistency bonus to the fixed and indexed account value when its fixed rate is above the minimum, and the brochure presents the 1.00% bonus as the alternative to it. Ask how the two apply to your allocation. The bonus is not free. Compare the pairs in the table: the S&P 500 cap is 12.00% without the bonus and 9.00% with it, and the Morgan Stanley participation rate is 110% without it and 90% with it. You are trading upside in strong years for a steadier add-on. Ask whether the 1.00% bonus is guaranteed or can change. See IUL bonuses and multipliers.

Hypothetical crediting examples

These examples are hypothetical. They apply the August 2026 rates to made-up index changes to show the math. They are not a forecast, and they leave out the bonus and all charges.

Do not read the Barclays column as a better deal. The same percentage change is far less likely on a volatility-controlled index than on the S&P 500, which is why the participation rate can be so high. Our guide to IUL index crediting methods goes deeper.

What the S&P 500 cap option actually credited

F&G's tool also shows real results. For one-year segments starting each August 15 on the 12% cap option (the cap in force at the time is shown), before charges and bonuses:

Past results do not predict future ones. The table shows how a cap works in practice: in strong years you give up everything above it, and in a down year the minimum is what you get.

The fixed account

The fixed account credits a rate F&G sets each year, with a 0.25% guaranteed minimum. F&G does not publish the current rate in its consumer materials; it appears on your illustration.

Charges

F&G's brochure names Pathsetter's charges and gives some amounts. Ask for every amount, current and guaranteed maximum, on a signed illustration before you apply.

The expense charge is the one to weigh hardest. At 9% for 10 years and 5% after, it never drops to zero, so on a policy funded for decades it adds up. Compare the total charges in the illustration, not just the cap. See IUL fees and charges and IUL surrender charges.

Loans and withdrawals

You can borrow as often as you like while the surrender value covers the loan. Pathsetter offers two loan types.

A variable loan is a bet that your index credits will beat the loan rate. F&G's own brochure shows the downside: borrow at 5% while the option credits 1%, and the loan costs you a net 4% that year. A few flat years in retirement can grow a variable loan faster than you planned. The preferred fixed loan after year 10 is the steadier choice for money above your premiums. See IUL policy loans and loans vs withdrawals.

Withdrawals: after the first policy year you can withdraw from the surrender value. Up to 20% a year comes out without surrender charges; more than that can trigger them. F&G may limit a withdrawal to keep the policy in force.

Taxes. Withdrawals up to your premiums paid are not taxed. Loans are not taxed while the policy stays in force and is not a modified endowment contract (MEC). A policy that takes too much premium too fast in its first seven years becomes a MEC, and then loans and withdrawals are taxed as gain first, with a 10% extra tax before age 59 and a half, with certain exceptions. The biggest risk is a lapse: if the policy ends with a loan outstanding, the gain above your premiums becomes taxable income that year. See IUL taxes.

Riders and built-in features

Accelerated benefit riders let you take part of the death benefit early. In each case you receive less than the amount you accelerate, and the death benefit shrinks by that amount. They are not long-term care insurance.

• Terminal illness: up to 100% of the death benefit, capped at $1,000,000, if life expectancy is 24 months or less.
• Critical illness: up to 100%, capped at $1,000,000, for a qualifying illness that starts after the rider does; the payout depends on age and severity.
• Chronic illness: up to 25% of the death benefit a year (no annual limit in California) if you cannot perform two of six daily activities or have an impairment of cognitive ability, up to $1,000,000 in total. See IUL chronic illness riders.

Overloan protection rider. It can keep a heavily borrowed policy from lapsing if the policy has been in force 15 years or more and you are 75 or older. You can use it once. It matters because a lapse with a loan outstanding can create a large tax bill. Ask for its cost and terms in writing. See overloan protection.

No-lapse guarantee. If you pay the minimum no-lapse premium, increased for any loans or withdrawals, the policy stays in force for 15 years even if the surrender value runs out. Paying only that minimum builds little cash value and may not keep the policy going after year 15. See no-lapse guarantee rider.

Other riders include waiver of monthly deductions for a disability that starts before the policy anniversary after your 65th birthday, an accidental death benefit through the anniversary after your 70th, and term riders for you, a spouse or children. F&G says riders carry limitations, restrictions and additional charges, and some require underwriting.

Flexibility. You can switch between the two death benefit options on a policy anniversary, raise the death benefit after year 1 if you qualify, and lower it after year 3. F&G may reinstate a lapsed policy within three years with evidence of insurability.

How the illustration is built

You will decide on this policy by reading an illustration, a year-by-year projection of premiums, cash values and death benefits. The guaranteed column assumes maximum charges and the 0.25% minimum. The non-guaranteed column assumes today's charges and an illustrated rate held level for decades.

The NAIC's AG 49-A limits how high that illustrated rate can be and how much extra credit bonuses and loan arbitrage can receive in the projection. F&G does not publish Pathsetter's maximum illustrated rate in its consumer brochure, so ask for it on your illustration. Our own rule for hypotheticals is to stay at or below the AG 49-A limit and never above 6.5%. We also suggest running a second illustration 1 to 2 points lower. Real crediting varies year to year, as the table above shows, and the order of good and bad years matters once loans begin.

Illustrations built on variable loans usually look better than those built on fixed loans. Ask to see both. Our guide on how to read an IUL illustration walks through each column.

Who F&G Pathsetter fits

• You need permanent life insurance and have used cheaper tax-advantaged options first, such as a 401(k) match and an IRA. See IUL vs 401(k).
• You can fund the policy at or near the tax limit for at least 15 years. That is what max-funded IUL means.
• You plan to draw retirement income through loans after year 10, when preferred loans cost a net 0% on your gains.
• You want to see a carrier's cap record before you buy, and an A-rated carrier meets your bar.
• You live outside New York.

Who should look elsewhere

• You may need the money within 15 years. Surrender charges last that long, and the 9% expense charge means early cash values sit well below premiums paid.
• You mainly want a death benefit at the lowest cost. Term insurance, guaranteed universal life, or F&G's own Everlast is built for that.
• You cannot commit to steady premiums. Underfunded accumulation IULs are the ones that lapse. See IUL lapse risk.
• You want your cap locked. No IUL does that. Pathsetter's S&P 500 cap has already moved from 14.50% to 12.00%.
• You want an A+ carrier. F&G is rated A.
• You live in New York. Pathsetter is not sold there.

To see how Pathsetter stacks up against other accumulation designs, compare it in our IUL comparison tool or see the best IUL for cash accumulation.