Ibexis FIA Plus Fixed Indexed Annuity – Capture Growth While Managing Risk

The Annual Lock is the operating mechanism that separates FIA Plus gain management from a standard annual reset FIA. In a standard FIA, gains are credited automatically at each contract anniversary and become part of the protected account value. The FIA Plus works differently: gains accumulate in a Tracking Value account throughout the year, and the owner has the option to exercise the Annual Lock to convert those Tracking Value Gains into Strategy Value — the permanent, protected portion of the contract. Exercising the Annual Lock permanently protects those gains from future index declines. If you do not exercise the Annual Lock, the Tracking Value Gains remain at risk under your selected floor option for that strategy allocation. The practical decision of when to use it depends on your floor selection and market outlook. If you are at the 0% floor, the Annual Lock functions similarly to a standard FIA’s annual reset — gains at 0% floor are already protected from becoming negative, so the Annual Lock simply finalizes them. If you are at the -10% floor, the Annual Lock is a more consequential tool: by locking in gains, you protect them from the -10% downside exposure you have accepted under that floor. Buyers who actively monitor their contract may lock gains mid-year when they are satisfied with the accumulated tracking value; buyers who prefer a set-it-and-forget approach can leave the default structure in place. Confirm the exact mechanics of the Annual Lock with an Ibexis illustration at application — the interaction between Tracking Value, Strategy Value, and floor selection is specific to this product design.

No — and this distinction is critical to understanding what you are accepting when you select a negative floor. The floor option on the FIA Plus applies to accumulated gains that have not been locked in through the Annual Lock feature. Your initial premium — the original purchase payment — is always protected regardless of which floor you select. The -10% floor means that the prior anniversary contract value (including gains already built up from previous years) can decline by up to 10% if the index posts a sufficiently negative year. For example: if your contract value grew from $200,000 to $230,000 over the previous two years, a -10% floor means that in a negative index year, the contract value could theoretically fall to as low as $207,000 (10% below the prior anniversary value of $230,000) — but never below the original $200,000 premium. In practice, the floor protects your starting principal while allowing you to accept some volatility on accumulated gains in exchange for higher caps and participation rates. Buyers who have used the Annual Lock consistently may have already converted most of their gains into Strategy Value (protected gains), which further limits the actual dollar risk exposed to the floor. Model the realistic dollar impact of each floor option on your specific contract value before selecting anything other than the 0% floor.

Ibexis is a pure accumulation carrier — no Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits, no income riders, and no structured lifetime payment options beyond standard annuitization are available on any Ibexis product. This is an important planning constraint that buyers must address before committing to the FIA Plus as a retirement vehicle. If your retirement income plan depends on guaranteed lifetime withdrawals from a single annuity contract, the FIA Plus cannot serve that function. The practical approaches for FIA Plus buyers who will eventually need income: (1) Use the FIA Plus for its accumulation phase — grow the contract value over a 5- to 10-year surrender period — then at maturity reposition the full balance into an income-rider FIA or a Single Premium Immediate Annuity. (2) Hold the FIA Plus as the accumulation engine within a broader retirement portfolio that includes separate income-generating assets: Social Security, pension, a separate income-rider FIA from a carrier like North American or Midland National. (3) Annuitize the FIA Plus contract at maturity, converting the accumulated value into structured lifetime payments through standard annuitization options. None of these approaches requires modifying the FIA Plus itself — they address the income gap through portfolio-level design rather than product-level features. Our overview of how GLWBs work covers how income riders from other carriers function, for buyers evaluating whether to allocate entirely to FIA Plus or split between FIA Plus and an income-rider product.

Investcorp is a global alternative investment firm with $50+ billion in assets under management and over 40 years of investing in North America. It is the asset management partner for Ibexis — managing the investment portfolio that backs Ibexis’s annuity guarantees. Investcorp has a well-known brand history that includes investments in Tiffany & Co., Gucci, and Saks Fifth Avenue, which reflects its track record in managing high-profile asset positions. For annuity buyers, the relevant question is whether Investcorp’s investment management approach produces the portfolio quality that supports Ibexis’s AM Best A- rating. AM Best’s rating process evaluates the insurer’s investment portfolio composition and risk management alongside capital adequacy — and the A- rating with stable outlook confirms that AM Best has assessed Ibexis’s investment strategy under Investcorp as consistent with excellent financial strength. The Investcorp backing is part of what distinguishes Ibexis from a traditional mutual or publicly traded insurance holding company, following the same alternative asset manager pattern as Ares/Aspida, Axar/Revol One, and Apollo/Athene. As with all PE-backed carriers, buyers should verify the current AM Best rating at application and confirm the rating remains in effect rather than relying on any historical rating assigned at a prior date.

The term selection on the FIA Plus follows the same logic as most FIA surrender period decisions: longer terms typically offer higher caps and participation rates, while shorter terms offer more liquidity flexibility and a lower commitment horizon. For the FIA Plus specifically, the floor option system adds a layer to this decision. If you plan to use a more aggressive floor (such as -10% or -15%) to pursue higher credits, a longer surrender period gives the Annual Lock feature more time to work — you have more opportunities over the full term to capture and lock in gains from positive index years, reducing the net exposure of your accumulated gains to the floor. For buyers who want to use the 0% floor conservatively, the term decision reverts to the standard analysis: match the surrender period to your income timeline, choosing a term that matures close to when you need access to the funds. The 5-year term is appropriate for buyers who need flexibility within a shorter window or who are building a laddered strategy with staggered maturities. The 7-year term balances crediting potential with a manageable commitment. The 10-year term maximizes crediting potential and is appropriate for buyers with a clear long-term accumulation objective and adequate liquidity outside the contract during the surrender period. Our resource on annuity laddering strategy covers how to structure multiple contracts across different maturity windows to manage liquidity and reinvestment risk simultaneously.