Rider Decoder: 13 Terms for Annuity Income Riders

Author: David Novak | Last verified against sources: November 5, 2026

Educational information for licensed agents. Not legal or tax advice. Part of Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit: The Math Shown.

Each entry gives a plain definition, other names for the same thing, where to find it, and quoted wording, mostly from riders filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Rider forms A to E are variable annuity or registered index-linked annuity forms. Rider form F is a 2009 specimen for an indexed annuity registered on Form S-1; it appears under roll-up, payout percentage, step-up and rider fee. Fixed annuity riders that are not SEC-registered use different words, so an entry may add what the standard of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission (IIPRC) for fixed annuity riders says. Bracketed values in the filed forms are placeholders, so no rider percentage or fee is printed.

How to cite a term. "Rider Decoder: Benefit base," Annuities Genius, sources last opened 2026-11-05, https://annuitiesgenius.com/blog/guaranteed-lifetime-withdrawal-benefit-rider-decoder#benefit-base. Every entry has its own anchor.

1. Benefit base

What it is. The amount the payout percentage is applied to. It sizes the guaranteed yearly check and cannot be withdrawn.

Also called: income base, GLWB benefit base, withdrawal benefit base, guaranteed benefit base.

Where to find it: Rider definitions; the income-base column of an illustration.

Wording: "The Benefit Base cannot be withdrawn, applied to an Annuity Option, or paid as a Death Benefit." (Rider form A) [1]

Fixed annuities: The IIPRC standard asks, where applicable, for a prominent-print statement that the guaranteed benefit base cannot be withdrawn in a lump sum and/or is not payable as a death benefit. [2]

2. Account value

What it is. The money in the contract. It earns credits, pays the rider fee and funds withdrawals. It is not the benefit base.

Also called: contract value, accumulated value, accumulation value.

Where to find it: Statement; the account-value column of an illustration.

Wording: "The Income Benefit Fee will be deducted proportionally from the Contract Value in each Allocation Option." (Rider form C) [3]

Fixed annuities: The rider charge comes out of the account value. [2]

3. Cash (surrender) value

What it is. The lump sum a client receives on surrender, after surrender charges, bonus forfeitures and any market value adjustment. The benefit base is not used to calculate it.

Also called: value available upon surrender, surrender value.

Where to find it: Illustration, next to the account value.

Wording: "the amount available to the contract owner in a lump sum after deduction of surrender charges, bonus forfeitures, contract loans ..." (NAIC Model #245) [4]

Wording: "The Income Benefit Base and Lifetime Withdrawal Percentages ... are not used to calculate the cash Surrender Value" (Rider form B, a New York form) [5]

4. Roll-up

What it is. A credit added to the benefit base, or in some designs to the payout percentage, while income is deferred. It is not growth of the account value.

Also called: credit, annual increase, deferral credit, simple or compound interest on the base.

Where to find it: Rider specifications: rate, period, end date.

Wording: "Roll-up Interest Rate - The simple interest rate used to determine the roll-up in the calculation of the Income Benefit Base." (Rider form B) [5]

Wording: "Your IAV grows at IAV Rate until the earliest of the end of the IAV Period or the date LIB payments begin." (Rider form F, an indexed annuity: IAV is its income account value) [6]

Fixed annuities: Roll-up amounts and percentage increases are listed among the ways a base can rise. [2]

5. Payout percentage

What it is. The share of the benefit base paid out each year. Age and single or joint life set it. It is not a return on the account value.

Also called: withdrawal rate, lifetime withdrawal percentage, income benefit percentage, payout factor (a marketing term).

Where to find it: Rider specifications, by age band and by single or joint life.

Wording: "The annual Income Benefit Payment is equal to the Income Benefit Percentage multiplied by the Income Benefit Base." (Rider form C) [3]

Wording: "The guaranteed annual LIB amount equals Your IAV on the day payments begin, multiplied by the Guaranteed Income Percentage ..." (Rider form F; the percentage depends on the age at election and is then locked in) [6]

Fixed annuities: The IIPRC standard defines it as the percentage applied to the guaranteed benefit base to determine the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal amount. [2]

6. First-withdrawal age and age bands

What it is. The age that fixes the initial payout percentage. A withdrawal before it can count as an excess withdrawal and cut the benefit base.

Also called: attained age.

Related terms: guaranteed lifetime withdrawal date or income start date, the date the age is measured on.

Where to find it: Rider schedule; the start-age setting of an illustration.

Wording: "The initial Withdrawal Rate is determined using the Age of the youngest Covered Person on the Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Date." (Rider form A) [1]

7. Step-up or reset

What it is. A test, usually on an anniversary, that lifts the benefit base to a stated comparison value, usually the account value, when that value is higher. All six rider forms (A to F) have one.

Also called: automatic step-up, anniversary reset, highest anniversary value.

Where to find it: Rider base-calculation section; limits on availability.

Wording: "On each Contract Anniversary, the Benefit Base will become the greatest of: ... The current Automatic Step-Up Value, if any" (Rider form A) [1]

Fixed annuities: The form must say how any step-up works and any limits on it. [2]

A worked example is in the main guide, section "Step-ups and multipliers".

8. Rider fee

What it is. A rate times a base the contract names, taken out as dollars from the account value. The base can be the account value, the benefit base or the remaining benefit amount.

Also called: rider charge, income benefit fee, GLB charge.

Where to find it: Rider specifications: rate, maximum rate, fee base.

Wording: "The charge will not reduce the Income Benefit Base. The charge will reduce the Contract Value by the gross dollar amount of the charge." (Rider form B) [5]

Wording: "The Rider Charge equals the Rider Fee multiplied by Your Contract Value on each Contract Anniversary." (Rider form F: the fee base is the contract value) [6]

Fixed annuities: The IIPRC standard describes the charge as a percentage of a base the contract names (account value, guaranteed benefit base or remaining benefit amount), deducted from the account value as a dollar amount. [2]

9. Excess withdrawal

What it is. A withdrawal above the allowed yearly amount, or before income starts. When the benefit base is above the account value, it can cost more base than the dollars taken.

Also called: excess surrender, early surrender, withdrawal above the allowed amount.

Where to find it: Excess-withdrawal section; the warning in prominent print.

Wording: "will reduce the Benefit Base by more than the dollar amount of the Excess Withdrawal when the Benefit Base is greater than the Contract Value" (Rider form A) [1]

Fixed annuities: Under the IIPRC standard a form states, if applicable, a prominent-print warning that excess withdrawals could reduce future benefits by more than the excess amount taken. [2]

10. Bonus

What it is. An extra credit, added either to the account value or to the benefit base only. A bonus on the account value can be forfeited on early surrender. A bonus on the benefit base only raises the base and adds nothing to the surrender value (see Cash (surrender) value).

Also called: premium bonus, income base bonus, bonus credit.

Where to find it: Brochure; rider specifications.

Wording: "Increased under specified conditions (e.g. bonus credits received on specified dates, step-up provisions, percentage increases or roll-up amounts, etc.);" (IIPRC standard (variable annuities)) [9]

Fixed annuities: Bonus credits are among the listed ways a base can rise. No registered rider form excerpted here credits a bonus to the base only. [2]

11. Multiplier or doubler

What it is. A temporary increase of the yearly amount after a trigger such as a health event. In the excerpted form it replaces the regular amount and does not add to it.

Also called: health-activated income multiplier, qualifying event increase.

Where to find it: Multiplier section; the list of triggers.

Wording: "When active, the Multiplier Benefit is used in lieu of the LPA and is not an additional benefit received in conjunction with the LPA." (Rider form D) [7]

Fixed annuities: A qualifying-event increase is capped at twice the benefit amount otherwise payable. [2]

In rider form D the multiplier comes with the rider automatically [7]. To qualify:

• the covered person must be unable to perform a stated number of the six activities of daily living, for a stated number of consecutive days;
• a waiting period must end after a stated contract anniversary;
• a physician must give notice;
• the showing repeats each contract year, up to a stated limit in years.

Withdrawals above the multiplied amount reduce the base pro rata, and the multiplier may be elected during the settlement phase [7]. The numbers are bracketed placeholders in the filed form. What a multiplier pays at a zero account value, beyond the settlement-phase line, is a question for the form.

12. Death benefit, termination, spousal continuation

What it is. What heirs or a surviving spouse receive, and what ends the rider. The benefit base is not paid as a death benefit.

Related terms: settlement phase (form A's name for the stage where lifetime payments continue after the account value is gone) [1], joint life version.

Where to find it: Death benefit and termination clauses.

Wording: "Once the Contract has entered the Settlement Phase, no Death Benefit will be available" (Rider form A) [1]

Fixed annuities: Termination conditions a form may include: an owner request, the death of the sole surviving covered person, a change of ownership. [2]

13. Who guarantees it

What it is. The insurer's ability to pay claims backs the promise. A state guaranty association is a limited backstop, and where a state follows NAIC Model #520 agents may not use its existence to sell or to induce a purchase [10] [11].

Related terms: claims-paying ability, guaranty association.

Where to find it: Rider text; the guaranty association notice.

Wording: "The financial strength of the insurance company that issues the contract backs all guarantees, including death benefits, living benefits, and your annuity payments." (SEC Investor.gov page on variable annuities) [12]

Rider forms quoted: A to F. Each is identified by form type, filing date and accession number in the sources below.

Sources

1. Rider form A: Form 485BPOS, filed 2025-12-18, accession 0001133228-25-013602, exhibit EX-99.(D)VIII, form ICC25-GLWB-RC (edition 10-25). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1052766/000113322825013602/0001133228-25-013602-index.htm
2. IIPRC standard IIPRC-AB-02-I-GLB for guaranteed living benefits on non-variable annuities, adopted June 29, 2016, effective October 17, 2016. https://www.insurancecompact.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/1016_glbnv.pdf
3. Rider form C: Form N-4, filed 2025-06-17, accession 0001562577-25-000211, exhibit EX-99.(D)(4), form ICC25-ILVA-GLWB-RDR-A. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1562577/000156257725000211/0001562577-25-000211-index.htm
4. NAIC Annuity Disclosure Model Regulation (#245), Summer 2021 edition. https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/model-law-245.pdf
5. Rider form B: Form N-4/A, filed 2023-10-11, accession 0001193125-23-253979, exhibit EX-99.27(D)(1), form VARR-0139NY (11/2023), a New York form. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/914603/000119312523253979/0001193125-23-253979-index.htm
6. Rider form F: Form S-1, filed 2009-06-30, accession 0001047469-09-006588, exhibit EX-4.(v), Lifetime Income Benefit Rider for a flexible premium deferred indexed annuity (specimen). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1466802/000104746909006588/0001047469-09-006588-index.htm
7. Rider form D: Form 485BPOS, filed 2024-04-19, accession 0000906564-24-000023, exhibit EX-1.27(D)(2), form AR424A. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/906564/000090656424000023/0000906564-24-000023-index.htm
8. Rider form E: Form N-4/A, filed 2024-05-06, accession 0001104659-24-057241, exhibit EX-4.(II), form SF 1055. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/9713/000110465924057241/0001104659-24-057241-index.htm
9. IIPRC standard for guaranteed living benefits on variable and index-linked variable annuities (redline dated 3/12/2024). https://www.insurancecompact.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/240425-variable-glb.pdf
10. NAIC Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Model Act (#520), 1st Quarter 2018 edition. https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/model-law-520.pdf
11. Florida Statutes 631.735, Prohibited advertisement of Florida Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Act in sale of insurance (2026 edition, Online Sunshine). http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0631/Sections/0631.735.html
12. SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, Variable Annuities (Investor.gov; the page shows no date). https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/investment-products/annuities/variable-annuities