Form 485APOS Separate Account No. 70

What is the Retirement Cornerstone^® 19 Series E?

The Retirement Cornerstone^® Series 19 are variable and fixed individual and group flexible premium deferred annuity contracts issued by Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company (the “Company”, “we”, “our” and “us”). This Prospectus only describes one such series of the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series 19, which is Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E (“Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E” or “Series E”). The contract provides for the accumulation of retirement savings and for income. The contract offers income and death benefit protection as well. It also offers a number of payout options. You invest to accumulate value on a tax-deferred basis in one or more of our investment options: (i) variable investment options listed in Appendix “Portfolio Companies Available Under the Contract”, (ii) the guaranteed interest option, or (iii) the account for dollar cost averaging.

The Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract is available only through an exchange program under which certain existing variable annuity contracts issued by the Company (“Prior Contracts”) may be exchanged for this contract. Only permitted exchanges, rollovers or transfers from Prior Contracts are allowed as contributions. No other source of contribution is permitted. To see a summary comparison of some of the features of Prior Contracts and the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, see Appendix “Exchange program”. In order to purchase this contract you must elect one or more of the Guaranteed benefits described in this Prospectus. See “Important Information you should consider about the contract” and “How you can purchase and contribute to your contract” in “Purchasing the Contract” for more information.

This Prospectus is a disclosure document and describes all of the contract’s material features, benefits, rights and obligations, as well as other information. The description of the contract’s material provisions in this Prospectus is current as of the date of this Prospectus. If certain material provisions under the contract are changed after the date of this Prospectus in accordance with the contract, those changes will be described in a supplement to this Prospectus. You should carefully read this Prospectus in conjunction with any applicable supplements. When delivered in connection with the sale of a new contract, this Prospectus must be accompanied by the applicable Rate Sheet Supplements that specify the current initial Annual Roll-up rate, initial Deferral Roll-up rate and guaranteed Roll-up floor.

Types of contracts.   We offer the contracts for use as:

We reserve the right to stop accepting any application or contribution from you at any time, including after you purchase the contract. If you have one or more Guaranteed benefits and we exercise our right to discontinue the acceptance of, and/or place additional limitations on, contributions to the contract and/or contributions and/or transfers into the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, you may no longer be able to fund your Guaranteed benefit(s). This means that if you have not yet allocated amounts to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, you may not be able to fund your Guaranteed benefit(s) at all. This also means that if you have already funded your Guaranteed benefits, you may no longer be able to increase your Protected Benefit account value and the benefit bases associated with your Guaranteed benefits through contributions and transfers.

When we address the reader of this Prospectus with words such as “you” and “your,” we mean the person who has the right or responsibility that the Prospectus is discussing at that point. This is usually the contract owner.

When we use the word “contract” it also includes certificates that are issued under group contracts in some states.

Annual Roll-up amount — The “Annual Roll-up amount” is the amount credited to your GMIB benefit base during the GMIB Roll-up period if you have ever taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account.

Annual Roll-up rate — The “Annual Roll-up rate” is the rate used to calculate the Annual withdrawal amount and the Annual Roll-up amount.

Annual withdrawal amount — The “Annual withdrawal amount” is the amount that can be withdrawn from your Protected Benefit account value without reducing your GMIB benefit base during the GMIB Roll-up period. It is equal to the Annual Roll-up rate in effect on the first day of the contract year, multiplied by the GMIB benefit base as of the most recent contract date anniversary.

Annuitant — The “annuitant” is the person who is the measuring life for determining the contract maturity date. The annuitant is not necessarily the contract’s owner. Where the owner of the contract is non-natural, the annuitant is the measuring life for determining benefits under the contract.

Business day — Our “business day” is generally any day the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) is open for regular trading and generally ends at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (or as of an earlier close of regular trading). If the SEC determines the existence of emergency conditions on any day, and consequently, the NYSE does not open, then that day is not a business day.

Cash value — At any time before annuity payments begin, your contract’s “cash value” is equal to the Total account value, less the total amount or a pro rata portion of the annual administrative charge and any Guaranteed benefit charges.

Contract date — The “contract date” is the effective date of the contract. This usually is the business day we receive the properly completed and signed application, along with any other required documents, and your initial contribution. Your contract date will be shown in your contract.

Contract date anniversary — The end of each 12-month period is your “contract date anniversary.” For example, if your contract date is May 1st, your contract date anniversary is April 30th.

Contract maturity date — The contract’s “maturity date” is generally the contract date anniversary that follows the annuitant’s 95th birthday. For single-owned contracts, the contract maturity date is based on the owner’s age if the GMIB is elected and on the annuitant’s age if the GMIB is not elected. For jointly-owned contracts with the GMIB, the contract maturity date will be based on the older owner’s age.

Contract year — The “contract year” is the 12-month period beginning on your contract date and each 12-month period after that date.

Customized payment plan — For contracts with GMIB, our “Customized payment plan” allows you to request amounts

up to your Annual withdrawal amount as scheduled payments to you through one of five customized options.

Deferral Roll-up amount — The “Deferral Roll-up amount” is the amount credited to your GMIB benefit base during the GMIB Roll-up period if you have never taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account.

Deferral Roll-up rate — The “Deferral Roll-up rate” is the rate used to calculate the Deferral Roll-up amount.

Excess withdrawal — For contracts with the GMIB, an “Excess withdrawal” is the portion of a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount and all subsequent withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account in that same contract year. An Excess withdrawal will always reduce your benefit bases on a pro rata basis. Excess withdrawals will also terminate the no-lapse guarantee, except for an Excess withdrawal in the contract year in which you first fund the Protected Benefit account that does not exceed the free withdrawal amount (described in “Charges and expenses”). Special rules apply to contract owners who are required to take RMD withdrawals and are enrolled in the Automatic RMD service. See “RMDs for contracts with GMIB” in “Accessing your money”.

Excess RMD withdrawal — For contracts with the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, an “Excess RMD withdrawal” is:

Excess RMD withdrawals will reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit on a pro rata basis.

Free look — If for any reason you are not satisfied with your contract, you may exercise your cancellation right under the contract to receive a refund, but only if you return your contract within the prescribed period. This is your “Free look” right under the contract. Your refund will generally reflect any gain or loss in your investment options, although in some states different rules may apply.

Guaranteed Roll-up floor — At contract issue, the guaranteed Roll-up floor will apply during the life of your contract.

General dollar cost averaging — Our “General dollar cost averaging program” is a program that allows for the

systematic transfers of amounts in the EQ/Money Market variable investment option to the Investment account variable investment options.

GMIB benefit base — The GMIB benefit base is an amount used to determine your Annual withdrawal amount and your Lifetime GMIB payments. Your GMIB benefit base is created and increased by allocations and transfers to your Protected Benefit account. The GMIB benefit base is not an account value or cash value. The GMIB benefit base is also used to calculate the charge for the GMIB.

GMIB Maximum Roll-up period — (Applicable to the “Spousal Continuation” and “How divorce may affect your Guaranteed benefits” sections only) the maximum amount of time for which your GMIB benefit base is eligible to roll up. The GMIB Maximum Roll-up period commences on the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and ends on the 20th contract date anniversary that occurs after the date you first fund the Protected Benefit Account. If you first fund the Protected Benefit account (a) on either the contract issue date or a subsequent contract date anniversary and (b) prior to your 76th birthday, the GMIB Maximum Roll-up period will be a full 20 years.

GMIB Roll-up period — the period during which the GMIB benefit base increases (or “rolls up”) annually by an amount determined by the Deferral Roll-up rate or Annual Roll-up rate, as applicable. The GMIB Roll-up period commences on the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and ends on the date that is the earlier of (a) the 20th contract date anniversary that occurs after the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and (b) the contract maturity date. If you first fund the Protected Benefit account (a) on either the contract issue date or a subsequent contract date anniversary and (b) prior to your 76th birthday, the GMIB Roll-up period will be a full 20 years.

GMIB Roll-up period end date — (Applicable to the “Spousal Continuation” and “How divorce may affect your Guaranteed benefits” sections only) the date that is the earlier of (a) the date on which the GMIB Maximum Roll-up period ends and (b) the contract date anniversary following the owner’s (or older joint owner’s, if applicable) 95th birthday (or the contract maturity date, if earlier).

Guaranteed minimum income benefit (“GMIB”) — The GMIB is a benefit that guarantees, subject to certain restrictions, annual lifetime payments or “Lifetime GMIB payments”. The GMIB also allows you to take certain withdrawals prior to the beginning of your Lifetime GMIB payments that do not reduce your GMIB benefit base (your “Annual withdrawal amount”). There is an additional charge for the GMIB under the contract.

Guaranteed benefits — You must elect one or more Guaranteed benefits described in this Prospectus, which are funded through investments in the Protected Benefit account. The Guaranteed benefits include the Guaranteed minimum income benefit, Return of Principal death benefit, Highest Anniversary Value death benefit, and RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. There is an additional charge for the Guaranteed minimum income benefit, Highest Anniversary Value death benefit, and RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. There is no additional

charge for the Return of Principal death benefit, but it must be elected with the Guaranteed minimum income benefit, which has an additional charge.

Highest Anniversary Value death benefit — The “Highest Anniversary Value death benefit” is an optional Guaranteed minimum death benefit in connection with your Protected Benefit account value only. The death benefit is calculated using the highest value of your Protected Benefit account on your contract date anniversary. There is an additional charge for the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit under the contract.

Initial Roll-up rates — At contract issue, an initial Annual Roll-up rate and initial Deferral Roll-up rate (which we refer to as our “new business” or “lock in” rates) will apply during your first seven contract years. These rates are specified in the respective Rate Sheet Supplements.

Investment account value — The “Investment account value” is the total value in: (i) the Investment account variable investment options, (ii) the Guaranteed interest option, and (iii) amounts in the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Investment account variable investment options.

Investment Simplifier — Our “Investment simplifier” allows for systematic transfers of amounts in the Guaranteed interest option to the Investment account variable investment options. There are two options under the program — the Fixed dollar option and the Interest sweep option.

IRA — An individual retirement arrangement, including both an individual retirement account and an individual retirement annuity contract, whether traditional IRA or Roth IRA.

IRS — Internal Revenue Service.

Lifetime GMIB payments — For contracts with the GMIB, “Lifetime GMIB payments” are generally annual lifetime payments which are calculated by applying your GMIB benefit base to the guaranteed GMIB annuity purchase factors specified in Appendix “GMIB Annuity purchase factors”. Lifetime GMIB payments will begin at the earliest of: (i) the next contract year following the date your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero (provided the no-lapse guarantee is in effect); (ii) the contract date anniversary following your 95th birthday; or (iii) your election to exercise the GMIB.

Lifetime RMD payment — If you enroll in our Automatic RMD service, the payment we make to you each year to help you meet your lifetime required minimum distributions under federal income tax rules. We make Lifetime RMD payments on an annual basis.

Maximum payment plan — For contracts with GMIB, our “Maximum payment plan” allows you to request your Annual withdrawal amount as scheduled payments.

NQ contract — Nonqualified annuity contract.

Owner — The “owner” is the person who is the named owner in the contract and, if an individual, is the measuring life for determining contract benefits.

Prior Contract — Certain EQUI-VEST^®, Accumulator and Structured Capital Strategies^® contracts previously issued by

the Company, which may be eligible to exchange, rollover or transfer to a Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract.

Protected Benefit account value — The “Protected Benefit account value” is the total value in: (i) the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, and (ii) amounts in the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options.

QP contract — An annuity contract that is an investment vehicle for a qualified plan.

QPDB contract — An annuity contract that is an investment vehicle for a qualified defined benefit plan.

QPDC contract — An annuity contract that is an investment vehicle for a qualified defined contribution plan.

Rate effective date — as specified in the applicable Rate Sheet Supplement, the date on which an initial Annual Roll-up rate, Deferral Roll-up rate or guaranteed Roll-up floor becomes effective.

Rate Sheet Supplement — A supplement to the Prospectus that specifies the GMIB and GMDB rider fees, the GMIB funding age, the Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up rate associated with the Guaranteed minimum income benefit that will apply for the first seven years of your contract and the guaranteed Roll-up floor that will apply for the life of your contract based on the date of your contract application. These items may be specified in separate Rate Sheet Supplement. We periodically file Rate Sheet Supplement with the SEC that disclose the items above that will apply beginning on a specified future date and remain in effect until we file subsequent Rate Sheet Supplement. The Rate effective date of a subsequent Rate Sheet Supplement will be at least 10 days after it is filed. You may contact us at 1-800-789-7771 for a copy of the Rate Sheet Supplement applicable to your contract. These items disclosed in our Rate Sheet Supplement may be found in Appendix “Historical Rate Sheet Supplement Information” to this Prospectus, as well as on the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov) by searching with File Number 333-229769.

Renewal rates — The Deferral Roll-up rate and Annual Roll-up rate that will apply to your contract once the initial Roll-up rates have expired.

RMD — Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are distributions that must be made from traditional IRAs and other qualified retirement programs according to rules contained in the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations.

Under legislation enacted at the end of 2019:

RMD Wealth Guard death benefit — The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit is an optional Guaranteed minimum death benefit in connection with the Protected Benefit account value only. The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base is created and increased by allocations and any transfers to the Protected Benefit account. The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit also enables you to take withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account, other than Excess RMD withdrawals, without reducing your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base. The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base is not an account value or cash value. There is an additional charge for the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit under the contract.

RMD withdrawal — a withdrawal that is intended to satisfy the lifetime required minimum distributions from certain tax-favored plans and arrangements such as traditional IRAs under federal income tax rules.

Return of Principal death benefit — The “Return of Principal” death benefit is a death benefit in connection with your Protected Benefit account value only. The death benefit is calculated using the amounts of contributions and transfers invested in your Protected Benefit account, adjusted for withdrawals. There is no additional charge for this death benefit.

SAI — Statement of Additional Information.

SEP IRA — A traditional IRA used as a funding vehicle for a simplified employee pension plan established by the IRA owner’s employer.

Special DCA Program — We use the term “Special DCA Program” to refer to our special dollar cost averaging program.

Systematic transfer program — Our “Systematic transfer program” is a program that allows you to have amounts in the Investment account variable investment options and the Guaranteed interest option automatically transferred to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options.

Total account value — Your “Total account value” is the total of (i) your Protected Benefit account value and (ii) your Investment account value.

Purpose of the Contract

The contract is designed to help you accumulate assets through investments in underlying Portfolios and the guaranteed interest option during the accumulation phase. It can provide or supplement your retirement income by providing a stream of income payments during the annuity phase. It also provides death benefits to protect your beneficiaries and living benefits to protect your access to income. The contract may be appropriate if you have a long-term investment horizon. It is not intended for people who may need to access invested funds within a short-term timeframe or frequently, or who intend to engage in frequent transfers of the underlying Portfolios.

Phases of the Contract

The contract has two phases: an accumulation (savings) phase and an income (annuity) phase.

Accumulation (Savings) Phase

During the accumulation phase, you can allocate your contributions to one or more of the available investment options, which include:

For additional information about each underlying Portfolio see Appendix “Portfolio Companies available under the contract.”

Income (Annuity) Phase

You enter the income phase when you annuitize your contract. During the income phase, you will receive a stream of fixed income payments for the annuity payout period of time you elect. You can elect to receive annuity payments (1) for life; (2) for life with a certain minimum number of payments; or (3) for life with a certain amount of payment. Please note that when you annuitize, your investments are converted to income payments and you will no longer be able to make any additional withdrawals from your contract. All accumulation phase benefits terminate upon annuitization and the contract has a maximum annuity commencement date.

Contract Features

The contract provides for the accumulation of retirement savings and income. The contract offers income and death benefit protection, and offers various payout options.

Access to Your Money

During the accumulation phase you can take withdrawals from your contract. Withdrawals will reduce your account value and may be subject to income taxes and a tax penalty if you are younger than 59¹⁄₂. Withdrawals may also reduce (possibly on a greater than dollar-for-dollar basis) or terminate any guaranteed benefits.

Death Benefits

Your contract includes a standard death benefit that pays your beneficiaries an amount equal to your Investment account value. For an additional fee, you can purchase other death benefits called Guaranteed minimum death benefits (“GMDBs”) that provide different minimum payment guarantees.

Living Benefits

A living benefit called the Guaranteed Minimum Income Benefit (“GMIB”) is automatically included with the contract for an additional charge, unless you decline it in the application. The GMIB is a benefit that guarantees, subject to certain restrictions, annual lifetime payments or “Lifetime GMIB payments”. The minimum guarantee provided by this benefit may never come into effect.

Rebalancing and Dollar Cost Averaging

You can elect to have your account value automatically rebalanced at no additional charge. We offer two rebalancing programs that you can use to automatically reallocate your Investment account value among your Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option. You can also elect to allocate your investments using a dollar cost averaging program at no additional charge. Generally, you may not elect both a dollar cost averaging program and a rebalancing option.

Other contracts

We offer a variety of fixed and variable annuity contracts. They may offer features, including investment options, and have fees and charges, that are different from those in the contracts offered by this Prospectus. Not every contract we issue, including some described in this Prospectus, is offered through every selling broker-dealer. Some selling brokerdealers may not offer and/or limit the offering of certain features or options, as well as limit the availability of the contracts, based on issue age or other criteria established by the selling broker-dealer. Upon request, your financial professional can show you information regarding our other annuity contracts that he or she distributes. You can also contact us to find out more about the availability of any of our annuity contracts.

We are Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company, a New York stock life insurance corporation. We have been doing business since 1859. The Company is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Equitable Holdings, Inc. No other company has any legal responsibility to pay amounts that the Company owes under the contracts. The Company is solely responsible for paying all amounts owed to you under your contract.

We are licensed to sell life insurance and annuities in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our home office is located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104.

How to reach us

Please communicate with us at the mailing addresses listed below for the purposes described. You can also use our Equitable Client portal to access information about your account and to complete certain requests through the Internet. Certain methods of contacting us, such as by telephone or electronically, may be unavailable, delayed or discontinued. For example, our facsimile service may not be available at all times and/or we may be unavailable due to emergency closing. In addition, the level and type of service available may be restricted based on criteria established by us. In order to avoid delays in processing, please send your correspondence as follows:

For communications (e.g., requests for transfers, withdrawals, or required notices) sent by regular mail:

For communications (e.g., requests for transfers, withdrawals, or required notices) sent by express delivery:

Your correspondence will be picked up at the mailing address noted above and delivered to our processing office. Your correspondence, however, is not considered received by us until it is received at our processing office. Where this Prospectus refers to the day when we receive a contribution, request, election, notice, transfer or any other transaction request from you, we mean the day on which that item (or the last thing necessary for us to process that item) arrives in complete and proper form at our processing office or via the appropriate telephone or fax number if the item is a type we accept by those means. There are two main exceptions: if the item arrives (1) on a day that is not a business day, or (2) after the close of a business day, then, in each case, we are deemed to have received that item on the next business day. Our processing office is: 8501 IBM Dr, Ste 150-IR, Charlotte, NC 28262.

Reports we provide:

For jointly owned contracts (if applicable), we provide reports to the primary joint owner’s address on file.

Equitable Client portal:

With your Equitable Client portal account you can expect:

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Equitable Client portal is normally available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Of course, for reasons beyond our control, this service may sometimes be unavailable.

We have established procedures to reasonably confirm that the instructions communicated by the Internet are genuine. For example, we will require certain personal identification information before we will act on Internet instructions and we will provide written confirmation of your transfers. If we do not employ reasonable procedures to confirm the genuineness of Internet instructions, we may be liable for any losses arising out of any act or omission that constitutes negligence, lack of good faith, or willful misconduct. In light of our procedures, we will not be liable for following Internet instructions we reasonably believe to be genuine.

We reserve the right to limit access to this service if we determine that you engaged in a disruptive transfer activity, such as “market timing.” See “Disruptive transfer activity” in “Transferring your money among investment options” for more information.

Customer service representative:

You may also use our toll-free number (1-800-789-7771) to speak with one of our customer service representatives. Our customer service representatives are available on the following business days:

We generally require that the following types of communications be on specific forms we provide for that purpose:

We also have specific forms that we recommend you use for the following types of requests:

To cancel or change any of the following, we require written notification generally at least seven calendar days before the next scheduled transaction:

To cancel or change any of the following, we require written notification at least 30 calendar days prior to your contract date anniversary:

You must sign and date all these requests. Any written request that is not on one of our forms must include your name and your contract number along with adequate details about the notice you wish to give or the action you wish us to take. Some requests may be completed online; you can use our Equitable Client portal to contact us and to complete such requests through the Internet. In the future, we may require that certain requests be completed online. We reserve the right to add, remove or change our administrative forms, procedures and programs at any time.

Signatures:

The proper person to sign forms, notices and requests is normally the owner. If there are joint owners, both must sign.

eDelivery:

You can register to receive statements and other documents electronically. You can do so by visiting our website at www.equitable.com.

How you can purchase and contribute to your contract

You may purchase a contract by making payments to us that we call “contributions.” Only exchanges, rollovers or transfers from eligible EQUI-VEST^®, Structured Capital Strategies^® and Accumulator^® contracts, as defined herein, are permitted as contributions. No other source of contribution is permitted. In addition, subsequent contributions can only be made through permitted exchanges, rollovers, or transfers from a Prior Contract. As a result of these limitations you may not be able to make subsequent contributions to your contract. See “Important information you should consider about the contract” for more information. The tables in Appendix “Rules regarding contributions to your contract” summarize our current rules regarding contributions to your contract, which are subject to change. Both the owner and annuitant named in the contract must meet the issue age requirements shown in the table and contributions are based on the age of the older of the original owner and annuitant. We can refuse to accept an application from you or any contribution from you at any time, including after you purchase the contract.

We reserve the right to change our current limitations on your contributions and to discontinue acceptance of contributions.

We currently do not accept any contribution to your contract if: (i) the sum of all contributions under all Accumulator^® Series and Retirement Cornerstone^® Series contracts with the same owner or annuitant would then total more than $1,500,000, or (ii) the aggregate contributions under all our annuity accumulation contracts with the same owner or annuitant would then total more than $2,500,000. We may waive these and other contribution limitations based on certain criteria that we determine, including Guaranteed benefits, issue age, aggregate contributions, variable investment option allocations and selling broker-dealer compensation. These and other contribution limitations may not be applicable in your state. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of the contracts, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

You may not contribute or transfer more than $1,500,000 to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options and the Special DCA program with amounts designated for the Protected Benefit account variable investment options.

Once a withdrawal is taken from your Protected Benefit account, you cannot make additional contributions to your Protected Benefit account, either directly or through a new Special DCA program. You may, however, be able to continue to make transfers from your Investment account to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options until such time you make a subsequent contribution to your Investment account. Scheduled transfers from an existing Special DCA program will continue through to the program’s conclusion.

We may accept less than the minimum initial contribution under a contract if an aggregate amount of Retirement Cornerstone^® Series contracts, respectively, purchased at the same time by an individual (including spouse) meet the minimum.

The “owner” is the person who is the named owner in the contract and, if an individual, is the measuring life for determining contract benefits. The “annuitant” is the person who is the measuring life for determining the contract maturity date. The annuitant is not necessarily the contract owner. Where the owner of a contract is non-natural, the annuitant is the measuring life for determining contract benefits.

Upon advance notice to you, we may exercise certain rights we have under the contract regarding contributions, including our rights to:

We reserve the right in our sole discretion to discontinue the acceptance of, and/or place limitations on contributions and transfers into the contract and/or certain investment options. If you have one or more Guaranteed benefits and we exercise our right to discontinue the acceptance of, and/or place additional limitations on, contributions to the contract and/or contributions and/or transfers into the Protected Benefit account variable

investment options, you may no longer be able to fund your Guaranteed benefit(s). This means that if you have not yet allocated amounts to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, you may not be able to fund your Guaranteed benefit(s). This also means that if you have already funded your Guaranteed benefits by allocating amounts to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, you may no longer be able to increase your Protected Benefit account value and the benefit bases associated with your Guaranteed benefits through contributions and transfers.

Owner and annuitant requirements

Under NQ contracts, the annuitant can be different from the owner. Only natural persons can be joint owners. This means that an entity such as a corporation cannot be a joint owner. We also reserve the right to prohibit availability of this contract to other non-natural owners.

For NQ contracts (with a single owner, joint owners, or a non-natural owner) we permit the naming of joint annuitants only when the contract is purchased through an exchange that is intended not to be taxable under Section 1035 of the Internal Revenue Code and only where the joint annuitants are spouses.

Owners which are not individuals are required to document their status to avoid 30% FATCA withholding from U.S.-source income.

Under all IRA contracts, the owner and annuitant must be the same person. In some cases, an IRA contract may be held in a custodial individual retirement account for the benefit of the individual annuitant.

For the Spousal continuation feature to apply, the spouses must either be joint owners, or, for Single owner contracts, the surviving spouse must be the sole primary beneficiary. The determination of spousal status is made under applicable state law. However, in the event of a conflict between federal and state law, we follow federal rules. Certain same-sex civil union and domestic partners may not be eligible for tax benefits under federal law and in some circumstances will be required to take post-death distributions that dilute or eliminate the value of the contractual benefit.

In general, we will not permit a contract to be owned by a minor unless it is pursuant to the Uniform Gift to Minors Act or the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act in your state.

Under QP contracts, the owner must be the qualified plan trust and the annuitant must be a plan participant/employee. The term “QP contracts” used in this Prospectus refers to QPDB and/or QPDC contracts. See Appendix “Purchase considerations for QP contracts” for more information regarding QP contracts.

Certain benefits under your contract, as described in this Prospectus, are based on the age of the owner. If the owner of the contract is not a natural person, these benefits will be based on the age of the annuitant. Under QP contracts, all benefits are based on the age of the annuitant. In this Prospectus, when we use the terms owner and joint owner, we

intend these to be references to annuitant and joint annuitant, respectively, if the contract has a non-natural owner. Unless otherwise stated, if the contract is jointly owned or is issued to a non-natural owner, benefits are based on the age of the older joint owner or older joint annuitant, as applicable.

Purchase considerations for a charitable remainder trust

If you are purchasing the contract to fund a charitable remainder trust and allocate any account value to the Protected Benefit account, you should strongly consider “split-funding”: that is, the trust holds investments in addition to this contract. Charitable remainder trusts are required to make specific distributions. The charitable remainder trust annual distribution requirement may be equal to a percentage of the donated amount or a percentage of the current value of the donated amount. The required distribution may have an adverse impact on the value of your Guaranteed benefits.

How you can make your contributions

The only source of contributions that are permitted to fund a Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract are from permitted exchanges, rollovers or transfers from a Prior Contract. See “Exchange Program” in “Information you should consider about the contract”. You will remain invested in your Prior Contract while Equitable Advisors, LLC (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI and TN), (“Equitable Advisors”) ensures your application is complete and that suitability standards are met. Upon successful completion of this review, Equitable Advisors will transmit your application to us, so that we can consider your application for processing.

If your application is in good order when we receive it for application processing purposes, your Prior Contract will be exchanged for a Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract at the price calculated at the close of that business day (or at the price calculated at the close of the next business day if we receive your application on a non-business day). If any information we require to issue your contract is missing or unclear, you will remain invested in your Prior Contract while we try to obtain this information. If we are unable to obtain all of the information we require within five business days after we receive an incomplete application or form, we will inform the financial professional submitting the application on your behalf. We will then cancel your exchange request unless you or your financial professional acting on your behalf, specifically direct us to keep your exchange request until we receive the required information. If we have not received the information we require within 30 days, we will cancel your exchange request. Your Prior Contract will be exchanged for a Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract as of the price calculated at the close of the business day we receive the missing information. Although we require an application from you, we will import data that we have in our records regarding the Prior Contract in issuing this contract. If there is a conflict between the data that we have in our records regarding the Prior Contract and the information on your application, we will not consider the application in good order as discussed above.

For more information on a “Prior Contract”, see “Exchange Program” in “Important information you should consider about the contract”.

What are your investment options under the contract?

Your investment options are the following:

See Appendix “Portfolio Companies available under the contract”. The Appendix also identifies which Portfolios are also available as Protected Benefit account variable investment options. It is important to note that the Protected Benefit account variable investment options are also available as Investment account variable investment options. The Protected Benefit account variable investment options invest in the same portfolios as the corresponding Investment account variable investment options.

As noted throughout this Prospectus, you may elect the GMIB at the time you apply for your contract. The Return of Principal death benefit can only be elected in combination with the GMIB. The Highest Anniversary Value death benefit can be elected with or without selecting the GMIB. If you elect the GMIB and do not elect a guaranteed minimum death benefit, you will automatically receive the Return of Principal death benefit. The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit cannot be elected in combination with the GMIB. Your Guaranteed benefits do not need to be funded at issue. Also, any applicable charges will not be assessed until you fund your Protected Benefit account. The Protected Benefit account variable investment options are used to fund these benefits.

Only amounts you allocate to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and amounts in the Special DCA program designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options will fund your Guaranteed benefits. These amounts will be included in the respective benefit bases of your Guaranteed benefits and will become part of your Protected Benefit account value. All amounts allocated to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and amounts in the Special DCA program designated for Protected Benefit account variable investment options are subject to the terms and conditions of the Guaranteed benefits under your contract.

If you allocate to investment options available to fund your Guaranteed benefits, you may later decide to change your allocation instructions in order to increase, decrease or stop the funding of your Guaranteed benefits. Also, if you have a Guaranteed benefit, there is no requirement that you must fund it either at issue or on any future date.

If you have a Guaranteed benefit and allocate any amount to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options or the Special DCA program with amounts designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, you are funding the Guaranteed benefits under your contract. No other action is required of you. If you do not wish to fund a Guaranteed benefit, you should not allocate contributions or make transfers to your Protected Benefit account. See “Allocating your contributions”.

Once you allocate amounts to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, such amounts may be transferred among the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, but may not be transferred to the Investment account variable investment options or the guaranteed interest option. In addition, we may at any time exercise our right to limit or terminate transfers into any of the variable investment options. For more information, see “Transferring your money among investment options”.

If you decide to participate in the Special DCA program, any amounts allocated to the program that are designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options will be included in the Protected Benefit account value. Any amounts allocated to the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option will be included in your Investment account value. As discussed in this section, the Special DCA program allows you to gradually allocate amounts to available investment options through periodic transfers. You can allocate to either or both Investment account and Protected Benefit account variable investment options as part of your Special DCA program. See “Allocating your contributions”.

Variable investment options

Your investment results in any one of the variable investment options will depend on the investment performance of the underlying Portfolios. You can lose your principal when investing in the variable investment options. In periods of poor market performance, the net return, after charges and expenses, may result in negative yields, including for the EQ/Money Market variable investment option.

We may, at any time, exercise our rights to limit or terminate your contributions, allocations and transfers to any of the variable investment options (including the Protected Benefit account variable investment options) and to limit the number of variable investment options which you may select.

Portfolios of the Trusts

We offer both affiliated and unaffiliated Trusts, which in turn offer one or more Portfolios. Equitable Investment Management Group, LLC (“Equitable IMG”), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, serves as the investment adviser of the Portfolios of EQ Premier VIP Trust and EQ Advisors Trust (collectively the “affiliated Trust”). For some affiliated Portfolios, Equitable IMG has entered into sub-advisory agreements with

one or more other investment advisers (the “sub-advisers”) to carry out investment decisions for the Portfolios. As such, among other responsibilities, Equitable IMG oversees the activities of the sub-advisers with respect to the affiliated Trust and is responsible for retaining or discontinuing the services of those sub-advisers.

Information regarding each of the currently available Portfolios, their types, their investment manager(s) and/or sub-adviser(s), their current expenses, and their current performance is available in an appendix to the prospectus. See Appendix “Portfolio Companies available under the contract.”

Each Portfolio has issued a prospectus that contains more detailed information about the Portfolio. You should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Portfolios carefully before investing. In order to obtain copies of the Portfolios’ prospectuses, you may call one of our customer service representatives at 1-800-789-7771, or visit www.equitable.com/ICSR#EQH159955.

You should be aware that Equitable Advisors and Equitable Distributors, LLC (“Equitable Distributors”), (together, the “Distributors”) directly or indirectly receive 12b-1 fees from affiliated Portfolios for providing certain distribution and/or shareholder support services. These fees will not exceed 0.25% of the Portfolios’ average daily net assets. The affiliated Portfolios’ sub-advisers and/or their affiliates may also contribute to the cost of expenses for sales meetings or seminar sponsorships that may relate to the contracts and/or the sub-advisers’ respective Portfolios. In addition, Equitable IMG receives management fees and Equitable Investment Management, LLC, an affiliate of Equitable IMG, receives administrative fees in connection with the services to the affiliated Portfolios. As such, it is generally more profitable for us to offer affiliated Portfolios than to offer unaffiliated Portfolios.

The Company or the Distributors may directly or indirectly receive 12b-1 fees and additional payments from certain unaffiliated Portfolios, their advisers, sub-advisers, distributors or affiliates, for providing certain administrative, marketing, distribution and/or shareholder support services. These fees and payments range from 0% to 0.60% of the unaffiliated Portfolios’ average daily net assets. The Distributors may also receive payments from the advisers or sub-advisers of the unaffiliated Portfolios or their affiliates for certain distribution services, including expenses for sales meetings or seminar sponsorships that may relate to the contracts and/or the advisers’ respective Portfolios.

As a contract owner, you may bear the costs of some or all of these fees and payments through your indirect investment in the Portfolios. (See the Portfolios’ prospectuses for more information.) These fees and payments, as well as the Portfolios’ investment management fees and administrative expenses, will reduce the underlying Portfolios’ investment returns. The Company may profit from these fees and payments. The Company considers the availability of these fees and payment arrangements during the selection process for the underlying Portfolios. These fees and payment arrangements may create an incentive for us to select Portfolios (and classes of shares of Portfolios) that pay us higher amounts.

Some affiliated Portfolios invest in other affiliated Portfolios (the “EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios”). The EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios offer contract owners a convenient opportunity to invest in other Portfolios that are managed and have been selected for inclusion in the EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios by Equitable IMG. Equitable Advisors, an affiliated broker-dealer of the Company, may promote the benefits of such Portfolios to contract owners and/or suggest that contract owners consider whether allocating some or all of their Total account value to such Portfolios is consistent with their desired investment objectives. In doing so, the Company, and/or its affiliates, may be subject to conflicts of interest insofar as the Company may derive greater revenues from the EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios than certain other Portfolios available to you under your contract. Please see “Allocating your contributions” for more information about your role in managing your allocations.

As described in more detail in the Portfolio prospectuses, the EQ Managed Volatility Portfolios may utilize a proprietary volatility management strategy developed by Equitable IMG (the “EQ volatility management strategy”) and, in addition, certain EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios may invest in affiliated Portfolios that utilize this strategy. See the Appendix “Portfolio Companies available under the contract” for more information. The EQ volatility management strategy employs various volatility management techniques, such as the use of ETFs or futures and options, to reduce the Portfolio’s equity exposure during periods when certain market indicators indicate that market volatility is above specific thresholds set for the Portfolio. When market volatility is increasing above the specific thresholds set for a Portfolio utilizing the EQ volatility management strategy, the adviser of the Portfolio may reduce equity exposure. Although this strategy is intended to reduce the overall risk of investing in the Portfolio, it may not effectively protect the Portfolio from market declines and may increase its losses. Further, during such times, the Portfolio’s exposure to equity securities may be less than that of a traditional equity portfolio. This may limit the Portfolio’s participation in market gains and result in periods of underperformance, including those periods when the specified benchmark index is appreciating, but market volatility is high. It may also impact the value of certain guaranteed benefits, as discussed below.

You should be aware that having the GMIB and/or certain other guaranteed benefits limits your ability to invest in some of the variable investment options that would otherwise be available to you under the contract. See “Allocating your contributions” under “Purchasing the Contract” for more information about the investment restrictions under your contract.

Portfolios that utilize the EQ volatility management strategy (or, in the case of certain EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios, invest in other Portfolios that use the EQ volatility management strategy) and investment option restrictions in connection with any guaranteed benefit that include these Portfolios are designed to reduce the overall volatility of your Total account value and provide you with risk-adjusted returns

over time. The reduction in volatility helps us manage the risks associated with providing guaranteed benefits during times of high volatility in the equity market. During rising markets, the EQ volatility management strategy, however, could result in your Total account value rising less than would have been the case had you been invested in a Portfolio that does not utilize the EQ volatility management strategy (or, in the case of the EQ Fund of Fund Portfolios, invest exclusively in other Portfolios that do not use the EQ volatility management strategy). This may effectively suppress the value of guaranteed benefit(s) that are eligible for periodic benefit base resets because your benefit base is available for resets only when your Protected Benefit account value is higher. Conversely, investing in investment options that use the EQ volatility management volatility strategy may be helpful in a declining market when high market volatility triggers a reduction in the investment option’s equity exposure because during these periods of high volatility, the risk of losses from investing in equity securities may increase. In these instances, your Total account value may decline less than would have been the case had you not been invested in investment options that use the EQ volatility management strategy.

Please see the underlying Portfolio prospectuses for more information in general, as well as more information about the EQ volatility management strategy. Please further note that certain other affiliated Portfolios, as well as unaffiliated Portfolios, may utilize volatility management techniques that differ from the EQ volatility management strategy. Such techniques could also impact your Total account value and guaranteed benefit(s), if any, in the same manner described above. Please see the Portfolio prospectuses for more information about the Portfolios’ objective and strategies. See also Appendix “Portfolio Companies available under the contract” for more information.

Asset Transfer Program.  Portfolio allocations in certain of our variable annuity contracts with guaranteed benefits are subject to our Asset Transfer Program (ATP) feature. The ATP helps us manage our financial exposure in connection with providing certain guaranteed benefits, by using predetermined mathematical formulas to move account value between the EQ/Ultra Conservative Strategy Portfolio (an investment option utilized solely by the ATP) and the other Portfolios offered under those contracts. You should be aware that operation of the predetermined mathematical formulas underpinning the ATP has the potential to adversely impact the Portfolios, including their performance, risk profile and expenses. This means that Portfolio investments in contracts with no ATP feature, such as yours, could still be adversely impacted. Particularly during times of high market volatility, if the ATP triggers substantial asset flows into and out of a Portfolio, it could have the following effects on all contract owners invested in that Portfolio:

Guaranteed interest option

The guaranteed interest option is part of our general account and pays interest at guaranteed rates. We discuss our general account under “More information”. Any amounts allocated to the guaranteed interest option will not be included in your Protected Benefit account value.

We credit interest daily to amounts in the guaranteed interest option. The minimum rate may vary depending on your contract issue date but it will be shown on the data page for your contract and will never be less than 1.0%. We set current interest rates periodically, based on our sole discretion and according to our procedures that we have in effect at the time. We reserve the right to change these procedures. All interest rates are effective annual rates, but before the deduction of annual administrative charges (if applicable).

We assign an interest rate to each amount allocated to the guaranteed interest option. This rate is guaranteed for a specified period. Therefore, different interest rates may apply to different amounts in the guaranteed interest option.

Generally, contributions and transfers into and out of the guaranteed interest option are limited. See “Transferring your money among the investment options” for restrictions on transfers from the guaranteed interest option.

Account for special dollar cost averaging.  The account for special dollar cost averaging is part of our general account. We pay interest at guaranteed rates in this account for specified time periods. We will credit interest to the amounts that you have in the account for special dollar cost averaging every day. We set the interest rates periodically, based on our discretion and according to the procedures that we have. We reserve the right to change these procedures.

We guarantee to pay our current interest rate that is in effect on the date that your contribution is allocated to this account. Your guaranteed interest rate for the time period you select will be shown in your contract for an initial contribution. The rate will never be less than the lifetime minimum rate for the guaranteed interest option. See “Dollar cost averaging” for rules and restrictions that apply to the account for special dollar cost averaging.

Allocating your contributions

You may allocate your contributions to the Investment account variable investment options, the guaranteed interest option or the Special DCA program. If you wish to fund one or more of the Guaranteed benefits you elected, you may allocate contributions to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options or the Special DCA program. Also, we limit the number of variable investment options which you may select. In addition, we may at any time exercise our right to limit or terminate transfers into any of the variable investment options.

Only amounts you allocate to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and amounts in the Special DCA program designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options will fund your Guaranteed benefits. These amounts will be used to calculate your Guaranteed benefit bases and will become part of your Protected Benefit account value. If you have the GMIB, we only accept contributions to the Protected Benefit account, whether allocated directly or through a Special DCA program, if you the Funding Age or older. The Funding Age is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement.

General note about examples in this Prospectus:  All examples assume that the contract owner is age eligible to fund the referenced Guaranteed benefits.

For example:

You purchase a Series E contract with an initial contribution of $100,000 and elected the GMIB and the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit. You allocate $60,000 to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and $40,000 to the Investment account variable investment options. The $60,000 will be included in your Protected Benefit account value and will be used to calculate your GMIB and Highest Anniversary Value benefit bases. $40,000 will be included in your Investment account value.

Allocations must be whole percentages and you may change your allocations at any time. No more than 25% of any contribution to the contract may be allocated to the guaranteed interest option. For applications signed on or after May 22, 2023, no more than 5% of any contribution to the contract may be allocated to the guaranteed interest option. The total of your allocations into all available investment options must equal 100%. We reserve the right to discontinue, and/or place additional limitations on, contributions and transfers to any of the variable investment options, including the Protected Benefit account variable investment options. We also reserve the right to discontinue acceptance of contributions into the contract. Please see “How you can purchase and contribute to your contract” and the table in Appendix “Rules

regarding contribution to your contract” for additional information regarding certain limitations on contributions that may apply to your contract.

It is important to note that the contract is between you and the Company. The contract is not an investment advisory account, and the Company is not providing any investment advice or managing the allocations under your contract. In the absence of a specific written arrangement to the contrary, you, as the owner of the contract, have the sole authority to make investment allocations and other decisions under the contract. If your financial professional is with Equitable Advisors, he or she is acting as a broker-dealer registered representative, and is not authorized to act as an investment advisor or to manage the allocations under your contract. If your financial professional is a registered representative with a broker-dealer other than Equitable Advisors, you should speak with him or her regarding any different arrangements that may apply.

We may offer an optional rebalancing program for amounts allocated to your Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option. For more information, see “Rebalancing among your Investment account variable investment options and guaranteed interest option” in “Benefits available under the contract”.

We do not offer an optional rebalancing program for amounts allocated to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options. You can rebalance your Protected Benefit account value by submitting a one-time request to rebalance. See “Rebalancing among your Protected Benefit account variable investment options” in “Benefits available under the contract”.

Allocation instruction changes.  You may change your instructions for allocations of future contributions.

Transfers.  Once you allocate amounts to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, such amounts may be transferred among the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, but may not be transferred to the Investment account variable investment options or the guaranteed interest option. In addition, we may at any time exercise our right to limit or terminate transfers into any of the variable investment options. See “Transferring your account value” in “Transferring your money among investment options.”

Your right to cancel within a certain number of days

If for any reason you are not satisfied with your contract, you may exercise your cancellation right under the contract to receive a refund. To exercise this cancellation right, you must notify us with a signed letter of instruction electing this right, to our processing office within 10 days after you receive your contract. If state law requires, this “free look” period may be longer. Other state variations may apply. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, including specific information on your “free look” period, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

Generally, your refund will equal your Total account value under the contract on the day we receive notification of your decision to cancel the contract and will reflect (i) any investment gain or loss in the variable investment options (less the

daily charges we deduct), (ii) any guaranteed interest in the guaranteed interest option, and (iii) any interest in the account for special dollar cost averaging (if applicable), through the date we receive your contract. Some states, however, require that we refund the full amount of your contribution (not reflecting (i), (ii) or (iii) above). Please refer to your contract or supplemental materials or contact us for more information. For any IRA contract returned to us within seven days after you receive it, we are required to refund the full amount of your contribution. When required by applicable law to return the full amount of your contribution, we will return the greater of your contribution or your contract’s cash value.

We may require that you wait six months before you may apply for a contract with us again if:

Please see “Tax information” for possible consequences of cancelling your contract.

If you fully convert an existing traditional IRA contract to a Roth IRA contract, you may cancel your Roth IRA contract and return to a traditional IRA contract. Our processing office, or your financial professional, can provide you with the cancellation instructions.

In addition to the cancellation right described above, you have the right to surrender your contract, rather than cancel it. Please see “Surrendering your contract to receive its cash value” in “Accessing your money”. Surrendering your contract may yield results different than canceling your contract, including a greater potential for taxable income. In some cases, your cash value upon surrender may be greater than your contributions to the contract. Please see “Tax information”.

Exchange Program

The Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract is offered only through an exchange program under which a Prior Contract may be exchanged for a Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract. This is called an “exchange” under securities law. For purposes of this Prospectus, the word “exchange” includes an exchange, rollover or transfer, as applicable, for federal income tax purposes. Under this program, among other criteria, which are described below, the surrender of a Prior Contract may not be subject to withdrawal charges to be eligible for the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract. In addition, the account value of the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract would not be subject to any withdrawal charges, but would be subject to all other charges and fees under the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, which are described in this Prospectus.

You should carefully consider whether an exchange is appropriate for you by considering the benefits and guarantees provided by your Prior Contract to the benefits and guarantees provided by the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract. Please note that if you elect to exchange into the

Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract you will lose all existing benefits under your Prior Contract. You should also review the fees and charges of your Prior Contract and the fees and charges of the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, which may be higher than the fees and charges under the Prior Contract. Any such exchange program will be made available on terms and conditions determined by us and will comply with applicable law.

You should read the Prospectus and other information related to your Prior Contract prior to requesting an exchange, rollover or transfer to the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract and you should consider the differences between your Prior Contract and Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract. There may be differences that are important for you to consider prior to purchasing the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract. To see a summary comparison of some of the features of Prior Contracts and the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, see Appendix “Exchange program”.

In considering whether the exchange is appropriate for you, you should consult with your financial professional. Your financial professional will be paid a commission if you exchange, transfer or rollover your Prior Contract to the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, which may create the potential for a conflict of interest for your financial professional. For more information, please contact your financial professional.

You may obtain a copy of your Prior Contract prospectus by contacting your financial professional or by writing or calling us as follows:

Accumulator

P.O. Box 1016

Charlotte, NC 28201

1 (800) 789-7771

EQUI-VEST^®

PO Box 4956

Syracuse, NY 13221-4956

1 (800) 628-6673

Structured Capital Strategies^®

P.O. Box 1016

Charlotte, NC 28201

1 (877) 899-3743

Listed below is a description of contract owners of Prior Contracts that may or may not be eligible to purchase the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract:

Listed below are additional terms and conditions to purchase the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract:

Death Benefits

About Death Benefits

For the purposes of determining the death benefit under your Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract, we treat your Investment account and any Guaranteed minimum death benefit funded by your Protected Benefit account differently.

The death benefit in connection with your Investment account is equal to your Investment account value as of the date we receive satisfactory proof of death, any required instructions for the method of payment, and any required information and forms necessary to effect payment. The death benefit payable in connection with your Protected Benefit account will be based on the greater of (i) your Protected Benefit account value, and (ii) the benefit base of your Guaranteed minimum death benefit.

The total death benefit under your Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract will depend on your values in either one or both sides of the contract. If you selected a Guaranteed minimum death benefit but never funded your Protected Benefit account, your death benefit will be based on your Investment account value only. Likewise, if you funded your Guaranteed minimum death benefit through allocations to the Protected Benefit account and had no Investment account value, your death benefit would be based strictly on the Guaranteed minimum death benefit you selected. Also, it is possible that upon your death, you have value in both your Investment account and a Guaranteed minimum death benefit that has been funded through allocations to the Protected Benefit account. In that case, your beneficiaries would receive the Investment account value, plus the value of your Guaranteed minimum death benefit.

Guaranteed minimum death benefits

At issue, you may elect one of our optional Guaranteed minimum death benefit options (GMDBs) in connection with your Protected Benefit account as follows:

Important note for owners age 54 or younger: If you do not specifically indicate on your application that you do not wish to have the GMIB or do not subsequently drop the GMIB after your contract is issued, then you cannot fund the Protected Benefit account until you are at least the Funding Age, which means you also cannot fund any applicable Guaranteed minimum death benefit until at least the Funding Age. The current Funding Age is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. If you are within 7 years of the Funding Age at the time your contract is issued, the initial Annual Roll-up rate specified in the Rate Sheet Supplement will only apply after you attain the Funding Age for the amount of time then remaining in your first seven contract years. If you are more than 7 years younger than the Funding Age at the time your contract is issued, the initial Annual Roll-up rate will never apply to your contract. Instead, the Renewal rates (described in this section) will apply for the duration of your contract.

The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit cannot be elected in combination with the GMIB. You can elect the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit with or without the GMIB. The Highest Anniversary Value death benefit and the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit are available at an additional charge. There is no additional charge for the Return of Principal death benefit. If you elect the GMIB, but do not elect a Guaranteed minimum death benefit, the Return of Principal death benefit will also be issued with your contract. If you elect a GMDB, the period during which you can make subsequent contributions may be significantly shorter than if you did not elect a GMDB. Please refer to Appendix “Rules regarding contributions to your contract”.

Once a withdrawal is taken from the Protected Benefit account, additional contributions may not be made to the Protected Benefit account. Please refer to “Accessing your money”. Transfers to and from the Protected Benefit account may be restricted. Please refer to “Transferring your money among investment options”.

Any GMDB you elect will automatically terminate upon annuitization, which will occur no later than the contract maturity date.

When you have a GMDB, you can allocate your contributions to any of the following:

Funding your GMDB. Only amounts you allocate to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and amounts in the Special DCA program designated for the Protected Benefit account variable investment options will fund your GMDB. These amounts will be included in your GMDB benefit base and will become part of your Protected Benefit account value.

Your death benefit in connection with your Protected Benefit account is equal to one of the following — whichever provides a higher amount:

Return of Principal death benefit

The Return of Principal death benefit, like all of the guaranteed minimum death benefits, only applies to amounts you allocate to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and not to the contract as a whole. There is no additional charge for this benefit. The Return of Principal death benefit can only be elected in combination with the GMIB. Your Return of Principal Guaranteed minimum death benefit is equal to your Return of Principal death benefit base. This benefit base is not an account value or cash value. It is equal to:

Please see Appendix “Guaranteed benefit base examples” for an example of how the Return of Principal benefit base is calculated.

Highest Anniversary Value death benefit

Your Highest Anniversary Value Guaranteed minimum death benefit is equal to your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base. The current charge for this benefit is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. This benefit base is not an account value or cash value. The calculation of your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base will depend on whether you have taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account.

If you have not taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base is equal to one of the following — whichever provides a higher amount:

-OR-

If you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account and you elected the GMIB, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base will be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by withdrawals up to the Annual withdrawal amount, and on a pro rata basis by Excess withdrawals. (Special rules apply if you enroll in our Automatic RMD service.) If you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account and you did not elect the GMIB, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base will be reduced on a pro rata basis. Reduction on a pro rata basis means that we calculate the percentage of your Protected Benefit account value that is being withdrawn and we reduce your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base by the same percentage. See “How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits”.

At any time after a withdrawal, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base is equal to one of the following — whichever provides a higher amount:

-OR-

Please see Appendix “Guaranteed benefit base examples” for an example of how the Highest Anniversary Value benefit base is calculated.

RMD Wealth Guard death benefit

(For traditional IRA and QPDC contracts only)

The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit is an optional guaranteed minimum death benefit. The current charge for this benefit is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. Your initial RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base is valued based on your initial contributions and any transfers to the Protected Benefit account. This benefit base is not an account value or cash value. Thereafter RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base is increased by any allocations and transfers to the Protected Benefit account, which is described below. Withdrawals from the Protected Benefit account other than Excess RMD withdrawals, will not reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base. This death benefit also provides a refund feature in the event the Protected Benefit account falls to zero before the owner reaches age 95. There is an additional charge for this death benefit under the contract. The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit is not available if you elected the GMIB.

An RMD withdrawal is a withdrawal that is intended to satisfy the lifetime required minimum distributions from certain tax-favored plans and arrangements such as traditional IRAs under federal income tax rules. See “Required minimum distributions” in the “Tax information” section of the Prospectus for more information.

The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base is not an account value or cash value. It is equal to:

The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base will be recalculated on each transaction date upon the occurrence of each contribution, transfer or deduction.

Excess RMD withdrawals will reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis. Reduction on a pro rata basis means that we calculate the percentage of your Protected Benefit account value that is being withdrawn and we reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base by the same percentage.

Resets.  On each contract date anniversary up to the earlier of (i) the contract date anniversary following your first RMD withdrawal from the Protected Benefit account, and (ii) the contract date anniversary following your 85th birthday, if the Protected Benefit account value is greater than the current RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base, the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base will automatically reset to equal the Protected Benefit account value. Withdrawals from the Protected Benefit account up to your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount will not reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base.

Calculating your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount. Your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount will be calculated based on the account value in your Protected Benefit account variable investment options as of December 31st in the calendar year you turn age 70½ and calculated each calendar year thereafter as of December 31st. This calculation includes the actuarial present value of your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. This is because certain provisions of the Treasury Regulations require that the actuarial present value of additional annuity contract benefits, such as guaranteed benefits like the RMD Wealth Guard death benefits, be added to the account value for purposes of calculating account-based annual required minimum distributions from individual retirement annuity contracts. See “Required minimum distributions” in the “Tax information” section of the Prospectus for more information.

Your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount will be determined using the RMD rules and life expectancy and distribution tables in effect on December 31, 2014. In the event that tax reform measures change those RMD requirements, unless we agree otherwise, we will not allow your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount to be greater than the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount calculated using the IRS RMD rules that were in effect on December 31, 2014. As a result of us reserving this right, in the event that future IRS rule changes require you to take RMD withdrawals that are greater than the RMD amount calculated using the IRS RMD rules that were in effect on December 31, 2014 and we do not agree to this change, you would have to satisfy your RMD requirements from other retirement sources or, if you do not have other retirement sources, you would have to take an additional RMD withdrawal amount from this contract, which would be treated an Excess RMD withdrawal. That Excess RMD withdrawal would reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis. Please refer to the section “How withdrawals effect your Guaranteed benefits”.

Please note that your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount will be zero:

Withdrawals prior to age 70¹⁄₂ or during your first contract year.  Withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account prior to the calendar year in which you turn age 70½ are treated as Excess RMD withdrawals and reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis. Withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account prior to your first contract date

anniversary will also reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis even if you turn age 70¹⁄₂ during that calendar year. Reduction on a pro rata basis means that we calculate the percentage of your Protected Benefit account value that is being withdrawn and we reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base by the same percentage. This pro rata reduction to the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base could be greater than the dollar amount of the withdrawal and could significantly reduce or eliminate the value of the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. For an example of how a pro rata reduction works, see Appendix “Examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases”.

Withdrawals from the Protected Benefit account:

will not stop your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base from resetting.

As discussed in “Resets”, the last reset of the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base will be the earlier of the contract date anniversary following your first RMD withdrawal from the Protected Benefit account or the contract date anniversary following your 85th birthday.

Withdrawals at or after age 70¹⁄₂.  After your first contract date anniversary, withdrawals made from your Protected Benefit account beginning with the calendar year in which you turn age 70½ will be treated as RMD Wealth Guard withdrawals and will count towards your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount. Withdrawals from the Protected Benefit account up to your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount will not reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base. The portion of a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account that exceeds your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount for the calendar year will be treated as an Excess RMD withdrawal. An Excess RMD withdrawal will reduce your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis. A pro rata reduction to your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base could be greater than the dollar amount of the withdrawal and could significantly reduce or eliminate the value of your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit.

Please note that any withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account, including withdrawals taken up to the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount, will reduce your Protected Benefit account value.

If you elect the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service, you can elect to take RMD withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account value and Investment account value. If you elect to use our RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service or our Automatic RMD withdrawal service, you will receive the required amount of RMD payments calculated for your contract for that calendar year. At the time you elect to receive RMD withdrawals, any prior RMD payments due for that calendar year will be paid as a catch-up payment. The catch-up payment is made immediately when the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service enrollment is processed. Thereafter, RMD payments will begin on the date and at the frequency you elect.

For example, in the calendar year that you turn age 70½, if you enroll in our RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service in July of that year and requested to receive monthly RMD payments, you would receive the catch-up payment due for January through June in a lump sum on the date the enrollment is processed and the July RMD monthly payment on the date that you specified on the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service Form. If you take additional withdrawals from the Protected Benefit account while you are currently taking RMD payments under our RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service, those RMD payments from the Protected Benefit account will be reduced by those withdrawals. If you delay your first RMD withdrawal until after the calendar year you turn age 70½, but no later than April 1st of the following calendar year, we will pay you a catch-up payment at the time you elected to receive RMD withdrawals, which will include any prior RMD payments due for that calendar year plus the entire RMD amount due from the prior year. The catch-up payment is made immediately when the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service enrollment is processed. Thereafter, RMD payments will begin on the date and at the frequency you elect. In that event, your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base would not reset after your first RMD withdrawal.

For more information about the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service, please refer to “RMDs for Traditional IRA contracts with the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit” in “Accessing your money”.

If you take withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account during a calendar year in which you are receiving RMD payments under our Automatic RMD service or our RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service, once the total amount of your withdrawals in that calendar year reach your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal amount, your RMD Wealth Guard withdrawals will be suspended until the next calendar year. Additional withdrawals from the Investment account value will not suspend RMD Wealth Guard withdrawals under our Automatic RMD service or our RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service.

For additional examples of how withdrawals affect your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base, see Appendix “Examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases”. For information on how RMD payments affect your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, see “RMDs for Traditional IRA contracts with the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit” in “Accessing your money”.

The RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service is not available under QPDC contracts. If you elect the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit for a QPDC contract, all withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account will reduce the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base on a pro rata basis until the QPDC contract is converted to an IRA. After you convert the QPDC contract to an IRA contract you can elect the RMD Wealth Guard withdrawal service. A qualified plan participant, upon separation from service, may directly roll-over an eligible rollover distribution from the plan by converting the QPDC contract into an otherwise identical IRA contract which retains the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. In that case, the RMDs can be taken without reducing the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base. You should not elect the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit under a QPDC contract unless you intend to convert to an IRA prior to taking RMDs. See Appendix “Purchase considerations for QP contracts”.

RMDs are not required to be withdrawn from a Roth IRA during your lifetime. Therefore, if you are considering converting your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, prior to converting your IRA to a Roth IRA, you must drop the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit. For information on dropping this benefit, see “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits” in “Benefits available under the contract”, and under Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits”.

The RMD Wealth Guard death benefit is only available for traditional IRA and QPDC contracts.

RMD Wealth Guard Refund feature

If you elected the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit and your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero before the owner’s death, your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit terminates and we will refund 10% of the total of (a) minus (b), where

For example, assume that at the time your Protected Benefit account value fell to zero, your total contributions and transfers to the Protected Benefit account were $100,000 and you had taken a total of $10,000 in Excess RMD withdrawals. You will receive a refund equal to 10% of $90,000 ($100,000 - $10,000), or $9,000.

We will pay you the amount of any RMD Wealth Guard Refund as a lump sum. In certain circumstances, you may be able to roll over this payment into another IRA. Please consult your tax adviser. Also, please see “Withdrawals, payments and transfers of funds out of traditional IRAs” in the “Tax Information” section of this Prospectus for more information about possible tax consequences of any distribution from your contract.

If your Protected Benefit account falls to zero, your contract will also terminate unless you have amounts allocated to the Investment account. In this case, you will receive the RMD Wealth Guard Refund as a lump sum, your contract will continue and any remaining RMD payments will continue uninterrupted from your Investment account, beginning in the calendar year in which your Protected Benefit account falls to zero.

If you change ownership of the contract, generally the Guaranteed minimum death benefit will automatically terminate, except under certain circumstances. See “Transfers of ownership, collateral assignments, loans and borrowing” in “More information” for more information.

The Guaranteed minimum death benefits are subject to state availability and your age at contract issue. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

For contracts with non-natural owners, the available death benefits are based on the annuitant’s age.

Please see both “Effect of your account values falling to zero” in “Determining your contract’s value” and “How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits” and the section entitled “Charges and expenses” for more information on these Guaranteed benefits.

See Appendix “Guaranteed benefit base examples” for examples of how the benefit bases for the Guaranteed minimum death benefits work.

Payment of Death Benefit

Your beneficiary and payment of benefit

You designate your beneficiary when you apply for your contract. You may change your beneficiary at any time while you are alive and the contract is in force. The change will be effective as of the date the written request is executed, whether or not you are living on the date the change is received in our processing office. We are not responsible for any beneficiary change request that we do not receive. We will send you a written confirmation when we receive your request.

Under jointly owned contracts, the surviving owner is considered the beneficiary, and will take the place of any other beneficiary. Under a contract with a non-natural owner that has joint annuitants who continue to be spouses at the time of death, the surviving annuitant is considered the beneficiary, and will take the place of any other beneficiary. In a QP contract, the beneficiary must be the plan trust. Where an NQ contract is owned for the benefit of a minor pursuant to the Uniform Gift to Minors Act or the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, the beneficiary must be the estate of the minor. Where an IRA contract is owned in a custodial individual retirement account, the custodian must be the beneficiary.

The death benefit in connection with your Investment account is equal to your Investment account value as of the date we receive satisfactory proof of the owner’s (or older joint owner’s, if applicable) death, any required instructions for the method of payment, forms necessary to effect payment and any other information we may require.

The death benefit in connection with any amount in your Protected Benefit account is equal to your Protected Benefit account value or, if greater, the applicable Guaranteed minimum death benefit. We determine the amount of the death benefit (other than the applicable Guaranteed minimum death benefit), as of the date we receive satisfactory proof of the owner’s (or older joint owner’s, if applicable) death, any required instructions for the method of payment, forms necessary to effect payment and any other information we may require (date of claim). However, this is not the case if the beneficiary of your contract is your spouse and he or she decides to roll over the death benefit to another contract issued by us. See “Effect of the owner’s death”. The amount of the applicable Guaranteed minimum death benefit will be such Guaranteed minimum death benefit as of the date of the owner’s (or older joint owner’s, if applicable) death adjusted for any subsequent withdrawals. If you elected the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base will be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by

any withdrawals taken between December 31 of the calendar year of the date of death and the date of claim. Payment of the death benefit terminates the contract.

When we use the terms “owner” and “joint owner”, we intend these to be references to annuitant and joint annuitant, respectively, if the contract has a non-natural owner. If the contract is jointly owned or is issued to a non-natural owner, the death benefit is payable upon the death of the older joint owner or older joint annuitant, as applicable.

Subject to applicable laws and regulations, you may impose restrictions on the timing and manner of the payment of the death benefit to your beneficiary. For example, your beneficiary designation may specify the form of death benefit payout (such as a life annuity), provided the payout you elect is one that we offer both at the time of designation and when the death benefit is payable. In general, the beneficiary will have no right to change the election. However, you should be aware that (i) in accordance with current federal income tax rules, we apply a predetermined death benefit annuity payout election only if payment of the death benefit amount begins within one year following the date of death, which payment may not occur if the beneficiary has failed to provide all required information before the end of that period, (ii) we will not apply the predetermined death benefit payout election if doing so would violate any federal income tax rules or any other applicable law, and (iii) a beneficiary or a successor owner who continues the contract under one of the continuation options described below will have the right to change your annuity payout election.

In general, if the annuitant dies, the owner (or older joint owner, if applicable) will become the annuitant, and the death benefit is not payable. If the contract had joint annuitants, it will become a single annuitant contract.

Effect of the owner’s death

In general, if the owner dies while the contract is in force, the contract terminates and the applicable death benefit is paid. If the contract is jointly owned, the death benefit is payable upon the death of the older owner. If the contract has a non-natural owner, the death benefit is payable upon the death of the annuitant.

There are various circumstances, however, in which the contract can be continued by a successor owner or under a Beneficiary continuation option (“BCO”). For contracts with spouses who are joint owners, the surviving spouse will automatically be able to continue the contract under the “Spousal continuation” feature or under our Beneficiary continuation option, as discussed below. For contracts with non-spousal joint owners, the joint owner will be able to continue the contract as a successor owner subject to the limitations discussed under “Non-spousal joint owner contract continuation.”

If you are the sole owner, your surviving spouse may have the option to:

If you elected the GMIB, and your surviving spouse is age 85 or older at the time of your death and wishes to exercise the GMIB, we must receive the exercise election within twelve months of your date of death. The annuity purchase factors that apply in calculating the GMIB payments to your surviving spouse differ from the annuity purchase factors that we generally use to calculate GMIB payments.

If your surviving spouse rolls over the death benefit proceeds into a contract issued by us, the amount of the death benefit will be calculated as of the date we receive all requirements necessary to issue your spouse’s new contract. Any death proceeds will remain invested in this contract until your spouse’s new contract is issued. The amount of the death benefit will be calculated to equal the greater of the account value (as of the date your spouse’s new contract is issued) and the applicable Guaranteed minimum death benefit (as of the date of your death). This means that the death benefit proceeds could vary up or down, based on investment performance, until your spouse’s new contract is issued.

If the surviving joint owner is not the surviving spouse, or, for single owner contracts, if the beneficiary is not the surviving spouse, federal income tax rules generally require payments of amounts under the contract to be made within five years of an owner’s death (the “5-year rule”). In certain cases, an individual beneficiary or non-spousal surviving joint owner may opt to receive payments over his/her life (or over a period not in excess of his/her life expectancy) if payments commence within one year of the owner’s death. Any such election must be made in accordance with our rules at the time of death. If the beneficiary of a contract with one owner or a younger non-spousal joint owner continues the contract under the 5-year rule, in general, all Guaranteed benefits and their charges will end. For more information on non-spousal joint owner contract continuation, see the section immediately below.

Non-spousal joint owner contract continuation

Upon the death of either owner, the surviving joint owner becomes the sole owner.

Any death benefit (if the older owner dies first) or cash value (if the younger owner dies first) must be fully paid to the surviving joint owner within five years. The surviving owner may instead elect to receive a life annuity, provided payments begin within one year of the deceased owner’s death. If the life annuity is elected, the contract and all benefits terminate.

If the older owner dies first, we will increase the account value to equal the Guaranteed minimum death benefit, if higher. The surviving owner can elect to (1) take a lump sum payment; (2) annuitize within one year; (3) continue the

contract for up to five years and any GMIB and charge will be terminated; or (4) continue the contract under the Beneficiary continuation option.

If the contract continues, any Guaranteed minimum death benefit and associated charge will be discontinued. No subsequent contributions will be permitted.

If the younger owner dies first, the surviving owner can elect to (1) take a lump sum payment; (2) annuitize within one year; (3) continue the contract for up to five years; or (4) continue the contract under the Beneficiary continuation option. If the contract continues under the “5-year rule”, the death benefit is not payable and the Guaranteed minimum death benefit, if applicable, will continue without change. In general, the GMIB and charge will be discontinued. No subsequent contributions will be permitted.

Spousal continuation

For jointly owned NQ contracts, if the younger spouse dies first no death benefit is paid, and the contract continues as follows:

If you are the contract owner and your spouse is the sole primary beneficiary or you jointly own the contract with your younger spouse, your spouse may elect to continue the contract as successor owner upon your death. Spousal beneficiaries (who are not also joint owners) must be 85 or younger as of the date of the deceased spouse’s death in order to continue the contract under Spousal continuation. The determination of spousal status is made under applicable state law. However, in the event of a conflict between federal and state law, we follow federal rules.

Upon your death, the younger spouse joint owner (for NQ contracts only) or the spouse beneficiary (under a Single owner contract), may elect to receive the death benefit, continue the contract under our Beneficiary continuation option (as discussed in this section) or continue the contract as sole owner, as follows:

GMDB and spousal continuation

GMIB and spousal continuation.  For jointly owned contracts:

For single owner contracts:

Where an NQ contract is owned by a Living Trust, as defined in the contract, and at the time of the annuitant’s death the annuitant’s spouse is the sole beneficiary of the Living Trust, the Trustee, as owner of the contract, may request that the spouse be substituted as annuitant as of the date of the annuitant’s death. No further change of annuitant will be permitted.

Where an IRA contract is owned in a custodial individual retirement account, and your spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account, the custodian may request that the spouse be substituted as annuitant after your death.

Spousal beneficiaries of a single owned contract who are 86 or older as of the date of the deceased spouse’s death are not permitted to continue the contract under Spousal continuation. However, they may have a one-time opportunity to exercise the GMIB. See “GMIB exercise rules” in “Benefits available under the contract” for more information. If you divorce, Spousal continuation does not apply.

Beneficiary continuation option

This feature permits a designated individual, on the contract owner’s death, to maintain a contract with the deceased contract owner’s name on it and receive distributions under the contract, instead of receiving the death benefit in a single sum. We make this option available to beneficiaries under traditional IRA, Roth IRA and NQ contracts, subject to state availability. Depending on the beneficiary, this option may be restricted or may no longer be available for deaths after December 31, 2019, due to legislation enacted at the end of 2019. Please speak with your financial professional for further information. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, including information on the availability of the Beneficiary continuation option in your state, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

Where an IRA contract is owned in a custodial individual retirement account, the custodian may reinvest the death benefit in an individual retirement annuity contract, using the account beneficiary as the annuitant. Please speak with your financial professional for further information.

Beneficiary continuation option for traditional IRA and Roth IRA contracts only.  The Beneficiary continuation option must be elected by September 30th of the year following the calendar year of your death and before any other inconsistent election is made. Beneficiaries who do not make a timely election will not be eligible for this option. If the election is made, then, as of the date we receive satisfactory proof of death, any required instructions, information and forms necessary to effect the Beneficiary continuation option feature, we will increase the Protected Benefit account value to equal the applicable death benefit if such death benefit is greater than such account value, adjusted for any subsequent withdrawals.

After legislation enacted at the end of 2019, for deaths after December 31, 2019, only specified individuals who are “eligible designated beneficiaries” or “EDBs” may stretch post-death payments over the beneficiary’s life expectancy. See “required minimum distributions after your death” under “Tax Information.”

Individual beneficiaries who do not have EDB status (including beneficiaries named by the original beneficiary to receive any remaining interest after the death of the original beneficiary) must take out any remaining interest in the IRA or plan within 10 years of the applicable death. Trusts for individuals which would be considered as “see-through” trusts under the rules prior to January 1, 2020 no longer qualify to elect the beneficiary continuation option, except under narrowly defined circumstances.

Under the Beneficiary continuation option for IRA and Roth IRA contracts:

Beneficiary continuation option for NQ contracts only.  This feature, also known as Inherited annuity, may only be elected when the NQ contract owner dies before the annuity maturity date, whether or not the owner and the annuitant are the same person. For purposes of this discussion, “beneficiary” refers to the successor owner. This feature must be elected within 9 months following the date of your death and before any other inconsistent election is made. Beneficiaries who do not make a timely election will not be eligible for this option.

Generally, payments will be made once a year to the beneficiary over the beneficiary’s life expectancy, determined on a term certain basis and in the year payments start. These payments must begin no later than one year after the date of your death and are referred to as “scheduled payments.” The beneficiary may choose the “5-year rule” instead of scheduled payments over life expectancy. If the beneficiary chooses the 5-year rule, there will be no scheduled payments. Under the 5-year rule, the beneficiary may take withdrawals as desired, but the entire account value must be fully withdrawn by the fifth anniversary of your death.

Under the Beneficiary continuation option for NQ contracts:

If the deceased is the owner or the older joint owner:

If the deceased is the younger non-spousal joint owner:

A surviving spouse should speak to his or her tax professional about whether Spousal continuation or the Beneficiary continuation option is appropriate for him or her. Factors to consider include, but are not limited to, the surviving spouse’s age, need for immediate income and a desire to continue any Guaranteed benefits under the contract.

Living Benefits

Guaranteed minimum income benefit

This section describes the Guaranteed minimum income benefit, or “GMIB”. The current charge for this benefit is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. The GMIB is automatically added to your contract at issue, unless you specifically indicate on your application that you do not wish to elect it.

The GMIB guarantees, subject to certain restrictions, annual lifetime payments (“Lifetime GMIB payments”) that are calculated by applying your GMIB benefit base to the guaranteed GMIB annuity purchase factors specified in Appendix “GMIB Annuity purchase factors”. You choose whether you want the option to be paid on a single or joint life basis at the time the GMIB is exercised.

Important note for owners regarding the Funding Age: Funding of the GMIB is only permitted starting at the Funding Age, which is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. If you are less than 7 years younger than the Funding Age at the time your contract is issued, the Initial Roll-up rates (described below) will only apply after you attain the Funding Age for the amount of time then remaining in your first seven contract years. If you are more than 7 years younger than the Funding Age at the time your contract is issued, the Initial Roll-up rates will never apply to your contract. Instead, the Renewal rates (described below) will apply for the duration of your contract.

Lifetime GMIB payments will begin at the earliest of:

We reserve the right to change the annuity option or make other forms of payout options available at any time. For a description of payout options, see “Your annuity payout options” in “Accessing your money”.

When you exercise the GMIB, the annual lifetime income that you will receive will be the greater of (i) your GMIB which is calculated by applying your GMIB benefit base to GMIB guaranteed annuity purchase factors, or (ii) the income provided by applying your Protected Benefit account value to our then current annuity purchase factors specified in Appendix “GMIB Annuity purchase factors”, or base contract guaranteed annuity purchase factors. The GMIB benefit base is applied only to the guaranteed annuity purchase factors under the GMIB in your contract and not to any other guaranteed or current annuity purchase rates. Your Total account value is never applied to the guaranteed GMIB annuity purchase factors. The amount of income you actually receive will be determined when we receive your request to exercise the benefit.

If there is no Investment account value remaining when you elect to exercise the GMIB, your contract (including its death benefit and any account or cash values) will terminate and you will receive a new contract for the annuity payout option. For a discussion of when your payments will begin and end, see “Exercise of GMIB”.

Since the GMIB, is automatically added to your contract at issue unless you specifically indicate on your application that you do not wish to elect it, you should consider the fact that it provides a form of insurance and is based on conservative actuarial factors. Therefore, even if your Protected Benefit account value is less than your benefit base, you may generate more income by applying your Protected Benefit account value to our current annuity purchase factors. We will make this comparison for you upon request.

Surrendering your contract will terminate your GMIB. Please see “Surrendering your contract to receive its cash value” in “Accessing your money”.

The GMIB also allows you to take certain withdrawals (your “Annual withdrawal amount”) prior to the beginning of your Lifetime GMIB payments without reducing your GMIB benefit base. Your Annual withdrawal amount for the next contract year is calculated each contract date anniversary by applying a percentage (“the Annual Roll-up rate”) to your GMIB benefit base on that date. Lifetime GMIB payments and your Annual withdrawal amount are described in this section. With respect to your GMIB, it is important to note the following:

In order to fund your Guaranteed minimum income benefit, you must make contributions or transfers to the Protected Benefit account. The GMIB can only be funded starting at the Funding Age, which is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement.

The GMIB can be elected by owners age 20-80 with all contract types. If the contract is jointly owned, the GMIB can only be elected and funded if both owners are between the ages of the Funding Age and maximum issue age for GMIB. The GMIB, which is automatically added to your contract at issue unless you specifically indicate on your application that you do not wish to elect it, cannot be added to your contract at a later date.

You can drop your GMIB at any time prior to funding your Protected Benefit account. If you fund your Protected Benefit account at issue, which is only permitted if you are at least the Funding Age, you can drop your GMIB if your contract has been in force for at least four contract years. If you fund your Protected Benefit account after issue, you cannot drop the GMIB until the later of (i) the contract date anniversary following the date the Protected Benefit account is funded and (ii) four years from contract issue.

It is important to note that if you decide to drop your GMIB, either before or after funding your Protected Benefit account, your Guaranteed minimum death benefit may be affected. Please see Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits” for more information.

When you purchase a contract with the GMIB, you can combine it with one of our Guaranteed minimum death benefits: (i) the Return of Principal death benefit, or (ii) the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit. The GMIB cannot be combined with the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit.

There is an additional charge for the GMIB which is described under “Guaranteed minimum income benefit charge” in “Charges and expenses”.

If you elected the GMIB and change ownership of the contract, this benefit will automatically terminate, except under certain circumstances. See “Transfers of ownership, collateral assignments, loans and borrowing” in “More information”.

The Guaranteed minimum income benefit should be regarded as a safety net only.

GMIB benefit base

Your GMIB has a benefit base that determines your Annual withdrawal amount and your Lifetime GMIB payments. We apply a Roll-up rate to your GMIB benefit base. At contract issue, an initial Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up rate, will apply during your first seven contract years. See “Annual Roll-up rate”, “Deferral Roll-up rate”, “Initial Roll-up rates” and “Renewal rates” for more information. Please note that the initial Annual Roll-up rate and initial Deferral Roll-up rate may be the same.

The initial Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up that apply during your first seven contract years are specified in the Rate Sheet Supplements.

Your GMIB benefit base is not an account value or cash value. The GMIB benefit base is used to calculate your Lifetime GMIB payments, your Annual withdrawal amount and the charge for the benefit. Your GMIB benefit base is equal to:

After the end of the GMIB Roll-up period, the dollar amount of any withdrawals up to the Annual withdrawal amount will not reduce your GMIB benefit base. A withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account that exceeds the Annual withdrawal amount, including RMD withdrawals, is an Excess withdrawal. (Special rules apply to RMDs, however, if you enroll in our Automatic RMD service. See “RMDs for contracts with GMIB” in “Accessing your money”.) An Excess withdrawal will reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis.

Either the Deferral Roll-up amount or the Annual Roll-up amount is credited to the GMIB benefit base on each contract date anniversary during the GMIB Roll-up period. These amounts are calculated by taking into account your GMIB benefit base from the preceding contract date anniversary, the applicable Roll-up rate under your contract, contributions and transfers to the Protected Benefit account during the contract year and for the Annual Roll-up amount, any withdrawals up to the Annual withdrawal amount during the contract year. Withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account up to the Annual withdrawal amount reduce your Annual Roll-up amount on a dollar-for-dollar basis. A withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account in excess of the Annual withdrawal amount is an Excess withdrawal. An Excess withdrawal will reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. Special rules apply if you are required to take RMD withdrawals and enroll in our Automatic RMD service. The calculation of both the Deferral Roll-up amount and the Annual Roll-up amount are discussed in this section.

Beginning in the contract year in which you fund your Protected Benefit account until the end of the GMIB Roll-up period, if your Lifetime GMIB payments have not begun, withdrawals up to your Annual withdrawal amount will not reduce your GMIB benefit base. However, those same withdrawals will reduce on a dollar-for-dollar basis the Annual Roll-up amount that would otherwise be applied to the GMIB benefit base at the end of the contract year. Remember that the Roll-up amount applicable under your contract does not become part of your GMIB benefit base until the end of the contract year. The portion of any withdrawal in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount will reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. See “Annual withdrawal amount”. If you are required to take RMD distributions and elect our Automatic RMD service, any Lifetime RMD payment we make to you up to the greater of your Lifetime RMD payment or Annual withdrawal amount each year will count towards your Annual withdrawal amount but (a) during the GMIB Roll-up period, will not offset the Annual Roll-up amount by more than the Annual withdrawal amount and (b) after the GMIB Roll-up period ends, will not reduce your GMIB benefit base. If you do not enroll in our Automatic RMD service and you take withdrawals in order to satisfy your RMD obligations, the amount by which your total withdrawals exceed your Annual withdrawal amount will be treated as an Excess withdrawal that reduces your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. See “RMDs for contracts with GMIB” in the “Accessing your money” section of this Prospectus.

After the GMIB Roll-up period end date, any withdrawals you take up to the Annual withdrawal amount each year will not reduce your benefit base. Any withdrawals you take in excess of the Annual withdrawal amount will reduce your benefit base on a pro rata basis. Special rules apply if you are required to take RMD withdrawals and enroll in our Automatic RMD service. Unless you decline or elect a different annual reset option, you will be enrolled in the automatic annual reset program and your GMIB benefit base will automatically “reset” to equal the Protected Benefit account value, if higher, on every contract date anniversary from your contract date, up to the contract maturity date. See “Annual reset options”.

Only amounts you allocate to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and amounts in the Special DCA program designated for the Protected Benefit account variable investment options will fund your GMIB. These amounts will be included in your GMIB benefit base and will become part of your Protected Benefit account value. See “Allocating your contributions” for more information.

For example:

You purchase a Retirement Cornerstone^® — Series E contract with an initial contribution of $100,000 and allocate $60,000 to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and $40,000 to the Investment account variable investment options. Your initial GMIB benefit base will be $60,000.

You can fund your GMIB benefit by allocating money to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options (either directly or through the special DCA program) immediately or at some later date. Allocations to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options also fund your Guaranteed minimum death benefit.

Annual Roll-up rate

The Annual Roll-up rate is used to calculate your Annual withdrawal amount. It is also used to calculate amounts credited to your GMIB benefit base for the contract year in which the first withdrawal is made from your Protected Benefit account and all subsequent contract years. The Deferral Roll-up rate is used to calculate amounts credited to your GMIB benefit base in the contract years prior to the first withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. The Deferral Roll-up rate is described below. Please note that the Annual Roll-up rate and the Deferral Roll-up rate may be the same.

The initial Annual Roll-up rate is the Annual Roll-up rate that applies during the first seven years of your contract. The initial Annual Roll-up rate is specified in the Rate Sheet Supplement and will not be less than the guaranteed Roll-up floor. Thereafter, the renewal Annual Roll-up rate applies. The renewal Annual Roll-up rate is variable and is tied to the Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate described below, but the minimum rate will be the greater of the guaranteed Roll-up floor and the Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate (which is the same calculation used for the minimum renewal Deferral Roll-up rate), but never greater than 8%. The renewal Annual Roll-up rate will be set at our discretion, subject to the above stated minimum. We reserve the right, however, to declare a renewal Annual Roll-up rate that is greater than 8%.

The “Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate” used with the renewal Annual Roll-up rate is identical to the “Deferral Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate” used with the renewal Deferral Roll-up rate.

Deferral Roll-up rate

The Deferral Roll-up rate is only used to calculate amounts credited to your GMIB benefit base through the end of the contract year that precedes the contract year in which the first withdrawal is made from your Protected Benefit account. The Deferral Roll-up rate is never used to calculate your Annual withdrawal amount under the GMIB. Please note that the Deferral Roll-up rate and the Annual Roll-up rate may be the same.

Beginning with the first contract year in which you fund your Protected Benefit account, the Roll-up amount credited to your GMIB benefit base at the end of the contract year (the “Deferral Roll-up amount”) will be calculated using the Deferral Roll-up rate. Once you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account, the Deferral Roll-up amount will not be credited at the end of the contract year in which the withdrawal was taken and the Deferral Roll-up rate will no longer apply to your contract. Instead, the Annual Roll-up amount will be credited.

The Deferral Roll-up rate, if higher than the Annual Roll-up rate, may provide an incentive to defer taking your first withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. If the Deferral Roll-up rate and the Annual Roll-up rate are the same, this incentive for deferring withdrawals is not applicable.

The initial Deferral Roll-up rate is the Deferral Roll-up rate that applies during the first seven years of your contract. The initial Deferral Roll-up rate is specified in the Rate Sheet Supplement and will not be less than the guaranteed Roll-up floor. Thereafter, the renewal Deferral Roll-up rate applies. The renewal Deferral Roll-up rate is variable and is tied to the Deferral Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate described below. The minimum renewal Deferral Roll-up rate will be the greater of the guaranteed Roll-up floor and the Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate (which is the same calculation used for the minimum renewal Annual Roll-up rate), but never greater than 8%. The renewal Deferral Roll-up rate will be set at our discretion, subject to the above stated minimum. We reserve the right, however, to declare a renewal Deferral Roll-up rate that is greater than 8%.

As described above, both the renewal Annual Roll-up rate and renewal Deferral Roll-up rate will never be less than the guaranteed Roll-up floor or greater than 8% and both use the exact same Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate. Therefore, absent the Company using its discretion to set higher rates than the required minimum rates, the renewal Annual Roll-up rate and renewal Deferral Roll-up rate will be the same. You should not rely on the Company using its discretion to set a renewal Deferral Roll-up rate or a renewal Annual Roll-up rate higher than the minimum guaranteed rate.

It is important to note that on each contract date anniversary, we will apply either the Annual Roll-up rate or the Deferral Roll-up rate to your GMIB benefit base based on whether you have ever taken a withdrawal from the Protected Benefit account. In statements we provide you, we will show you the Roll-up amounts under both rate scenarios. Once you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account, the Deferral Roll-up rate will no longer be shown on your statements.

Initial Roll-up rates.  At contract issue, an initial Annual Roll-up and Deferral Roll-up rate will apply during your first seven contract years, as specified in the respective Rate Sheet Supplements. Absent the Company using its discretion to set higher rates than the required minimum rates, the initial Annual Roll-up rate and initial Deferral Roll-up rate will be the same. The Initial Roll-up rate is the Roll-up rate in effect at the time your contract is issued (subject to the Rate lock-in period rules described below). After your first seven contract years, the renewal Roll-up rate will never be less than the guaranteed Roll-up floor or, if greater, the Ten-Year Treasuries Formula Rate, and never greater than 8%.

The initial Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up that apply during your first seven contract years are specified in the respective Rate Sheet Supplements.

Once a contract is issued with the Initial Roll-up rates that are in effect, those rates will be applicable for the first seven contract years. Any transfers or contributions to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, either directly or through the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options during the first seven contract years will get the Initial Roll-up rates described above. The initial Roll-up rates are no longer applicable starting in the eighth year of your contract, regardless of when you fund the Protected Benefit account. See “Renewal rates” for the Roll-up rates that apply once the Initial Roll-up rates expire.

GMIB has a Funding Age, which is reflected on the Rate Sheet Supplement. If you purchase your contract at a younger age, the Initial Roll-up rates may not apply to you (i) for the full seven years in which they are in effect or (ii) at all, as illustrated in the chart on the Rate Sheet Supplement.

Rate lock-in period.  If your contract is issued within the Rate lock-in period (generally 75 days from the date you sign your application), your Initial Roll-up rates will not decrease, even if a new Rate Sheet Supplement with a lower rate

becomes effective before your contract is issued. However, if your contract is issued during the Rate lock-in period but after the rate effective date of a subsequent Rate Sheet Supplement that remains effective through your contract issue date, you will get the benefit of any rate increase. Specifically, during the Rate lock-in period:

In short, if your contract is issued during the Rate lock-in period but after a change to the initial Annual Roll-up rate or initial Deferral Roll-up rate from the application date becomes effective and remains effective through your contract issue date, you will receive the benefit of any rate increase and protection from rate decreases.

If we do not issue your contract within the Rate lock-in period, then your Initial Roll-up rates will be the rates in effect on the date we issue your contract. However, our procedures may result in the return of your application if we do not receive your initial contribution within 75 days of the date you sign your application. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, including whether a different Rate lock-in period applies in your state, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

Examples:

Please note: The guaranteed Roll-up floor is not subject to the Rate lock-in period. This means that:

Renewal rates.  As discussed in “Annual Roll-up rate” and “Deferral Roll-up rate”, after the first seven contract years, a new Annual Roll-up rate will apply to your contract. A new Deferral Roll-up rate will also apply provided you have never taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. These “Renewal rates” may be equal, and will never be less than the guaranteed Roll-up floor or, if greater, the underlying Treasuries Formula Rate (which is identical for both Renewal Rates), and never higher than 8%. You should not rely on the Company using its discretion to set a higher renewal Deferral Roll-up rate or a higher renewal Annual Roll-up rate.

These Renewal rates may be more than or less than, or equal to, your initial Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up rate. We also reserve the right to set new initial rates that are higher than Renewal rates.

Any transfers or contributions to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, either directly or through the Special DCA program and any contribution amounts in the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, after the first day of any contract year will get the Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up rate in effect as of the most recent contract date anniversary.

Notification of Annual Roll-up rate and Renewal rates.  If you elected the GMIB, the Rate Sheet Supplements will indicate the Annual Roll-up rate and Deferral Roll-up rate in effect for the first seven years of your contract. These rates may not be the same rates that were illustrated prior to your purchase of the contract. If you choose to fund the GMIB after the Initial Roll-up rates have expired, you can contact a Customer Service Representative or visit www.equitable.com to find out the current Annual Roll-up rate and if applicable, the Deferral Roll-up rate for your contract. In addition, your annual statement of contract values will show your current Renewal rates, as well as the previous year’s Annual Roll-up rate or Deferral Roll-up rate (whichever applies) for your contract. This information can also be found online through your Equitable Client portal.

The Annual Roll-up rate is used to calculate your Annual withdrawal amount and the credit to your GMIB benefit base if you have taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. The Deferral Roll-up rate is used to calculate the credit to your GMIB benefit base until the first withdrawal is made.

GMIB benefit base “Roll-up”

Your GMIB benefit base starts increasing, or rolling up, on the date you first fund your Protected Benefit account and stops rolling up on the date that is the earlier of (a) the 20th contract date anniversary that occurs after the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and (b) the contract maturity date.

GMIB Roll-up period — the period during which the GMIB benefit base increases (or “rolls up”) annually by an amount determined by the Deferral Roll-up rate or Annual Roll-up rate, as applicable. The GMIB Roll-up period commences on the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and ends on date that is the earlier of (a) the 20th contract date anniversary that occurs after the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account and (b) the contract maturity date. If you first fund the Protected Benefit account (a) on either the contract issue date or a subsequent contract date anniversary and (b) prior to your 76th birthday, the GMIB Roll-up period will be a full 20 years.

The GMIB Roll-up period can be a full 20 years. However, because the GMIB Roll-up period always ends on a contract date anniversary, your GMIB Roll-up period may be less than 20 years if you first fund the Protected Benefit account on a date other than your contract date anniversary. To ensure your GMIB benefit base rolls up for 20 complete years, you should first fund your GMIB benefit base (a) on either the contract issue date or a subsequent contract date anniversary and (b) prior to your 76th birthday.

See “Annual Roll-up amount and annual GMIB benefit base adjustment” and “Deferral Roll-up amount and annual GMIB benefit base adjustment” for information on how your benefit base rolls up during the GMIB Roll-up period.

During the GMIB Roll-up period, additional contributions or transfers to the Protected Benefit account are added to your

GMIB benefit base on the date they are made and included in the applicable roll-up calculation. However, these amounts are not assigned a separate GMIB Roll-up period and will stop rolling up on the end date of the GMIB Roll-up period that was determined when you first funded the Protected Benefit account.

After the GMIB Roll-up period ends, your GMIB benefit base will no longer roll up but can still increase by the amount of any additional contributions to the Protected Benefit account, if permitted, and through operation of the reset feature. See “GMIB benefit base reset” for more information.

For single-owned contracts, the contract maturity date (the point at which Lifetime GMIB payments must begin) triggers the last possible end date of the GMIB Roll-up period. For jointly-owned contracts, the contract maturity date is based on the older owner’s age.

For contracts with non-natural owners, the end date of the GMIB Roll-up period will be based on the annuitant’s (or older joint annuitant’s) age.

The amount of the deduction for an “Excess withdrawal” and the deduction for the Annual withdrawal amount are described under “How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits”.

As discussed in this section, your GMIB benefit base is not an account value or cash value. As a result, the GMIB benefit base cannot be split or divided in any proportion in connection with a divorce. See “How divorce may affect your contract and Guaranteed benefits” in “More information.”

Please see Appendix “Guaranteed benefit base examples” for an example of how the GMIB benefit base is calculated.

Beginning with the contract year in which you fund your Protected Benefit account until the end of the GMIB Roll-up period, if your Lifetime GMIB payments have not begun, withdrawals up to your Annual withdrawal amount will not reduce your GMIB benefit base. The portion of a withdrawal in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount will reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. See “Annual withdrawal amount”. If you are required to take RMD distributions and elect our Automatic RMD service, any Lifetime RMD payment we make to you up to the greater of your Lifetime RMD payment or Annual withdrawal amount each year will count towards your Annual withdrawal amount but (a) during the GMIB Roll-up period, will not offset the Annual Roll-up amount by more than the Annual withdrawal amount and (b) after the GMIB Roll-up period ends, will not reduce your GMIB benefit base. If you do not enroll in our Automatic RMD service and you take withdrawals in order to satisfy your RMD obligations, the amount by which your total withdrawals exceed your Annual withdrawal amount will be treated as an Excess withdrawal that reduces your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. See “RMDs for contracts with GMIB” in the “Accessing your money” section of this Prospectus.

GMIB benefit base reset

Unless you decline or elect a different annual reset option, you will be enrolled in the automatic annual reset program and your GMIB benefit base will automatically “reset” to equal the Protected Benefit account value, if higher, on every contract date anniversary from the date you first fund your Protected Benefit account, up to the contract maturity date. You must notify us in writing that you want to opt out of any automatic reset program. You can send us a written request to opt back in to an automatic reset program at a later date. We reserve the right to change or discontinue our reset programs at any time.

If a reset is not applicable on your contract date anniversary, the GMIB benefit base will not be eligible to be reset again until the next contract date anniversary. For jointly-owned contracts, eligibility to reset the GMIB benefit base is based on the age of the older owner. For non-naturally owned contracts, eligibility is based on the age of the annuitant or older joint annuitant.

Annual reset options.  We will send you a notice in each year that the GMIB benefit base is eligible to be reset. If you are not enrolled in either the automatic annual reset program or the automatic customized reset program you will have 30 days from your contract date anniversary to request a reset. At any time, you may choose one of the three available reset methods: one-time reset option, automatic annual reset program or automatic customized reset program. If, at the time of application, you do not decline the automatic annual reset program or elect a different annual reset option, you will be enrolled in the automatic annual reset program.

one-time reset option — resets your GMIB benefit base on a single contract date anniversary.

automatic annual reset program — automatically resets your GMIB benefit base on each contract date anniversary you are eligible for a reset.

automatic customized reset program — automatically resets your GMIB benefit base on each contract date anniversary, if eligible, for the period you designate.

One-time reset requests will be processed as follows:

Once your one-time reset request is terminated, you must submit a new request in order to reset your benefit base.

If you wish to cancel your elected reset program, your request must be received by our processing office at least one business day prior to your contract date anniversary to terminate your reset program for such contract date anniversary. Cancellation requests received after this window will be applied the following year. A reset cannot be cancelled after it has occurred. For more information, see ‘‘How to reach us’’.

Effect of GMIB Benefit Base Resets. It is important to note that once you have reset your GMIB benefit base, a new waiting period to exercise the GMIB will apply from the date of the reset. Your new exercise date will be the tenth contract date anniversary following the reset or, if later, the earliest date you would have been permitted to exercise without regard to the reset, but in no event will it be later than the contract date anniversary following age 95. See ‘‘GMIB Exercise rules’’ and ‘‘How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits’’ for more information. Please note that in most cases, resetting your GMIB benefit base will lengthen the exercise waiting period. Also, even when there is no additional charge when you reset your Roll-up benefit base, the total dollar amount charged on future contract date anniversaries may increase as a result of the reset since the charges may be applied to a higher benefit base than would have been otherwise applied. See ‘‘Charges and expenses’’.

Owners of traditional IRA or QP contracts should consider the effect of the waiting period on the requirement to take lifetime required minimum distributions before resetting the GMIB benefit base. If a QP contract is converted to an IRA, in a direct rollover, the waiting period for the reset under the IRA contract will include any time that the QP contract was a funding vehicle under the plan. If a traditional IRA contract owner or a plan participant must begin taking lifetime required minimum distributions during the 10-year waiting period, the individual may want to consider taking the annual lifetime required minimum distribution calculated for the contract from another permissible contract or funding vehicle. See ‘‘How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits’’ and ‘‘Lifetime required minimum distribution withdrawals’’ in ‘‘Accessing your money.’’ Also, see ‘‘Required minimum distributions’’ under ‘‘Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs)’’ in ‘‘Tax information’’ and Appendix ‘‘Purchase considerations for QP Contracts’’.

Annual Roll-up amount and annual GMIB benefit base adjustment

The Annual Roll-up amount is an amount credited to your GMIB benefit base on each contract date anniversary if there has ever been a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. The Annual Roll-up amount adjustment to your GMIB benefit base is a primary way to increase the value of your GMIB benefit base. This amount is calculated by taking into account your GMIB benefit base from the preceding contract date anniversary, the Annual Roll-up rate under your contract (which may be the same rate as the applicable Deferral Roll-up rate), contributions and transfers to the Protected Benefit account during the contract year and any withdrawals up to the Annual withdrawal amount during the contract year.

Your initial Annual Roll-up amount for the contract year in which you first funded the Protected Benefit account is calculated as follows:

Your Annual Roll-up amount at the end of each subsequent contract year is calculated as follows:

A pro-rated Roll-up amount is based on the number of days remaining in the contract year after the contribution or transfer.

Withdrawals in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount are Excess withdrawals. Excess withdrawals will not reduce your Annual Roll-up amount or Annual withdrawal amount to less than zero. However, Excess withdrawals reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata

basis, which can have a significant negative impact on the benefit base amount and your future Lifetime GMIB payments. See “How withdrawals affect your guaranteed benefit base” for more information. Special rules apply if you are required to take RMD withdrawals and enroll in our Automatic RMD service. See “Lifetime required minimum distribution withdrawals” in “Accessing your money”.

Deferral Roll-up amount and annual GMIB benefit base adjustment

The Deferral Roll-up amount is an amount credited to your GMIB benefit base on each contract date anniversary provided you have never taken a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account. The amount is calculated by taking into account your GMIB benefit base from the preceding contract date anniversary, the applicable Deferral Roll-up rate under your contract (which may be the same rate as the applicable Annual Roll-up rate) and contributions and transfers to the Protected Benefit account during the contract year. The Deferral Roll-up amount adjustment to your GMIB benefit base is a primary way to increase the value of your GMIB benefit base.

Your Deferral Roll-up amount for the contract year in which you first funded the Protected Benefit account is calculated as follows:

Your Deferral Roll-up amount at the end of each subsequent contract year is calculated as follows:

A pro-rated Deferral Roll-up amount is based on the number of days remaining in the contract year after the contribution or transfer.

The GMIB benefit base stops rolling up on the last date of the GMIB Roll-up period. Thereafter, your GMIB benefit base is frozen, which means:

Annual withdrawal amount

(Applicable prior to the beginning of Lifetime GMIB payments)

Your Annual withdrawal amount for the contract year in which you first fund the Protected Benefit account (the “initial Annual withdrawal amount”) is calculated on the date you first fund the Protected Benefit account, and is equal to:

If you first funded the Protected Benefit account on a date other than your contract date anniversary, your initial Annual withdrawal amount is pro-rated based on the number of days remaining before your next contract date anniversary. If you subsequently make additional contributions or transfers to the Protected Benefit account prior to the next contract date anniversary, your initial Annual withdrawal amount will increase on the date of such contribution or transfer by a pro-rated amount based on the number of days remaining before your next contract date anniversary. Your initial Annual withdrawal amount will be reduced by the amount of any withdrawals you make before your next contract date anniversary on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

For example, assume that you first fund your Protected Benefit account on first day of the contract year by making

a contribution of $10,000 to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options. On that date, your GMIB benefit base will be $10,000. Your initial Annual withdrawal amount is equal to $500, calculated as follows:

Further assume that on the 146th day of that contract year you make an additional contribution to the Protected Benefit account of $5,000. Your initial Annual withdrawal amount increases by $151 (the pro-rated Roll-up amount for the contribution), calculated as:

Your Annual withdrawal amount for the each subsequent contract year is calculated on each contract date anniversary beginning with the contract year that follows the contract year in which the Protected Benefit account is first funded, and is equal to:

If you make additional contributions or transfers to the Protected Benefit account prior to the next contract date anniversary, including amounts transferred from a special DCA program, your Annual withdrawal amount will increase on the date of such contribution or transfer by a pro-rated amount based on the number of days remaining before your next contract date anniversary.

Beginning with the contract year in which you fund your Protected Benefit account, if your Lifetime GMIB payments have not begun, you may withdraw up to your Annual withdrawal amount without reducing our GMIB benefit base and adversely affecting your Lifetime GMIB payments. It is important to note that withdrawals in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount will have a harmful effect on both your GMIB benefit base and Lifetime GMIB payments. An Excess withdrawal that reduces your Protected Benefit account to zero will cause your GMIB to terminate.

Beginning with the contract year in which your Protected Benefit account was first funded, the portion of a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account in excess of your Annual withdrawal amount, and all subsequent withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account in that contract year, will always reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis. (See “RMDs for contracts with GMIB” in “Accessing your money” for special rules that apply if you enroll in our Automatic RMD service.) This is referred to as an “Excess

withdrawal”. The reduction of your GMIB benefit base on a pro rata basis means that we calculate the percentage of your current Protected Benefit account value that is being withdrawn and we reduce your current GMIB benefit base by the same percentage. A pro rata withdrawal will have a significant adverse effect on your benefit base in cases where the Protected Benefit account value is less than the benefit base. For an example of how a pro rata reduction works, see “How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits” and, for examples of how withdrawals affect your Annual withdrawal amount, see Appendix “Examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases”.

Your Annual withdrawal amount is always calculated using the Annual Roll-up rate in effect for your contract at the beginning of the contract year. The Deferral Roll-up rate, described above, is never used for the purposes of calculating the Annual withdrawal amount. Your Annual withdrawal amounts are not cumulative. If you withdraw less than your Annual withdrawal amount in any contract year, you may not add the remainder to your Annual withdrawal amount in any subsequent year.

Your Annual withdrawal amount may be more than or less than your Lifetime GMIB payments. Please refer to the beginning of this “Guaranteed minimum income benefit” section and “Lifetime GMIB payments” for more information about Lifetime GMIB payments.

Example of how your Annual withdrawal amount; Annual Roll-up amount; Deferral Roll-up amount and annual GMIB benefit base adjustment; and the effect of an Excess withdrawal is calculated.

Annual withdrawal amount.  Assume you make a contribution of $200,000 and allocate $100,000 to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options and $100,000 to your Investment account variable investment options at issue. At the beginning of contract year three, assume you transfer $5,000 to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options. Also assume that your Annual Roll-up rate is 5% and your Deferral rate is 5% in each contract year. Accordingly, your GMIB benefit base on your third contract date anniversary is $121,013.

The GMIB benefit base of $121,013 is calculated as follows:

You start with $100,000 allocated to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options. This amount is your initial GMIB benefit base.

Your Annual withdrawal amount as of the beginning of contract year four is equal to $6,051, calculated as follows:

Please note that your Annual Roll-up rate is used to calculate your Annual withdrawal amount. The Deferral Roll-up rate is never used to calculate your Annual withdrawal amount.

Annual Roll-up amount and annual benefit base adjustment.  Further assume that during contract year four (on the 146th day of the contract year), you make a contribution of $10,000 to your Protected Benefit account variable investment options, making your current GMIB benefit base after the contribution $131,013. Also assume that you withdraw your full Annual withdrawal amount of $6,051 during contract year four.

On your fourth contract date anniversary, your Annual Roll-up amount is equal to $300, calculated as follows:

Please note that the withdrawal in contract year four terminated the Deferral Roll-up rate. Therefore on the fourth contract date anniversary, the Annual Roll-up rate was used to calculate the Annual Roll-up amount.

Your adjusted GMIB benefit base is $131,313 ($131,013 + $300).

Effect of an Excess withdrawal.  In contract year four, assume instead that you make a withdrawal of $9,051. This would result in an Excess withdrawal of $3,000 because your Annual withdrawal amount is only $6,051 ($9,051 – $6,051 = $3,000). Further, assume that your Protected Benefit account value at the time of this withdrawal is $100,000. As described in this section, Excess withdrawals reduce your GMIB benefit base on a pro-rata basis. Accordingly, your GMIB benefit base is reduced by $3,930 at the time of the withdrawal, calculated as follows:

On your fourth contract date anniversary, your adjusted GMIB benefit base is $127,383, calculated as follows:

Please note that the Excess withdrawal in contract year four terminated the GMIB no-lapse guarantee. Please see the following section for more information about the no-lapse guarantee.

See Appendix “Examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases” for more examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases and Annual withdrawal amount.

GMIB “no-lapse guarantee”

In general, if your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero (except as discussed below), the GMIB will be exercised automatically, based on the owner’s (or older joint owner’s, if applicable) current age and GMIB benefit base as follows:

Poor investment performance of the Protected Benefit account variable investment options or payment of applicable charges may contribute to your Protected Benefit account value falling to zero but will not cause the no-lapse guarantee to terminate.

The no-lapse guarantee will terminate under the following circumstances:

The no-lapse guarantee will not be voided by (a) any withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account in the contract year in which you first fund your Protected Benefit account or (b) by RMDs that exceed your Annual withdrawal amount if taken through our Automatic RMD service.

If you were enrolled in the Maximum Payment Plan or Customized Payment Plan, the frequency of your Lifetime GMIB payments will be the same based on the payment frequency you elected. Your Lifetime GMIB payment amount may be less than your Annual withdrawal amount in the prior contract year.

If you were not enrolled in the Maximum Payment Plan or Customized Payment Plan, you will begin receiving your Lifetime GMIB payments annually one calendar year after the date that the Protected Benefit account value fell to zero. Your Lifetime GMIB payment amount may be less than your Annual withdrawal amount in the prior contract year.

Exercise of GMIB

On each contract date anniversary that you are eligible to exercise the GMIB, we will send you an eligibility notice illustrating how much income could be provided as of the contract date anniversary. You must notify us within 30 days following the contract date anniversary if you want to exercise the GMIB. You must return your contract to us, along with all required information within 30 days following your contract date anniversary, in order to exercise this benefit. Upon exercise of the GMIB, the owner (or older joint owner, if applicable) will become the annuitant, and the contract will be annuitized on the basis of the annuitant’s life. You will begin receiving annual payments one year after the annuity payout contract is issued. If you choose monthly or quarterly payments, you will receive your payment one month or one quarter after the annuity payout contract is issued. Under monthly or quarterly payments, the aggregate payments you receive in a contract year will be less than what you would have received if you had elected an annual payment, as monthly and quarterly payments reflect the time value of money with regard to both interest and mortality. You may choose to take a withdrawal prior to exercising the GMIB, which will reduce your payments. You may not partially exercise this benefit. See ‘‘Withdrawing your account value’’ in ‘‘Accessing your money’’. Payments end with the last payment before the annuitant’s (or joint annuitant’s, if applicable) death.

Please see “Exercise of the GMIB in the event of a GMIB fee increase” under “Charges and expenses” for more information on exercising your GMIB upon notice of a change to the GMIB fee.

GMIB exercise rules.  The latest date you may exercise the GMIB is the contract maturity date.

The earliest date on which you are eligible to exercise the GMIB is calculated as follows:

If you exercise the GMIB and then take a withdrawal from the Protected Benefit account within the 30 days between the applicable contract date anniversary and the date on which the GMIB exercise takes effect, your GMIB benefit base will be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the amount of the withdrawal (or on a pro-rata basis if the withdrawal was an Excess withdrawal).

The GMIB guarantees annual lifetime payments (“Lifetime GMIB payments”), which will begin at the earliest of:

Your Lifetime GMIB payments will be calculated as described below in this section. Whether your Lifetime GMIB payments are triggered by age 95, the no-lapse guarantee, or your election to exercise the GMIB, we use the same calculation to determine the amount of the payments.

For single owner contracts, the payout can be either based on a single life (the owner’s life) or joint lives. For IRA contracts, the joint life must be the spouse of the owner. For jointly owned contracts, payments can be based on a single life (the life of the older owner) or joint lives. For non-natural owners, payments are based on the annuitant or joint annuitant’s life. In the cases of (a) a joint-owned contract that is continued as a single-owned contract by the younger spouse after the death of the older spouse and (b) a single-owned contract that is continued by the spousal beneficiary followed by the death of the owner, we will always apply joint life annuity purchase rates when calculating GMIB periodic payments, even if the single life payout option had been elected.

Lifetime GMIB payments.  Your Lifetime GMIB payments are calculated by applying your GMIB benefit base to the guaranteed GMIB annuity purchase factors specified in Appendix “GMIB Annuity purchase factors”.

GMIB annuity purchase factors.  Annuity purchase factors are the factors applied to determine your periodic payments under the GMIB and base contract annuity payout options. GMIB annuity purchase factors are based on the owner’s (and any younger joint owner’s) age, frequency of payment, are the same regardless of gender, and are generally more conservative than the base contract annuity purchase factors. Base contract annuity payout options are discussed under “Your annuity payout options” in “Accessing your

money” later in this Prospectus. Base contract annuity purchase factors are based on interest rates, mortality tables, frequency of payments, the form of annuity benefit, and the owner’s (and any joint owner’s) age and sex in certain instances. We may provide more favorable current annuity purchase factors for the annuity payout options than those specified in your contract.

Exercising the GMIB when your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero.  If your Protected Benefit account value is zero as described under “GMIB “no-lapse guarantee””, we will use your GMIB benefit base as of the day your Protected Benefit account value was reduced to zero. On the day your Protected Benefit account value is reduced to zero, we calculate your GMIB benefit base using the same formula as described under “GMIB benefit base”. If your Protected Benefit account was reduced to zero on a date other than your contract anniversary, we will include a pro rata portion of the applicable Roll-up amount in your GMIB base.

Example — Calculating the GMIB benefit base when your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero:

Assume your Protected Benefit account value goes to zero after six months of the 10th contract year and that the Annual Roll-up rate is 5%. Assume further that at the beginning of the 10th contract year, your GMIB benefit base was $100,000 and that you made no contributions or transfers to the Protected Benefit account or any withdrawals during that contract year.

The GMIB benefit base on the day your Protected Benefit account value was reduced to zero would be $102,500, calculated as follows:

If your Protected Benefit account value is reduced to zero on your contract date anniversary as the result of the deduction of charges under the contract, we will add any remaining Annual Roll-up amount, or if applicable, your Deferral Roll-up amount, to your GMIB benefit base.

If the GMIB is exercised under any of the three events as described above, and you have no Investment account value, the following applies:

If the GMIB is exercised under any of the three events as described above, and you have Investment account value, the following applies:

Exercising the GMIB when your Protected Benefit account value is greater than zero.  If you elect to exercise the GMIB and your Protected Benefit account value has not fallen to zero before the contract maturity date, the following applies:

Example: Assume that the current annuitization factors are greater than the guaranteed annuitization factors. A male contract owner who is age 95 and has a $100,000 GMIB benefit base and $50,000 in Protected Benefit account value and no Investment account value would receive the greater of the following:

In this example, the contract owner’s annual payment would be $8,832.

Exercising the GMIB through the no-lapse guarantee when your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero.  If your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero and the no-lapse guarantee is in effect, the GMIB is exercised automatically and you will receive Lifetime GMIB payments. This annual Lifetime GMIB payment amount may be lower than your Annual withdrawal amount, depending on your age at the time the GMIB is exercised and whether you elect to be paid on a single or joint life basis.

See Appendix “GMIB Annuity purchase factors” for the GMIB annuity purchase factors that apply to your contract.

Please note:

For example, assume that a male contract owner who is age 80 and has a $100,000 GMIB benefit base, and his Protected Benefit account value falls to zero through systematic withdrawals of the Annual withdrawal amount (e.g., $5,000 as of the most recent contract date anniversary) and poor investment performance. Further assume that the no-lapse guarantee is in effect and the GMIB is automatically exercised.

The contract owner’s annual Lifetime GMIB payment would be $4,315, which is calculated by applying the GMIB annuity purchase factor for his age of 80 (in this example, it would be 4.315%) to his $100,000 GMIB benefit base. In this case, the annual Lifetime GMIB payment is $685 less than the most recent Annual withdrawal amount.

Any remaining Investment account value will be annuitized under a separate contract based on one of the annuity payout options discussed under “Your annuity payout options” in “Accessing your money”.

Upon issuing your supplementary contract, your Guaranteed minimum death benefit and your death benefit in connection with your Investment account value will be terminated.

If you elected the GMIB and your Protected Benefit account value falls to zero due to an Excess withdrawal, we will terminate your GMIB and you will receive no payment or supplementary life annuity contract, even if your GMIB benefit base is greater than zero. Please see Appendix “Hypothetical illustrations” for an example of how Lifetime GMIB payments are calculated when: (i) a hypothetical Protected Benefit account value falls to zero, and (ii) the annuitant reaches age 95.

From time to time, we may offer you some form of payment or incentive in return for terminating or modifying certain guaranteed benefits. See “Guaranteed benefit offers” for more information.

How withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefits

Except as otherwise described in this section, withdrawals from your Protected Benefit account will reduce your Guaranteed benefit bases on a pro rata basis. Reduction on a pro rata basis means that we calculate the percentage of your current Protected Benefit account value that is being withdrawn and we reduce your current Guaranteed benefit bases by the same percentage.

For example, if your Protected Benefit account value is $30,000 and you withdraw $12,000, you have withdrawn 40% of your Protected Benefit account value. If your Guaranteed benefit base was $40,000 before the withdrawal, it would be reduced by $16,000 ($40,000 X .40) and your new Guaranteed benefit base after the withdrawal would be $24,000 ($40,000 – $16,000).

If your Protected Benefit account value is greater than your Guaranteed benefit base, an Excess withdrawal will result in a reduction of your Guaranteed benefit base that will be less than the withdrawal. For example, if your Protected Benefit account value is $30,000 and you withdraw $12,000, you have withdrawn 40% of your Protected Benefit account value. If your Guaranteed benefit base was $20,000 before the withdrawal, it would be reduced by $8,000 ($20,000 X .40) and your new Guaranteed benefit base after the withdrawal would be $12,000 ($20,000 – $8,000).

A pro rata deduction means that if you take a withdrawal that reduces your Guaranteed benefit bases on a pro rata basis and your Protected Benefit account value is less than your Guaranteed benefit base, the amount of the Guaranteed benefit base reduction will exceed the amount of the withdrawal.

If you elected the GMIB with the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit and you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base will be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by withdrawals up to the Annual withdrawal amount, and on a pro rata basis by

Excess withdrawals. If you take a withdrawal from your Protected Benefit account and you did not elect the GMIB with the Highest Anniversary Value death benefit, your Highest Anniversary Value benefit base will be reduced on a pro rata basis.

Withdrawals affect your GMIB benefit base, as follows:

Withdrawals affect your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit base, as follows:

Please see Appendix “Examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases” for examples of how withdrawals affect your Guaranteed benefit bases. For information on how RMD payments affect your Guaranteed benefits, including the special rules that apply if you enroll in our RMD withdrawal service, see “Lifetime required minimum distribution withdrawals” in “Accessing your money”. For information on how RMD payments affect your RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, see “RMDs for Traditional IRA contracts with the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit” in “Accessing your money”. For information about the RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, see “RMD Wealth Guard death benefit”.

Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits

You can drop or change your Guaranteed benefits, subject to our rules. Your ability to do so depends on whether you have funded your Protected Benefit account. If you have not funded your Protected Benefit account, we call this a “pre-funding” drop or change. If you have funded your Protected Benefit account, we call this a “post-funding” drop. Also, in order to make a change to your Guaranteed minimum death benefit, you must meet the eligibility requirements for the new benefit. If you drop a Guaranteed benefit, you will not be permitted to add it back to your contract.

Pre-Funding Drop or Change

Prior to funding your Protected Benefit account, you can drop your GMIB, Guaranteed minimum death benefit, or change your Guaranteed minimum death benefit. The Return of Principal death benefit cannot be dropped prior to funding your Protected Benefit account. For contracts with the GMIB, the Guaranteed minimum death benefit generally cannot be changed without first dropping the GMIB. In Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits”, we provide a chart that lists the possible Guaranteed benefit combinations under the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract and our rules for dropping and changing benefits prior to funding your Protected Benefit account.

Post-Funding Drop

If you funded your Protected Benefit account at issue and your contract has been in force for at least four years, you have the option to drop both your GMIB and Guaranteed minimum death benefit. Also, in some cases, you can drop your GMIB and retain your Guaranteed minimum death benefit. If you funded your Protected Benefit account after issue, you generally cannot drop your Guaranteed benefit(s) until the later of: (i) the contract date anniversary following the date the Protected Benefit account was funded and (ii) four years from contract issue.

If you decide to drop all Guaranteed benefits post-funding, we require that you complete the administrative form we provide for this purpose. You must either take a full withdrawal of your Protected Benefit account or make a one-time transfer to the Investment account variable investment options and guaranteed interest option. The Guaranteed benefits and any applicable charges will be terminated as of the business day we receive the properly completed administrative form at our processing office. Please note that when a Guaranteed benefit (other than the Return of Principal death benefit) is dropped on any date other than a contract date anniversary, we will deduct a pro rata portion of the charge for that year.

For contracts with the GMIB, the Guaranteed minimum death benefit cannot be dropped without first dropping the GMIB. In Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits”, we provide a chart that lists the possible Guaranteed benefit combinations under the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract and our rules for dropping and changing benefits if you have already funded your Protected Benefit account.

Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits in the event of a fee change.  In the event that we exercise our contractual right to change the fee for the GMIB or RMD Wealth Guard death benefit, you may be given a one-time opportunity to drop your Guaranteed benefits or change your GMDB if it is not yet funded, subject to our rules. You may drop or change your Guaranteed benefits only within 30 days of the fee change notification. This right to drop or change your Guaranteed benefits is in addition to any other rights you may have, as described in Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits”. See “Fee changes for the Guaranteed minimum income benefit in “Charges and expenses” and Appendix “Dropping or changing your Guaranteed benefits” for more information.

Guaranteed benefit offers

From time to time, we may offer you some form of payment or incentive in return for terminating or modifying certain guaranteed benefits. Previously, we made offers to groups of contract owners that provided for an increase in account value in return for terminating their guaranteed death or income benefits. In the future, we may make additional offers to these and other groups of contract owners.

When we make an offer, we may vary the offer amount, up or down, among the same group of contract owners based on certain criteria such as account value , the difference between account value and any applicable benefit base, investment allocations and the amount and type of withdrawals taken. For example, for guaranteed benefits that have benefit bases that can be reduced on either a pro rata or dollar-for-dollar basis, depending on the amount of withdrawals taken, we may consider whether you have taken any withdrawal that has caused a pro rata reduction in your benefit base, as opposed to a dollar-for-dollar reduction. Also, we may increase or decrease offer amounts from offer to offer. In other words, we

may make an offer to a group of contract owners based on an offer amount, and, in the future, make another offer based on a higher or lower offer amount to the remaining contract owners in the same group.

If you accept an offer that requires you to terminate a guaranteed benefit, we will no longer charge you for it, and you will not be eligible for any future offers related to that type of guaranteed benefit, even if such future offer would have included a greater offer amount or different payment or incentive.

Other Benefits

Dollar cost averaging

We offer a variety of dollar cost averaging programs. You may only participate in one program at a time. Each program allows you to gradually allocate amounts to available investment options by periodically transferring approximately the same dollar amount to the investment options you select. Regular allocations to the variable investment options will cause you to purchase more units if the unit value is low and fewer units if the unit value is high. Therefore, you may get a lower average cost per unit over the long term.

All amounts in a dollar cost averaging program will be transferred at the completion of the time period you select. Currently, our Special DCA program time periods do not extend beyond 12 months. This plan of investing does not guarantee that you will earn a profit or be protected against losses.

Units measure your value in each variable investment option.

We offer the following dollar cost averaging programs in the Retirement Cornerstone^® Series E contract:

The only dollar cost averaging program that is available to fund your Guaranteed benefits is the special dollar cost averaging (the “Special DCA program”). The Special DCA program allows you to gradually fund your Protected Benefit account value through systematic transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options. Amounts allocated to the Special DCA program that are designated for future transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options are included in the benefit bases for your Guaranteed benefits. Also, you may make systematic transfers to the Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option. Only new contributions may be allocated to the Special DCA program. For information on how the Special DCA program may affect certain Guaranteed benefits, see “Guaranteed minimum income benefit” and “Guaranteed minimum death benefits”.

General dollar cost averaging and Investment simplifier, on the other hand, can only be used for systematic transfers to your Investment account variable investment options. Our

Investment simplifier program is available for scheduled transfers from the guaranteed interest option to the Investment account variable investment options. Our General dollar cost averaging program is available for scheduled transfers from the EQ/Money Market variable investment option to the Investment account variable investment options. Below, we provide detail regarding each of the programs.

Generally, you may not elect both a dollar cost averaging program and a rebalancing option. The only exception is if you elect our Investment simplifier program with Option I under our rebalancing programs, which does not rebalance amounts in the guaranteed interest option. For more information on our rebalancing programs, see “Rebalancing among your Investment account variable investment options and guaranteed interest option” in “Benefit available under the contract.”

We do not deduct a transfer charge for any transfer made in connection with our dollar cost averaging programs. We may, at any time, exercise our right to terminate transfers to any of the variable investment options and to limit the number of variable investment options which you may elect. Not all dollar cost averaging programs are available in all states. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, including information on the availability of our dollar cost averaging programs in your state, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variation of certain features and benefits”.

Our Special DCA program.  Under the special dollar cost averaging program, you may dollar cost average from the account for special dollar cost averaging, which is part of the general account. We credit daily interest, which will never be less than the current interest rate as shown in your contract or the guaranteed lifetime minimum rate for the guaranteed interest option, whichever is greater, to amounts allocated to this account. We guarantee to pay the current interest rate that is in effect on the date that your contribution is allocated to this account. That interest rate will apply to that contribution as long as it remains in the account for special dollar cost averaging. The guaranteed interest rate for the time period that you select will be shown in your contract for your initial contribution. We set the interest rates periodically, based on our discretion and according to procedures that we have. We reserve the right to change these procedures.

We will transfer amounts from the account for special dollar cost averaging into the investment options you designate over an available time period that you select. However, if you have the GMIB, we will only transfer amounts to the Protected Benefit account if you are the Funding Age or older. If the special dollar cost averaging program is selected at the time of the application to purchase the contract, a 60 day rate lock will apply from the date of application. Any contribution(s) received during this 60 day period will be credited with the interest rate offered on the date of application for the duration of the special dollar cost averaging time period. Any contribution(s) received after the 60 day rate lock period has ended will be credited with the

then current interest rate for the duration of the time period selected. Once the time period you selected has ended, you may select another time period for future contributions. At that time, you may also select a different allocation for transfers to the investment options, or, if you wish, we will continue to use the allocation that you previously made.

Under the Special DCA program, the following applies:

For example, assume you enroll in a 3-month Special DCA program. On the date we receive your initial contribution (say, $60,000) to the program, your program becomes effective and the first transfer of $20,000 is made immediately in accordance with your program’s allocation instructions. The second transfer of $20,000 will be made one month after your first contribution and the third and final transfer of $20,000 will be made two months after your first contribution;

General dollar cost averaging program

If your value in the EQ/Money Market variable investment option is at least $5,000, you may choose, at any time, to have a specified dollar amount or percentage of your value transferred from that option to any of the Investment

account variable investment options. For a state-by-state description of all material variations of this contract, including information on the availability of our general dollar cost averaging program, see Appendix “State contract availability and/or variations of certain features and benefits”.

You can select to have transfers made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. The transfer date will be the same calendar day of the month as the contract date, but not later than the 28th day of the month. You can also specify the number of transfers or instruct us to continue making the transfers until all amounts in the EQ/Money Market variable investment option have been transferred out. The minimum amount that we will transfer each time is $250. The instructions for the program may differ from your allocation instructions on file.

If, on any transfer date, your value in the EQ/Money Market variable investment option is equal to or less than the amount you have elected to have transferred, the entire amount will be transferred. The general dollar cost averaging program will then end. You may change the transfer amount once each contract year or cancel this program at any time.

You may not participate in our optional rebalancing programs if you elect the general dollar cost averaging program.

Investment simplifier

Fixed-dollar option.  Under this option, you may elect to have a fixed-dollar amount transferred out of the guaranteed interest option and into the Investment account variable investment options of your choice. Transfers may be made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. You can specify the number of transfers or instruct us to continue to make transfers until all available amounts in the guaranteed interest option have been transferred out.

In order to elect the fixed-dollar option, you must have a minimum of $5,000 in the guaranteed interest option on the date we receive your election form at our processing office. The transfer date will be the same calendar day of the month as the contract date but not later than the 28th day of the month. The minimum transfer amount is $50. Also, this option is subject to the guaranteed interest option transfer limitations described under “Transferring your account value” in “Transferring your money among investment options”. While the program is running, any transfer that exceeds those limitations will cause the program to end for that contract year. You will be notified if this occurs. You must send in a request form to resume the program in the next or subsequent contract years.

If, on any transfer date, your value in the guaranteed interest option is equal to or less than the amount you have elected to have transferred, the entire amount will be transferred, provided the transfer complies with the same guaranteed interest option transfer limitations referenced above. If the transfer does not comply with the transfer limitations, the transfer will not be made and the program will end. You may change the transfer amount once each contract year or cancel this program at any time.

Interest sweep option.  Under this option, you may elect to have monthly transfers from amounts in the guaranteed interest option into the Investment account variable investment options of your choice. The transfer date will be the last business day of the month. The amount we will transfer will be the interest credited to amounts you have in the guaranteed interest option from the last business day of the prior month to the last business day of the current month. You must have at least $7,500 in the guaranteed interest option on the date we receive your election. If the amount in the guaranteed interest option falls below $7,500 at the beginning of the month, no transfer will be made that month. We will automatically cancel the interest sweep program if the amount in the guaranteed interest option is less than $7,500 on the last day of the month for two months in a row. For the interest sweep option, the first monthly transfer will occur on the last business day of the month following the month that we receive your election form at our processing office. Transfers under the Interest sweep option are subject to the guaranteed interest option transfer limitations described under “Transferring your account value” in “Transferring your money among investment options”.

Rebalancing among your Investment account variable investment options and guaranteed interest option

We offer two rebalancing programs that you can use to automatically reallocate your Investment account value among your Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option. Option I allows you to rebalance your Investment account value among the Investment account variable investment options. Option II allows you to rebalance your Investment account value among the Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option.

To enroll in one of our rebalancing programs, you must notify us in writing or through the Equitable Client portal and tell us:

Rebalancing will occur on the same day of the month as the contract date. If a contract is established after the 28th, rebalancing will occur on the first business day of the month following the contract date. If you elect quarterly rebalancing, the rebalancing in the last quarter of the contract year will occur on the contract date anniversary.

Once it is available, you may elect or terminate the rebalancing program at any time. You may also change your allocations under the program at any time. Once enrolled in the rebalancing program, it will remain in effect until you instruct us in writing to terminate the program. Requesting an investment option transfer while enrolled in our rebalancing program will not automatically change your allocation instructions for rebalancing your account value. This means

that upon the next scheduled rebalancing, we will transfer amounts among your investment options pursuant to the allocation instructions previously on file for your program. Changes to your allocation instructions for the rebalancing program (or termination of your enrollment in the program) must be in writing and sent to our processing office. Termination requests can be made online through the Equitable Client portal. See “How to reach us” in “The Company”. There is no charge for the rebalancing feature.

Rebalancing does not assure a profit or protect against loss. You should periodically review your allocation percentages as your needs change. You may want to discuss the rebalancing program with your financial professional before electing the program.

While your rebalancing program is in effect, we will transfer amounts among the applicable investment options so that the percentage of your Investment account value that you specify is invested in each option at the end of each rebalancing date.

If you select Option II, you will be subject to our rules regarding transfers from the guaranteed interest option to the Investment account variable investment options. These rules are described in “Transferring your account value”. Under Option II, a transfer into or out of the guaranteed interest option to initiate the rebalancing program will not be permitted if such transfer would violate these rules. If this occurs, the rebalancing program will not go into effect.

You may not elect Option II if you are participating in any dollar cost averaging program. You may not elect Option I if you are participating in the general dollar cost averaging program.

Our optional rebalancing programs are not available for amounts allocated to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options. For information about rebalancing among the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, see the section below.

Rebalancing among your Protected Benefit account variable investment options

You can rebalance your Protected Benefit account value by submitting a request to rebalance as of the date we receive your request, however, scheduled recurring rebalancing is not available. Therefore, any subsequent rebalancing transactions would require a subsequent rebalancing request. Your rebalance request must indicate the percentage you want rebalanced in each investment option (whole percentages only). You can rebalance only to the investment options available in your Protected Benefit account.

When we rebalance your Protected Benefit account, we will transfer amounts among the investment options so that the percentage of your account value in each option at the end of the rebalancing date matches the most recent allocation instructions that we have on file. Rebalancing does not assure a profit or protect against loss, so you should periodically review your allocation percentages as your needs change.

The risks identified below are the principal risks of investing in the contract. The contract may be subject to additional risks other than those identified and described in this prospectus.

Risks Associated with Variable Investment Options

You take all the investment risk for amounts allocated to one or more of the subaccounts, which invest in Portfolios. If the subaccounts you select increase in value, then your Total account value goes up; if they decrease in value, your Total account value goes down. How much your Total account value goes up or down depends on the performance of the Portfolios in which your subaccounts invest. We do not guarantee the investment results of any Portfolio. An investment in the contract is subject to the risk of poor investment performance, and the value of your investment can vary depending on the performance of the selected Portfolio(s), each of which has its own unique risks. You should review the Portfolios before making an investment decision.

Insurance Company Risk

No company other than the Company has any legal responsibility to pay amounts that we owe under the contract including amounts allocated to the guaranteed interest option. The general obligations and any Guaranteed benefits under the contract are supported by our general account and are subject to our claims-paying ability. You should look solely to our financial strength for our claims-paying ability.

Possible Fees on Access to Total Account Value

We may apply fees if you access your Total account value during the accumulation period or surrender your contract. For example, in addition to possible tax consequences, you may incur fees for accessing your Total account value such as a transfer fee, third party transfer or exchange fee, annual administrative expense, base contract expense, and/or a charge for any optional benefits.

Possible Adverse Tax Consequences

The tax considerations associated with the contract vary and can be complicated. The applicable tax rules can differ, depending on the type of contract, whether NQ, traditional IRA, Roth IRA or QP. The tax consequences discussed in this Prospectus are general in nature and describe only federal income tax law (not state, local, foreign or other federal tax laws). Moreover, the tax aspects that apply to a particular person’s contract may vary depending on the facts applicable to that person. Tax rules may change without notice. We cannot predict whether, when, or how these rules could change. Any change could affect contracts purchased before the change. Congress may also consider further proposals to

comprehensively reform or overhaul the United States tax and retirement systems, which if enacted, could affect the tax benefits of a contract. We cannot predict what, if any, legislation will actually be proposed or enacted. Before making contributions to your contract or taking other action related to your contract, you should consult with a tax professional to determine the tax implications of an investment in, and payments received under, the contract.

Withdrawals are generally subject to income tax, and may be subject to tax penalties if taken before age 59¹⁄₂.

Not a Short-Term Investment

The contract is not a short-term investment and is not appropriate for an investor who needs ready access to cash because the contract is designed to provide for the accumulation of retirement savings and income on a long-term basis. As such, you should not use the contract as a shortterm investment or savings vehicle and you should consider whether investing in the contract is consistent with the purpose for which the investment is being considered.

Risk of Loss

All investments have risks to some degree and it is possible that you could lose money by investing in the contract. An investment in the contract is not a deposit with a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Optional Benefits

Investment options are limited if Guaranteed benefits are elected. Guaranteed benefits are funded through the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and once a withdrawal is taken from the Protected Benefit account, you cannot make additional contributions to the Protected Benefit account. We may limit or stop accepting contributions and transfers to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options which means you may no longer be able to increase your Protected Benefit account value and the benefit bases associated with your Guaranteed benefits through contributions and transfers. Excess withdrawals may terminate or significantly reduce the value of your optional benefits.

Limitations on access to cash value through withdrawals

Withdrawals may be subject to income taxes and tax penalties. The minimum partial withdrawal amount is $300. Withdrawals will reduce your Total account value and optional benefit bases and the amount of the reduction may be greater than the dollar amount of the withdrawal. Excess

withdrawals may terminate or significantly reduce the value of your optional benefits. Certain withdrawals may also terminate your contract. If you take a withdrawal from the Protected benefit account, you cannot make additional contributions to the Protected benefit account.

Cybersecurity risks and catastrophic events

We rely heavily on interconnected computer systems and digital data to conduct our variable product business. Because our variable product business is highly dependent upon the effective operation of our computer systems and those of our business partners, our business is vulnerable to disruptions from utility outages, and susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from information systems failure (e.g., hardware and software malfunctions), and cyberattacks. These risks include, among other things, the theft, misuse, corruption and destruction of data maintained online or digitally, interference with or denial of service, attacks on websites and other operational disruption and unauthorized use or abuse of confidential customer information. Systems failures and cyberattacks, as well as, any other catastrophic event, including natural and manmade disasters, public health emergencies, pandemic diseases, terrorist attacks, floods or severe storms affecting us, any third-party administrator, the underlying funds, intermediaries and other affiliated or third-party service providers may adversely affect us, our business operations and your account value. Systems failures and cyberattacks may also interfere with our processing of contract transactions, including the processing of orders from our website or with the underlying funds, impact our ability to calculate account values, cause the release and possible destruction of confidential customer or business information, impede order processing, subject us and/or our service providers and intermediaries to regulatory fines and financial losses and/or cause reputational damage. In addition, the occurrence of any pandemic disease (like COVID-19), natural disaster, terrorist attack or any other event that results in our workforce, and/or employees of service providers and/or third-party administrators, being compromised and unable or unwilling to fully perform their responsibilities, could likewise result in interruptions in our service, including our ability to issue contracts and process contract transactions. Even when our workforce and employees of our service providers and/or third-party administrators can work remotely, those remote work arrangements could result in our business operations being less efficient than under normal circumstances and lead to delays in our issuing contracts and processing of other contract-related transactions, as well as possibly being more susceptible to cyberattacks. Cybersecurity risks and catastrophic events may also impact the issuers of securities in which the underlying funds invest, which may cause the funds underlying your contract to lose value. While there can be no assurance that we or the underlying funds or our service providers will avoid losses affecting your contract due to cyberattacks, information security breaches or other catastrophic events in the future, we take reasonable steps to mitigate these risks and secure our systems and business operations from such failures, attacks and events.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the U.S. and global economies. A wide variety of factors continue to impact financial and economic conditions, including, among others, volatility in the financial markets, rising inflation rates, supply chain disruptions, continued low interest rates and changes in fiscal or monetary policy. Efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have affected our business directly in a number of ways, including through the temporary closures of many businesses and schools and the institution of social distancing requirements in many states and local communities. Businesses or schools that have reopened have restricted or limited access for the foreseeable future and may do so on a permanent or episodic basis. As a result, our ability to sell products through our regular channels and the demand for our products and services has been significantly impacted.

While we have implemented risk management and contingency plans with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, such measures may not adequately protect our business from the full impacts of the pandemic. Currently, most of our employees and advisors are continuing to work remotely. Extended periods of remote work arrangements could introduce additional operational risk including, but not limited to, cybersecurity risks, and impair our ability to effectively manage our business. We also outsource a variety of functions to third parties whose business continuity strategies are largely outside our control.

Economic uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic may have an adverse effect on product sales and result in existing policyholders withdrawing at greater rates. COVID-19 could have an adverse effect on our insurance business due to increased mortality and morbidity rates. The cost of reinsurance to us for these policies could increase, and we may encounter decreased availability of such reinsurance. If policyholder lapse and surrender rates or premium waivers significantly exceed our expectations, we may need to change our assumptions, models or reserves.

Our investment portfolio has been, and may continue to be, adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our investments in mortgages and commercial mortgage-backed securities have been, and could continue to be, negatively affected by delays or failures of borrowers to make payments of principal and interest when due. In some jurisdictions, local governments have imposed delays or moratoriums on many forms of enforcement actions. Furthermore, declines in equity markets and interest rates, reduced liquidity or a continued slowdown in the U.S. or in global economic conditions may also adversely affect the values and cash flows of investments. Market volatility also caused significant increases in credit spreads, and any continued volatility may increase our borrowing costs and decrease product fee income. Further, severe market volatility may leave us unable to react to market events in a prudent manner consistent with our historical investment practices.

The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on us will depend on future developments that are still highly uncertain, including the severity and duration of the pandemic, actions taken by governments and other third parties in response to the pandemic and the availability and efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 and its variants.

Your account value and cash value

Your “Total account value” is the total of: (i) the Protected Benefit account value, and (ii) the Investment account value. Your “Protected Benefit account value” is the total value you have in: (i) the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, and (ii) amounts in the Special DCA program designated for the Protected Benefit account variable investment options. Your “Investment account value” is the total value you have in: (i) the Investment account variable investment options, (ii) the guaranteed interest option, and (iii) amounts in the Special DCA program designated for the Investment account variable investment options and the guaranteed interest option. See “What are your investment options under the contract?” in “Purchasing the Contract” for a detailed list of the Protected Benefit account variable investment options and Investment account variable investment options.

Your contract also has a “cash value.” Your contract’s cash value is equal to the Total account value, less: (i) the total amount or a pro rata portion of the annual administrative charge; and (ii) any optional benefit charges. Please see “Surrendering your contract to receive its cash value” in “Accessing your money”.

Your contract’s value in the variable investment options

Each variable investment option invests in shares of a corresponding Portfolio. Your value in each variable investment option is measured by “units.” The value of your units will increase or decrease as though you had invested it in the corresponding Portfolio’s shares directly. Your value, however, will be reduced by the amount of the fees and charges that we deduct under the contract.

The unit value for each variable investment option depends on the investment performance of that option, less daily charges for:

On any day, your value in any variable investment option equals the number of units credited to that option, adjusted for any units purchased for or deducted from your contract under that option, multiplied by that day’s value for one unit. The number of your contract units in any variable investment option does not change unless they are:

In addition, when we deduct any Guaranteed benefit charge, the number of units credited to your contract will be reduced. Your units are also reduced when we deduct the annual administrative charge. A description of how unit values are calculated can be found in the SAI.

Your contract’s value in the guaranteed interest option

Your value in the guaranteed interest option at any time will equal: your contributions and transfers to that option, plus interest, minus transfers and withdrawals out of the option, and charges we deduct.

Your contract’s value in the account for special dollar cost averaging

Your value in the account for special dollar cost averaging at any time will equal your contribution allocated to that option, plus interest, minus any amounts that have been transferred to the variable investment options you have selected, and charges we deduct.

Effect of your account values falling to zero

In general, your contract will terminate without value if your Total account value falls to zero as the result of withdrawals, or the payment of any applicable charges when due, or a combination of two, as described below:

Any remaining RMD payments from the Investment account will continue uninterrupted from the Investment account, beginning in the calendar year the Protected Benefit account falls to zero. See “RMD Wealth Guard death benefit” in “Benefits available under the contract”; and “Tax information” for more information.

Certain withdrawals, even one that does not cause your Total account value to fall to zero, will be treated as a request to surrender your contract and terminate your Guaranteed minimum death benefit. See “Withdrawals treated as surrenders” in “Accessing your money.”

As discussed in this Prospectus, we reserve the right to discontinue or limit your ability to make subsequent contributions to the contract or subsequent transfers or contributions to the Protected Benefit account variable investment options, either directly or through the Special DCA program. If we exercise this right, you will not have the ability to fund the contract and any Guaranteed benefits in order to avoid contract and/or Guaranteed benefit termination.

Withdrawals and/or deductions of charges during or following a period of poor market performance in which your account values decrease, increases the possibility that such a withdrawal or deduction could cause your account values to fall to zero.

Transferring your account value

At any time before the date annuity payments are to begin, you can transfer some or all of your Total account value among the investment options, subject to the following: