Jackson National Offers Alternative Investments to Masses

Jackson National Life Insurance Company, a purveyor of variable annuities, is looking to offer its advisors and their retail clients access to alternative investments.

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The move is comes in its newly launched Elite Access VA product, which offers investors access to managed futures, commodities, listed private equity, global infrastructure, convertible arbitrage and emerging markets debt.

The product can invest in alternative products from shops such as Curian Capital, BlackRock and Ivy Investment Management Company as well as traditional investments from American Funds, Franklin Templeton, J.P. Morgan and T. Rowe Price.

Jackson is embarking on a national, multi-faceted educational campaign that includes a Web presence, regional seminars, adviser webcasts, training programs, and new multimedia marketing materials to introduce Elite Access to advisers.

“We’re trying to satisfy a problem in the retail retirement services market,” Clifford Jack, head of retail for Jackson, told Money Management Executive. “It’s clear that institutional investors did better than the average retail investor during the financial crisis because they had access to asset classes like alternatives.

Elite Access charges between 225 basis points to 250 basis points for the costlier fully liquid option.

Hung Tran writes for Money Management Executive.