Close Close
ThinkAdvisor

Portfolio > Alternative Investments

Jackson National Unveils VA with Alternative Investments

By Warren S. Hersch

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Lansing, Mich., has launched Elite Access, a deferred variable annuity that avails policyholders of investments in alternative asset classes to offset market volatility.

The 12 alternative investments options include managed futures, commodities, listed private equity, global infrastructure, convertible arbitrage and emerging markets debt. The product also features traditional investments from American Funds, Franklin Templeton, J.P. Morgan and T. Rowe Price, among other active managers.

In other company news:

OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc., Indianapolis, Ind., enjoyed its most successful year in every major sales category, breaking company records set in 2010 for 401(k) sales, employer-sponsored not-for-profit sales, total assets and plan participants. OneAmerica says it also had its best year of retaining retirement business and renewal growth, a measure of the growth of assets within retirement plans already with the company.

OneAmerica achieved 51% year-over-year growth in retirement sales, including a 67% increase in 401(k) sales. The company ended the year with a record 95% retention rate on existing business including 98.6% retention on its large block of tax-exempt health care business.

OneAmerica says it also achieved 20% growth on existing plans and ended 2011 with more assets under management and plan participants than at any other time in the company’s 130-year-plus history.

ING U.S., a unit of Dutch-based ING Group N.V. (NYSE: ING), has hired Kevin D. Silva as executive vice president and chief human resources officer. The company says Silva will direct a human resources strategy focused on attracting, retaining and developing employees. Silva, who is based in New York, will report to ING U.S. CEO Rodney Martin.

Silva joins ING U.S. from Argo Group International, a global, publicly traded specialty insurance company, where he served as chief human resources officer. At Argo, he was responsible for building a team and implementing compensation, succession and executive-development practices.

The Retirement Solutions Division of Pacific Life Insurance Company, Newport Beach, Calif., was a winner in the annual DALBAR awards for service excellence. DALBAR, a Boston-based financial services market research firm, honors mutual fund, broker/dealer, annuity, life insurance, and retirement plan providers that were found to be above their peers in service to clients and financial professionals over the course of an entire year. 2011 marks the 11th year that Pacific Life has been among the winners.

Pacific Life says it earned its most recent DALBAR awards in three categories. The company was ranked no. 1 in servicing inbound telephone calls from registered representatives, its second consecutive year of receiving the top spot in this category. Pacific Life also received DALBAR awards for its service to clients and, for the second consecutive year, was the only winner in the category of serving top financial professionals.