Pacific Life Launches Marketing Campaign Targeted At Advisors

By Cyril Tuohy

InsuranceNewsNet

Pacific Life has launched a nationwide marketing campaign targeted at financial advisors about the importance of diversifying their clients’ portfolios of fixed income investments, the company said.

Known as the “Diversify with Corporate Income” campaign, the initiative’s goal is to educate investors – through their advisors – about how corporate bonds can provide more opportunities for higher income than U.S. government securities, albeit with more risk.

“Most investors are not familiar with the spectrum of fixed-income opportunities available to them,” Chris van Mierlo, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales in Pacific Life’s Retirement Solutions Division, said in a statement. “That’s why the educational component of our campaign is so important because it provides investors and their advisors the tools to understand the benefits of adding corporate income to a portfolio.”

At less than $150,000, the cost of the campaign is relatively modest but the company plans to deliver the message through print and digital channels including e-mail, website promotions, web video, webinars, and sales brochures, Anthony Dufault, associate vice president in the Investment Marketing Group of Pacific Life’s Retirement Solutions Division, said in an e-mail to InsuranceNewsNet.

The investment services giant is scheduled to run the campaign through the first quarter of 2014, “depending on results and feedback,” Dufault said.

Dufault also said the campaign was unrelated to the recent rise in interest rates, and that it is designed to support and promote the expertise of Pacific Asset Management, which specializes in corporate credit investing.

“Corporate credit can be viewed as complementary to an investor’s fixed income holdings in government securities,” he said. “For an increase in credit risk, a more attractive yield is available. Granted rates are low in absolute terms, but yields in corporate fixed income securities are still higher relative to government securities.”

All five of Pacific Life’s fixed income funds -- PL Short Duration Income Fund, PL Income Fund, PL Strategic Income Fund, PL Floating Rate Income Fund, and PL High Income Fund -- provide opportunities to realize the benefits of corporate income, the company said.

Fund holdings include a combination of investment-grade corporate bonds, high-yield corporate bonds, floating-rate loans and short-term debt securities, the company also said.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at Cyril.Tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.