Jackson Beefs Up Advisory With New Hires

First came the products, now come the senior managers.

Jackson National, the nation’s top variable annuity seller, has hired three new executives to oversee the company’s growing advisory business, the company announced.

The newly created positions come after Jackson launched fee-based annuities to appeal to financial advisors.

Broker-dealers and registered investment advisors have also displayed newfound interest in annuities to provide long-term income.

Scott Romine, former president and CEO of broker-dealer National Planning Holdings, was named president of Advisory Solutions for Jackson National Life Distributors, Jackson said.

Greg Masucci was hired as senior vice president of National Accounts for JNLD and Tim Munsie as senior vice president of JNLD’s Advisory Resource Group, Jackson also said.

The Advisory Resource Group operates as an in-house intermediary between JNLD’s products and third-party financial technology providers.

National Planning Holdings, an affiliate of Jackson, sold its independent broker-dealer network to LPL last summer.

Resources to Advisory

Jackson entered the advisor market with a fee-based variable annuity last fall and the company is prepared to commit more resources to the advisory segment to handle the growth, the company said.

“This is new territory for the company, so we’re building our advisory efforts from the ground up,” Romine said.

Romine will oversee departments dedicated to helping financial professionals and supporting Jackson’s National Sales Desk, National Accounts, Advisory Sales Strategy, Advisory Resource Group and Trust/RIA teams, the company said.

Masucci, who joins the company from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, will be charged with overseeing the National Accounts team for JNLD.

Munsie, also an alumnus of National Planning Holdings, oversaw the broker-dealer networks’ advisory platform.

Broker-Dealers, RIAs Show Interest

Jackson sold $17.4 billion in variable annuities last year, up from $17.2 billion in 2016, and retains a 19.5 percent market share of the variable annuity market, according to Morningstar.

But the vast majority of those variable annuity sales compensate sellers via commission and fee-based products remain a sliver of overall annuity sales.

Insurers, however, say broker-dealers and RIAs are more interested than ever in fee-based products as uniform fiduciary rules loom.

In November, Jackson launched Perspective Advisory II, a fee-based variable annuity with no surrender charge.

This year, the company launched MarketProtector and MarketProtector Advisory, a new family of indexed annuities.

MarketProtector Advisory is the first fee-based indexed annuity that does not carry a surrender charge.

To help advisors who haven’t relied on insurance and annuity products in the past, JNLD also formed a team of regional advisory consultants, Jackson said.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Writer Cyril Tuohy has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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