Advisor-support, SMA affiliates role out latest in a series of promotions. Jackson National Life Insurance has made Doug Townsend CFO of Jackson National Life Distributors (JNLD) and Curian Capital. He'd been controller for both Jackson affiliates since 2004. But now he's responsible for every aspect of their accounting and financial reporting and financial strategy.

JNLD Jackson's marketing and distribution organization; Curian provides fractional-share separately managed account platforms to fee-based brokers.

Poetic license

The two groups have been nothing if not generous with promotions -- and accompanying press releases -- in recent months.

"Doug has been instrumental in developing Curian's infrastructure as the firm has evolved into one of the top managed account providers in the industry, and he has effectively managed the financial operations of Jackson's ever-expanding distribution organization," says Jackson's CFO Andy Hopping. "As Curian and JNLD continue to grow, Doug's experience and expertise will be an invaluable asset to both companies."

Curian had $3.3 billion in assets under management at the end of June last year.

Before joining Jackson, Townsend was president and CEO of Ocean Journey -- a Denver-based aquarium that went broke in 2002 and emerged the next year as the Downtown Aquarium. He has also worked at Madison Avenue Capital Group, NatCity Investments, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jackson has also promoted John Koehler to the position of v.p. of JNLD's Retirement and Wealth Strategies group, a team he's been leading since he joined the firm in 2005. He oversees nine specialists in retirement planning, estate planning, business planning, charitable giving and tax strategies.

Lansing, Mich.-based Jackson is a subsidiary of London-based Prudential plc -- which isn't at all linked to Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Financial. -FWR

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