JNL Series Trust

01/21/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/21/2022 09:15

Summary Prospectus by Investment Company (Form 497K)

Summary Prospectus - April 26, 2021, as amended January 21, 2022
JNL/Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund
(formerly, JNL/Vanguard International Fund)
Class A
Class I
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund's Prospectus and other information about the Fund, including the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI") and most recent reports to shareholders, online at http://connect.rightprospectus.com/Jackson. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-644-4565 (Annuity and Life Service Center), 1-800-599-5651 (NY Annuity and Life Service Center), 1-800-777-7779 (for contracts purchased through a bank or financial institution) or 1-888-464-7779 (for NY contracts purchased through a bank or financial institution), or by sending an email request to [email protected]. The current Prospectus and SAI, both dated April 26, 2021, as amended, are incorporated by reference into (which means they legally are a part of) this Summary Prospectus.
Investment Objective. The investment objective of the Fund is capital appreciation.
Expenses. This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund.
The expenses do not reflect the expenses of the variable insurance contracts or the separate account through which you indirectly invest in the Fund, whichever may be applicable, and the total expenses would be higher if they were included.
You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.
Shareholder Fees
(fees paid directly from your investment)
Not Applicable
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(Expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Class A
Management Fee
0.53%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees
0.30%
Other Expenses1
0.15%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses2
0.98%
1
"Other Expenses" include an Administrative Fee of 0.14% which is payable to Jackson National Asset Management, LLC ("JNAM" or "Adviser").
2
Expense information has been restated to reflect current fees.

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(Expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Class I
Management Fee
0.53%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees
0.00%
Other Expenses1
0.15%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses2
0.68%
1
"Other Expenses" include an Administrative Fee of 0.14% which is payable to Jackson National Asset Management, LLC ("JNAM" or "Adviser").
2
Expense information has been restated to reflect current fees.

Expense Example. This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. Also, this example does not reflect the expenses of the variable insurance contracts or the separate account through which you indirectly invest in the Fund, whichever may be applicable, and the total expenses would be higher if they were included. The table below shows the expenses you would pay on a $10,000 investment, assuming (1) 5% annual return; (2) redemption at the end of each time period; and (3) that the Fund operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
JNL/Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund Class A
1 year
3 years
5 years
10 years
$100
$312
$542
$1,201

JNL/Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund Class I
1 year
3 years
5 years
10 years
$69
$218
$379
$847

Portfolio Turnover (% of average value of portfolio). The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Expense Example above, affect the Fund's performance.
Period
1/1/2020 - 12/31/2020
22
%

Portfolio turnover for the period of January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 is for the Fund's master fund when operating under its former investment strategy as a feeder fund in a master-feeder fund arrangement.
Principal Investment Strategies. The Fund seeks to meet its objective by investing in a diversified, international portfolio of common stocks and other equity securities of issuers located in countries of developed and emerging markets.
The Fund invests predominantly in securities issued by companies located in countries outside the United States, including a range of developed and emerging market countries. The Fund may, however, invest up to 10% of its net assets in common stocks and other equities of companies located in the United States. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests in securities of issuers located in at least three countries outside the United States and typically maintains substantial exposure to emerging markets. The Fund may invest in equity securities either directly or indirectly, such as through depositary receipts, and may invest in preferred stocks, convertible securities and warrants. The Fund may invest in issuers of any market capitalization and may participate in initial public offerings ("IPOs") and in securities offerings that are not registered in the United States. In selecting companies for investment, the Fund's sub-adviser, Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited ("Sub-Adviser") generally considers issuers in both developed and emerging markets.
The Fund may invest in Rule 144A and Regulation S securities. Rule 144A securities are securities offered as exempt from registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") but are typically treated as liquid securities because there is a market for such securities. Regulation S securities are securities of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers that are issued through private offerings without registration with the SEC pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
The Sub-Adviser employs a bottom-up approach to stock selection and selects companies without regard to a benchmark. The Sub-Adviser focuses on company research and the long-term outlook of companies and industries. Ideas regarding potential companies to add to the Fund's portfolio can come from a wide variety of sources, including, but not limited to, meetings with companies' management teams and other stakeholders and relationships with industry thought leaders and academics. Stock ideas will be researched to assess a range of factors, including: a company's geographic and industry positioning relating to its products and services (both current position and future potential), its competitive advantage over its competitors, its management team, its financial strength, and its valuation. The intended outcome is a diversified portfolio of at least 50 growth companies with the potential to outperform the benchmark over the long term. The Fund aims to hold securities for long periods (typically 5 years), which results in relatively low portfolio turnover and is in line with the Fund's long-term investment outlook.
The Fund may invest without limitation in securities quoted or denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar and may hold such currencies. The Fund does not expect to engage in currency hedging and thus expects to be fully exposed to currency fluctuations relative to the U.S. dollar.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not guaranteed. As with any mutual fund, the value of the Fund's shares will change, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. The principal risks associated with investing in the Fund include:
•
Market risk - Portfolio securities may decline in value due to factors affecting securities markets generally, such as real or perceived adverse economic, political, or regulatory conditions, inflation, changes in interest or currency rates or adverse investor sentiment, public health issues, including widespread disease and virus epidemics or pandemics such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, war, terrorism or natural disasters, among others. Adverse market conditions may be prolonged and may not have the same impact on all types of securities. The values of securities may fall due to factors affecting a particular issuer, industry or the securities market as a whole.
•
Equity securities risk - Common and preferred stocks represent equity ownership in a company. Stock markets are volatile, and equity securities generally have greater price volatility than fixed-income securities. The price of equity or equity-related securities will fluctuate and can decline and reduce the value of a portfolio investing in equity or equity-related securities. The value of equity or equity-related securities purchased or held by the Fund could decline if the financial condition of the companies the Fund invests in decline or if overall market and economic conditions deteriorate. They may also decline due to factors that affect a particular industry or industries, such as labor shortages or an increase in production costs and competitive conditions within an industry. In addition, they may decline due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a company or industry, such as real or perceived adverse economic conditions, changes in the general outlook for corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates or generally adverse investor sentiment.
•
Managed portfolio risk - As an actively managed portfolio, the value of the Fund's investments could decline because the financial condition of an issuer may change (due to such factors as management performance, reduced demand or overall market changes), financial markets may fluctuate or overall prices may decline, or the Sub- Adviser's investment techniques could fail to achieve the Fund's investment objective or negatively affect the Fund's investment performance.
•
Investment style risk - The returns from a certain investment style may be lower than the returns from the overall stock market. Growth stock prices frequently reflect projections of future earnings or revenues, and if earnings growth expectations are not met, their stock prices will likely fall, which may reduce the value of a Fund's investment in those stocks. Over market cycles, different investment styles may sometimes outperform other investment styles (for example, growth investing may outperform value investing).
•
Emerging markets and less developed countries risk - Emerging market and less developed countries generally are located in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central and South America and Africa.Investments in, or exposure to, securities that are tied economically to emerging market and less developed countries are subject to all of the risks of investments in, or exposure to, foreign securities, generally to a greater extent than in developed markets, among other risks. Investments in securities that are tied economically to emerging markets involve greater risk from economic and political systems that typically are less developed, and likely to be less stable, than those in more advanced countries. The Fund also will be subject to the risk of adverse foreign currency rate fluctuations. Emerging market and less developed countries may also have economies that are predominantly based on only a few industries or dependent on revenues from particular commodities. The risks of nationalization, expropriation or other confiscation of assets of non-U.S. issuers is also greater in emerging and less developed countries. As a result of these risks, investments in securities tied economically to emerging markets tend to be more volatile than investments in securities of developed countries.
•
Asian investment risk - Investing in Asia involves many of the same risks as investing in foreign securities. In addition, since Asia includes both developed and emerging markets, investments by the Fund will be subject to the risks associated with investments in such markets. Performance is expected to be closely tied to social, political, and economic conditions within Asia and to be more volatile than the performance of more geographically diversified funds.
•
China risk - The Chinese economy is generally considered an emerging market and can be significantly affected by economic and political conditions and policy in China and surrounding Asian countries. A relatively small number of Chinese companies represents a large portion of China's total market and thus may be more sensitive to adverse political or economic circumstances and market movements. The economy of China differs, often unfavorably, from the U.S. economy in such respects as structure, general development, government involvement, wealth distribution, rate of inflation, growth rate, allocation of resources and capital reinvestment, among others. Under China's political and economic system, the central government has historically exercised substantial control over virtually every sector of the Chinese economy through administrative regulation and/or state ownership. In addition, expropriation, including nationalization, confiscatory taxation, political, economic or social instability or other developments could adversely affect and significantly diminish the values of the Chinese companies in which the Fund invests. The Chinese securities markets are subject to more frequent trading halts and low trading volume, resulting in substantially less liquidity and greater price volatility. These and other factors could have a negative impact on the Fund's performance and increase the volatility of an investment in the Fund.
•
Currency risk - Investments in foreign currencies, securities that trade in or receive revenues in foreign currencies, or derivatives that provide exposure to foreign currencies are subject to the risk that those currencies may decline in value or, in the case of hedging positions, that the currency may decline in value relative to the currency being hedged. Currency exchange rates can be volatile and may be affected by a number of factors, such as the general economics of a country, the actions (or inaction) of U.S. and foreign governments or central banks, the imposition of currency controls, and speculation. A decline in the value of a foreign currency versus the U.S. dollar reduces the value in U.S. dollars of investments denominated in that foreign currency.
•
Concentration risk - The Fund may concentrate its investments in certain securities. To the extent that the Fund focuses on particular countries, regions, industries, sectors, issuers, types of investment or limited number of securities from time to time, the Fund may be subject to greater risks of adverse economic, business or political developments in the area of focus than a fund that invests in a wider variety of countries, regions, industries, sectors or investments.
•
Investments in IPOs risk - IPOs issued by unseasoned companies with little or no operating history are risky and highly volatile.
•
Foreign regulatory risk - The Adviser is a subsidiary of Jackson. Jackson is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jackson Financial Inc., which is a subsidiary of Prudential plc. Prudential plc is a publicly traded company incorporated in the United Kingdom and is not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial Inc., a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America, or with The Prudential Assurance Company Ltd, a subsidiary of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. Through its ownership structure, the Adviser has a number of global financial industry affiliates. As a result of this structure, and the asset management and financial industry business activities of the Adviser and its affiliates, the Adviser and the Fund may be prohibited or limited in effecting transactions in certain securities. Additionally, the Adviser and the Fund may encounter trading limitations or restrictions because of aggregation issues or other foreign regulatory requirements. Foreign regulators or foreign laws may impose position limits on securities held by the Fund, and the Fund may be limited as to which securities it may purchase or sell, as well as the timing of such purchases or sales. These foreign regulatory limits may increase the Fund's expenses and may limit the Fund's performance.
•
Foreign securities risk - Investments in, or exposure to, foreign securities involve risks not typically associated with U.S. investments. These risks include, among others, adverse fluctuations in foreign currency values, possible imposition of foreign withholding or other taxes on income payable on the securities, as well as adverse political, social and economic developments, such as political upheaval, acts of terrorism, financial troubles, or natural disasters. Many foreign securities markets, especially those in emerging market countries, are less stable, smaller, less liquid, and less regulated than U.S. securities markets, and the costs of trading in those markets is often higher than in U.S. securities markets. There may also be less publicly available information about issuers of foreign securities compared to issuers of U.S. securities. In addition, the economies of certain foreign markets may not compare favorably with the economy of the United States with respect to issues such as growth of gross national product, reinvestment of capital, resources and balance of payments position.
•
Large-capitalization investing risk -Large-capitalization stocks as a group could fall out of favor with the market, which may cause the Fund to underperform funds that focus on other types of stocks.
•
Mid-capitalization and small-capitalization investing risk - The securities of mid-capitalization and small-capitalization companies involve greater risks than those associated with larger, more established companies and may be subject to more abrupt or erratic price movements. Securities of such issuers may lack sufficient market liquidity to enable a Fund to effect sales at an advantageous time or without a substantial drop in price. Both mid-capitalization and small-capitalization companies often have narrower markets and more limited managerial and financial resources than larger, more established companies. As a result, their performance can be more volatile and they face greater risk of business failure, which could increase the volatility of a Fund's portfolio. Generally, the smaller the company size, the greater these risks become.
•
Clearance and settlement risk - Foreign securities markets have different clearance and settlement procedures, and in certain markets there have been times when settlements have been unable to keep pace with the volume of securities transactions, making it difficult to conduct such transactions. This risk may be magnified in emerging markets because settlement systems may be less organized, creating a risk that settlements may be delayed or lost because of failures or defects in such systems.
•
Stock risk - Stock markets may experience significant short-term volatility and may fall sharply at times. Different stock markets may behave differently from each other and U.S. stock markets may move in the opposite direction from one or more foreign stock markets. The prices of individual stocks generally do not all move in the same direction at the same time and a variety of factors can affect the price of a particular company's stock.
•
Rule 144A securities risk - Rule 144A securities are securities offered as exempt from registration with the SEC, but may be treated as liquid securities because there is a market for such securities. Rule 144A securities may have an active trading market, but carry the risk that the active trading market may not continue. To the extent that institutional buyers become, for a time, uninterested in purchasing Rule 144A securities, investing in such securities could increase the Fund's level of illiquidity.
•
Regulation S securities risk - Regulation S securities may be less liquid than publicly traded securities and may not be subject to the disclosure and other investor protection requirements that would be applicable if they were publicly traded. Accordingly, Regulation S securities may involve a high degree of business and financial risk and may result in substantial losses.


Performance. The performance information shown provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund's performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund's average annual returns compared with those of a broad-based securities market index which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Performance results include the effect of expense waiver/reduction arrangements for some or all of the periods shown. If such arrangements had not been in place, performance for those periods would have been lower. Performance prior to April 26, 2021 reflects the Fund's results when the Fund did not have a sub-adviser and operated as a feeder fund in a master-feeder arrangement. The Fund's past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future.
The returns shown in the bar chart and table do not include charges that will be imposed by variable insurance products. If these amounts were reflected, returns would be less than those shown.
Effective December 31, 2021, for consistency with the Fund's principal investment strategies, the Fund will replace the MSCI All Country World Index ex USA Index (Net) with the Morningstar® Global ex-US Target Market Exposure IndexSM (Net) as the Fund's primary benchmark.
Annual Total Returns as of December 31
Class A
Best Quarter (ended 6/30/2020): 32.28%; Worst Quarter (ended 3/31/2020): -16.21%
Annual Total Returns as of December 31
Class I
Best Quarter (ended 6/30/2020): 32.36%; Worst Quarter (ended 3/31/2020): -16.12%
Average Annual Total Returns as of 12/31/2020
1 year
Life of Fund (September 25, 2017)
JNL/Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund (Class A)
56.66
%
20.43
%
MSCI All Country World ex USA Index (Net) (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)
10.65
%
5.89
%

Average Annual Total Returns as of 12/31/2020
1 year
Life of Class (September 25, 2017)
JNL/Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund (Class I)
57.17
%
20.77
%
MSCI All Country World ex USA Index (Net) (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)
10.65
%
5.89
%

Portfolio Management.
Investment Adviser to the Fund:
Jackson National Asset Management, LLC ("JNAM")
Sub-Adviser:
Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited ("Baillie Gifford")
Portfolio Managers:
Name:
Joined Fund Management Team In:
Title:
James K. Anderson
September 2017**
Portfolio Manager, Partner, Baillie Gifford & Co.*
Julia Angeles
April 2021
Portfolio Manager, Baillie Gifford & Co.*
Lawrence Burns
April 2021
Portfolio Manager, Partner, Baillie Gifford & Co.*
Thomas Coutts, CFA
September 2017**
Portfolio Manager, Partner, Baillie Gifford & Co.*
Brian Lum, CFA
April 2021
Portfolio Manager, Baillie Gifford & Co.*
* Baillie Gifford & Co. is the 100% owner of Baillie Gifford.
** From September 25, 2017 to April 26, 2021, the Fund operated as a "feeder fund" in a master-feed arrangement. During that time, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Coutts were portfolio managers of the Master Fund.
Purchase and Redemption of Fund Shares
Only separate accounts of Jackson National Life Insurance Company ("Jackson") or Jackson National Life Insurance Company of New York ("Jackson NY") and series, including fund of funds, of registered investment companies in which either or both of those insurance companies invest may purchase shares of the Fund. You may invest indirectly in the Fund through your purchase of a variable annuity or life insurance contract issued by a separate account of Jackson or Jackson NY that invests directly, or through a fund of funds, in this Fund. Any minimum initial or subsequent investment requirements and redemption procedures are governed by the applicable separate account through which you invest indirectly.
This Fund serves as an underlying investment by insurance companies, affiliated investment companies, and retirement plans for funding variable annuity and life insurance contracts and retirement plans.
Tax Information
The Fund's shareholders are separate accounts of Jackson or Jackson NY and mutual funds owned directly or indirectly by such separate accounts. Accordingly, the Fund's dividends and other distributions generally are not taxable to you, the contract owner or plan participant, but no further discussion is included about the U.S. federal income tax consequences to you. You should consult the prospectus of the appropriate separate account or description of the plan for a discussion of the U.S. federal income tax consequences to you of your contract, policy or plan.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Financial Intermediaries
If you invest in the Fund under a variable insurance contract or a plan that offers a variable insurance contract as a plan option through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a financial institution), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary's Website for more information.