JNL/Westchester Capital Event Driven Fund
JNL Series Trust
Expense ratio
Net assets1
$48.11M
Holdings1
315
Category
US Equity
Return

Investment objective & strategy

As of April 24, 2025 · prospectus

Objective. The investment objective of the Fund is to seek to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns with low relative volatility in virtually all market environments. Risk-adjusted return is a concept that considers not only an investments return, but also the amount of potential risk involved in producing that return.

Strategy. The Fund primarily employs investment strategies designed to capture price movements generated by specific events, including, but not limited to, securities of companies involved in mergers, acquisitions, asset sales or other divestitures, restructurings, refinancings, recapitalizations, reorganizations or other special situations (referred to as event-driven opportunities). Among the investment strategies the sub-adviser, Westchester Capital Management, LLC (Sub-Adviser) may use on behalf of the Fund are the following: Merger-Arbitrage Strategy : The Fund may purchase the securities of companies that are involved in publicly announced mergers, takeovers and other corporate reorganizations, and use one or more arbitrage strategies in connection with the purchase. Although a variety of strategies may be employed depending upon the nature of the reorganizations, the most common merger-arbitrage … The Fund primarily employs investment strategies designed to capture price movements generated by specific events, including, but not limited to, securities of companies involved in mergers, acquisitions, asset sales or other divestitures, restructurings, refinancings, recapitalizations, reorganizations or other special situations (referred to as event-driven opportunities). Among the investment strategies the sub-adviser, Westchester Capital Management, LLC (Sub-Adviser) may use on behalf of the Fund are the following: Merger-Arbitrage Strategy : The Fund may purchase the securities of companies that are involved in publicly announced mergers, takeovers and other corporate reorganizations, and use one or more arbitrage strategies in connection with the purchase. Although a variety of strategies may be employed depending upon the nature of the reorganizations, the most common merger-arbitrage strategy involves purchasing the shares of an announced acquisition target at a discount to their expected value upon completion of the acquisition. The size of this discount, known as the arbitrage spread, generally determines the Funds potential profit on any given investment. In conjunction with investment in a target company, the Fund may employ a variety of hedging strategies to protect against issuer-related risk, including selling short the securities of the company that proposes to acquire the target company and/or the purchase and sale of put and call options. Special Situations Strategy : The Fund may invest in the securities of issuers based upon the expectation of the Sub-Adviser that the price of such securities may change in the short term due to a special situation, such as a stock buy-back, spinoffs and split-offs, credit rating upgrade, the outcome of litigation or other dispute, a positive earnings report, legislative or regulatory changes or other catalyst-driven event. Capital Structure Arbitrage : Capital structure arbitrage is an investment strategy that seeks to profit from relative pricing discrepancies between related securities, such as securities of different classes issued by the same issuer. For example, when the Sub-Adviser believes that unsecured debt securities are overvalued in relation to senior secured debt securities of the same issuer, the Fund may purchase the senior secured debt securities of the issuer and take a short position in the unsecured debt securities of the same issuer. Convertible Arbitrage : Convertible arbitrage is a strategy that seeks to profit from mispricings between an issuers convertible securities and the underlying equity securities. A common convertible arbitrage approach matches a long position in a convertible security with a short position in the underlying common stock when an investor believes the convertible security is undervalued relative to the value of the underlying equity security. In such a case, the investor may seek to sell short shares of the underlying common stock in order to hedge exposure to the issuer of the equity securities. Convertible arbitrage positions may be designed to earn income from coupon or dividend payments on the investment in the convertible securities. Distressed/Restructuring : The Fund may invest in securities, including debt securities, of financially distressed companies and companies undergoing or expected to undergo bankruptcy or other insolvency proceeding. The Fund may invest in corporate bonds, privately held loans and other securities or obligations of companies that are highly leveraged, are experiencing financial difficulties or have filed for bankruptcy. The Fund may profit from its investments in such issuers if the issuer undergoes a successful restructuring or recapitalization, undertakes asset sales or participates in spin-off transactions. The Fund may also purchase securities in anticipation of a companys recovery or turnaround or the liquidation of all or some of the companys assets. Option Income Strategies : The Fund may sell, or write, call options on its portfolio securities. The Fund may also write call options on one or more basket of stocks, such as the S&P 500 Index or an industry sub-group of the S&P 500 Index. The options written by the Fund are considered covered if the Fund owns the stocks or basket of stocks against which the options are written. The Sub-Adviser may determine to purchase shares and sell call options on those shares at approximately the same time, although the sale of options on the Funds portfolio securities may occur at any time or not at all. The Sub-Adviser may utilize the option writing strategy at any time, including in a relatively flat or declining market environment, to earn premium income. The Fund may sell call options on substantially all of its portfolio securities. The Fund may utilize other options strategies, such as writing options on securities it does not currently own (known as uncovered options), buying or selling options when the Sub-Adviser believes they may be mispriced or may provide attractive opportunities to earn income, or engaging in risk-reversal transactions. In a risk-reversal transaction, the Sub-Adviser may buy put options and sell call options against a long stock position. In implementing the Funds investment strategies, the Fund may invest in a wide variety of investments, such as equity securities of any kind, debt securities of any kind, including, among others, corporate debt obligations (including defaulted securities and obligations of distressed issuers), those that pay a fixed or floating rate of interest, warrants, convertible securities, master limited partnerships, derivative instruments of any kind, including options, futures, currency forwards and swaps. The Fund may purchase fixed- and floating-rate income investments of any credit quality or maturity, including corporate bonds, bank debt and preferred securities. Certain of the debt securities in which the Fund invests may carry non-investment-grade ratings (rated BB+ or lower by S&P Global Ratings, or comparably rated by another nationally recognized statistical rating organization), or may be unrated investments of comparable quality, commonly referred to as high-yield or junk bonds. The Fund may enter into derivative transactions and other instruments of any kind for hedging purposes, duration or volatility management purposes, or otherwise to gain, or reduce, long or short exposure to one or more asset classes or issuers. For example, the Fund may write call options on its portfolio securities or a market index that is representative of its portfolio with the expectation of generating additional income. The Sub-Adviser may seek to hedge the Funds portfolio against a decline in the value of its portfolio securities or a decline in the market generally by purchasing put options. The Fund also may use derivative transactions with the purpose or effect of creating investment leverage. The Fund may invest in derivative instruments in any manner consistent with its investment strategies. The Fund may invest in other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Those investments may be made for the purpose of, among other things, gaining or hedging market exposure, hedging exposure to a particular industry, sector or component of an event-driven opportunity, or managing the Funds cash position. The Fund may hold a significant portion of its assets in cash, money market investments, money market funds or other similar short-term investments for defensive purposes or to preserve the Funds ability to capitalize quickly on new market opportunities. During periods when the Fund is so invested, its investment returns may be lower than if it were not so invested and the Fund may not achieve its investment objective. The Fund may also invest in special purpose acquisition companies, a form of investment vehicle typically formed for the purpose of acquiring an operating business. In making investments for the Fund, the Sub-Adviser is guided by the following general considerations: ? before an initial position in an event-driven opportunity is established, a preliminary analysis is made of the expected event to determine the probability and timing of the event; ? in deciding whether or to what extent to invest, the Sub-Adviser evaluates, among other things, the credibility, strategic motivation and financial resources of the relevant participants, and the liquidity of the securities involved in the transaction; and ? the risk-reward characteristics of each event-driven opportunity are assessed on an ongoing basis.

Top holdings

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
SecurityTickerValue% of fund
JNL Government Money Market Fund $3.38M 7.04%
ENDEAVOR GROUP HOLDINGS INC $3.02M 6.27%
NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORP $2.66M 5.53%
WEBSTER FINL $2.27M 4.72%
APTIV PLC $1.40M 2.90%
UNIFIRST CORP/MA $1.39M 2.88%
CLEARWATER ANALYTICS HOLDINGS INC $1.22M 2.54%
MAUSER PACKAGING SOLUT SECURED 144A 04/30 9.25 BWY $1.21M 2.51%
BARRICK MINING CORP $1.13M 2.34%
Altaba Inc. $1.05M 2.19%
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Allocation by sector

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
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Portfolio moves

Dec 31, 2025 → Mar 31, 2026
Opened
111
Exited
52
Increased
23
Decreased
22
Unchanged
177

How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.

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Similar funds

Funds whose portfolios most overlap this one, by weight
FundOverlapNet exp.
Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fund · WCERX, WCEIX 80% 1.60%
The Merger Fund VL · MERVX 58% 1.54%
The Merger Fund · MERFX, MERIX 55% 1.27%
View all similar funds →

Advisers

As of December 31, 2025 · N-CEN
FirmRole
Westchester Capital Management, LLC Sub-adviser
Jackson National Asset Management, LLC Adviser

Footnotes

  1. Net assets and holdings count as of March 31, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.

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