Nested elements with List is null with ResponseEntity in Spring - spring-restcontroller

Question

I have a REST Controller as follows using Spring boot 1.3.5 and Java 8. This works perfect while testing with Advanced REST Client (ARC) Utility - send xml request and returns the expected xml response as shown right below this controller code.
#RestController
#EnableAutoConfiguration
#RequestMapping("/rateQuote")
public class RateQuoteController {
#Autowired
private RateQuotingService rateQuotingService;
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, consumes = {"application/json","application/xml"}, produces = {"application/json","application/xml"})
public ResponseEntity<RateQuoteDto> getRateQuote(#RequestBody RESTRequestDto request){
RateQuoteDto rateQuoteDto = rateQuotingService.getRateQuote(request.getStateCode(), request.getZipCode(), request.getClient(), request.getThreshold(),
benefit,request.getLob(), localEffectiveDate);
return (new ResponseEntity<>(rateQuoteDto, HttpStatus.OK));
}
}
Request with ARC-
url - http://localhost:8080/rateQuote
Method - POST
Headers -
Content-Type: application/xml
Accept: application/xml
Request Body -
<request>
<stateCode>NY</stateCode>
<zipCode>10005</zipCode>
<client>BMG</client>
<threshold>1000</threshold>
<lob>PDI</lob>
<benefitLevel>15000</benefitLevel>
<effectiveDate>2016-01-01</effectiveDate>
</request
Response -
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rateQuote>
<status>Approve</status>
<message>Quote is successfully retrieved.</message>
<quote>
<threshold1 amount="1000">
<benefits>
<benefitLevel amount="15000">
<annualPremium>990.00</annualPremium>
<semiAnnualPremium>440.00</semiAnnualPremium>
<quaterlyPremium>200.00</quaterlyPremium>
<monthlyPremium>77.00</monthlyPremium>
</benefitLevel>
</benefits>
</threshold1>
</quote>
</rateQuote>
So far so good. However, I have an issue with response when call is made grammatically.And the issue is that the most of the response's nodes are null as shown below:
#Test
public void getQuote()throws Exception{
RestTemplate template = new RestTemplate();
//RESTRequestDto is JAXB decorated
RESTRequestDto body = new RESTRequestDto();
body.setStateCode("NY");
body.setZipCode("10005");
body.setClient("BMG");
body.setThreshold("1000");
body.setLob("PDI");
body.setBenefitLevel("15000");
body.setEffectiveDate(DateUtils.createDate("2016-01-01", "yyyy-MM-dd"));
RequestEntity<RESTRequestDto> request = RequestEntity.post(new URI("http://localhost:8080/rateQuote"))
.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_XML).body(body);
ResponseEntity<RateQuoteDto> response = template.exchange(request, RateQuoteDto.class);
RateQuoteDto rateQuote = response.getBody();
System.out.println(rateQuote);
}
Response -
RateQuoteDto{status=Approve, message=Quote is successfully retrieved., zipCode=null, clientId=null, quote=QuoteDto{threshold1=ThresholdDto{amount=1000, benefitLevelLst=null}}}
However, changing the Media Type to JSON works as shown below:
RequestEntity<RESTRequestDto> request = RequestEntity.post(new URI("http://localhost:8080/rateQuote"))
.accept(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).contentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).body(body);
Response -
RateQuoteDto{status=Approve, message=Quote is successfully retrieved., zipCode=10005, clientId=BMG, quote=QuoteDto{threshold1=ThresholdDto{amount=1000, benefitLevelLst=[BenefitDto{amount=15000, annualPremium=990.00, semiAnnualPremium=440.00, quaterlyPremium=200.00, monthlyPremium=77.00}]}}}
Observation -
As shown below, the ist benefitLevelLst is not bound with MediaType.XML returning null value show above but works just fine with MediaType.JSON. Any idea as to why?
public class ThresholdDto {
#XmlAttribute
private String amount;
#XmlElementWrapper(name = "benefits")
#XmlElement(name = "benefitLevel")
private List<BenefitDto> benefitLevelLst;
. . .
}