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AIG Advisor Group May Finally Have A Buyer

00:00 01 August in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News August, 2009: With discussions regarding the sale of the AIG Advisor Group dragging on for months, representatives and financial advisers who are affiliated with the beleaguered broker-dealers of the firm are relieved now that two final bidders have emerged. Two private-equity firms, Light-year Capital LLC and Lovell Minnick Partners LLC, with strong ties to retail broker-dealers, are in the race for the AIG Advisor Group, a network of broker-dealers that houses about 6,000 independent registered reps and investment advisers. A winner could be announced in the next few weeks, sources said. The price that the AIG Advisor Group would command isn't clear. The most recent rounds of negotiations came in the late winter and early spring, with several potential buyers supposedly having interest. At that time, several sources...

Sale of AIG Advisor Group Seems Doubtful as Reps Head for Exits

00:00 01 June in In the News by rafferty

by Josh Kosman and featured in New York Post June, 2009: American International Group's efforts to sell its broker-dealer business, AIG Advisor Group, have hit a snag -- and it's causing jitters among the firm's 6,000 representatives and financial advisers. Division CEO Arthur Tambaro in April said that AIG was in final discussions with a potential buyer. But two months later, no deal has been struck. What's more, two sources told The Post that mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments considered providing financing for an unnamed bidder, but backed out. Fidelity declined to comment. The lack of a deal for AIG Advisor Group has already led to some departures among its staff, and some say if a deal isn't struck by year-end more than half of the company's employees may head for the exit....

Money In Motion

00:00 01 June in In the News by rafferty

by Jeff Schlegel and featured in Financial Advisor June, 2009: The demise of Wall Street as we knew it has led to a new conventional wisdom that goes something like this—the wirehouse broker-dealers are dead, long live the independents! As part of this upheaval, waves of disaffected advisors affiliated with wirehouses are expected to bolt their companies for mid-sized or smaller firms, accelerating a long-term trend. While reports on the death of the wirehouse brokerage firms are premature, news from the trenches indicates that advisors are switching firms—or at least inquiring about switching—in ever-larger numbers. “There’s certainly been an unprecedented number of bodies in motion right now,” says John Rooney, managing principal of Commonwealth Financial Network’s West Coast operations. “I’ve been in the business for 25 years and I’ve never seen this much...