Roosevelt Financial Hires CoreLink for Sales Support

Roosevelt Financial Group is beefing up its retail investment program in the wake of an acquisition binge that has quadrupled the thrift's assets over the last two years.

The $8.4 billion-asset company, based in St. Louis, has tapped CoreLink Resources, Concord, Calif., to provide sales support. And it is adding mutual funds to a product menu that had previously been restricted to annuities. The company markets investments in 78 offices of Roosevelt Bank, its primary subsidiary.

The contract with CoreLink replaces a patchwork of relationships with third-party providers of brokerage services, according to Thomas J. Soltis, executive vice president of Roosevelt Financial Services, a subsidiary of Roosevelt Bank.

"Part of our aim was to consolidate broker-dealer services with one company," Mr. Soltis said in a telephone interview.

Roosevelt itself had been using Trimerica Securities, Des Moines, for brokerage services since the early 1980s. Through mergers, it inherited several relationships with other suppliers, including Wall Street Investor Services, New York.

Roosevelt reviewed proposals from 54 brokerage firms over six months before settling on CoreLink, Mr. Soltis said.

He said CoreLink prevailed because it offered the thrift some synergies other suppliers could not provide. CoreLink's majority owner is Bisys Group, Little Falls, N.J., a leading provider of outsourcing services to financial institutions. Bisys counts Roosevelt Bank as a top client.

"We have some additional potential benefits with Bisys being Roosevelt Bank's data processing provider," Mr. Soltis said. For instance, "We can hook into CoreLink to have a voice-response system on the status of brokerage accounts."

CoreLink is also expected to help the thrift develop a consolidated statement that includes information on brokerage and bank accounts, and eventually may help Roosevelt enter the 401(k) plan business.

"The combination of CoreLink's innovative broker-dealer services and Bisys' database marketing, sales training and distribution expertise represents a powerful union," said Paul H. Bourke, president and chief operating officer of Bisys Group.

Roosevelt employs 11 investment sales managers. It also has 110 branch employees who are licensed to sell annuities and other life insurance products, 52 of whom carry Series 6 securities licenses as well.

The company's short list of mutual funds include six funds each from Franklin Resources and Putnam Funds, and tax-free bond funds for Missouri and Kansas from Voyageur Funds Managers.

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