Directory of Marketers and Clearing Firms

INVESTMENT MARKETERS

Affiliated Financial Services

Headquarters: Englewood, Colo.

Bank clients: 238

Bank contact: Richard J. Graham, chairman

If bank clients can't make it to a broker, Affiliated will bring a broker to them.

The marketer, which works chiefly with community banks, has begun offering video conferences for customers who use branches that lack brokers. "The customer comes into the bank, sits down, presses a screen, and up pops a broker," said Richard J. Graham, chairman.

Other popular services include a hot line that bank customers can call to revise their annuity or life insurance policies.

Affiliated does three-fourths of its sales in annuities and insurance, with the rest in mutual funds and individual securities. Its top annuity provider is Aegon USA.

Essex Corp.

Headquarters: New York

Bank clients: 250

Bank contact: Kevin E. Crowe, chairman

With help from an Omaha-based clearing firm, AmeriTrade Inc., Essex offers brokers 24-hour access to customer accounts. It also offers consolidated account statements, showing the value of customers' investments and any fees owed.

Annuities sales amount to two-thirds of the firm's business. Essex also markets securities, and Mr. Crowe said mutual funds are getting more popular with his clients. The company is owned by CUC International, Stamford, Conn.

GNA Corp.

Headquarters: Seattle

Bank clients: 145

Bank contact: Hans Carstensen, senior vice president

GNA made its name in bank circles by emphasizing sales support for newcomers to the investment products business. But now that some of its best-known clients have struck out on their own, the company is playing up its expertise as a product manufacturer.

At GNA, "product" has traditionally meant annuities - after all, the company was founded 16 years ago as Great Northern Annuities. A solid 93% of the company's sales through banks come in the form of these tax-deferred investments.

But as its parent company, GE Capital, buys up insurance companies, GNA is spreading its wings. In addition to a line of mutual funds, the company sells a range of life and health insurance products.

Independent Financial Marketing Group

Headquarters: White Plains, N.Y.

Bank clients: 200

Bank contact: Denis Kaplan, chief executive

For years, Independent Financial touted its independence as a strength. At press time, however, the company was slated to be acquired by Liberty Financial Companies, Boston. The new entity will keep the Independent name when it merges with Liberty's bank group.

Independent boasts of its proprietary software programs designed to make serving clients easier for banks.

Its newest program, InVision, enables sales representatives in the field to plot out financial planning for pension distribution, college planning and review investments for customers. Another program, dubbed Rapid Track, processes sales and generates reports.

Invest Financial Corp.

Headquarters: Tampa.

Bank clients: 234

Bank contact: Merlin Gackle, chairman

Founded by a consortium of banks in 1982, Invest was the first company to set up brokerage operations at financial institutions, and remains one of the leaders in the field. It prides itself on advancing technology to help brokers boost productivity.

One hot service for 1996 is "video conferencing," a communications system that allows a broker to watch a sales meeting or training session on a desktop or even laptop computer. Invest expects to wire 180 banks to this system in 1996.

The company, a subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group, has also introduced its "virtual office," which allows brokers to take their laptop computers to a customer's home, design a financial plan or examine an existing portfolio.

Investment Centers of America Inc.

Headquarters: Bismarck, N.D.

Bank clients: 240

Bank contact: Thomas E. Gunderson, chairman

Small-town banks are the lifeblood for Investment Centers of America's business. The company has brokers in community banks in 20 states, mostly west of the Mississippi.

Most of its 200 investment representatives are certified financial planners, a qualification that appeals to bank customers, said Thomas E. Gunderson, chairman of Investment Centers.

Mutual funds accounted for more than one-third of sales this year. Bonds, variable annuities, stocks, fixed annuities and brokerage certificates of deposit made up the rest of the sales, in that order.

The marketing firm's newest division, Trust Centers of America, pitches services to community banks that lack fiduciary powers but want to offer employee-benefit and personal trust products.

Marketing One

Headquarters: Portland, Ore.

Bank clients: 70

Bank contact: Paul Patsis, chairman

Marketing One is bucking an industry trend by targeting regional banks and shying away from the smaller ones, says Paul Patsis, chairman.

Some large-bank clients have brought their operations in-house, but Marketing One maintains links with such companies as Sovereign Bancorp, Wyomissing, Pa., and Bank of the West, San Francisco.

This year, Marketing One is planning an aggressive promotion of its "wealth transfer program," a universal life insurance product it promotes as an estate planning tool. The company has also designed a computer system that allows brokers to turn over annuity policies at the point of sale.

PrimeVest Financial Services

Headquarters: St. Cloud, Minn.

Bank clients: 585

Bank contact: Stephen Fischer, president

These days, most investment marketing firms are losing clients as banks decide to run their brokerage businesses themselves. But PrimeVest is actually adding new names to its roster.

Last year, the company signed up 62 new full-service brokerage clients, bringing the total to 202. Almost half were snared from competitors, says president Stephen Fischer.

Traditionally, PrimeVest focused on helping banks start up discount brokerages, and these clients still make up the bulk of its business. But increasingly, the company is helping convert these operations into full- service brokerages.

CLEARING FIRMS

BHC Financial Corp.

Headquarters: Philadelphia

Bank clients: 40

Bank contact: Barbara Schaefer, vice president

BHC prides itself as an innovator. In 1983, when banks were first allowed into the brokerage business, BHC was the first company to specialize in helping them clear trades.

More recently, BHC became the first company to develop a standard process for clearing annuity transactions. Though volume remains low - typically no more than 100 trades a day - the company expects demand to grow in coming years, reflecting the increased popularity of the tax- deferred investments.

Counting mutual funds, stocks, and bonds, BHC processes 8,000 to 9,000 trades a day, generating revenues that reached $81 million last year. But the company is in for some struggles: Last month, it announced that it lost two major clients, including Citicorp Investment Services.

Everen Clearing Corp.

Headquarters: Milwaukee

Bank clients: 3

Bank contact: Daniel Hart, manager, correspondent services

When it comes to executing securities trades for bank-related brokerages, Everen is very much the new kid on the block.

Until a year ago - when it was spun off from Kemper Corp. amid a change in control at the mutual fund company - Everen did a little business with banks but wasn't making a concerted effort to sign them up.

That's changing now that Everen is an independent, employee-owned company.

"Banks are reevaluating their clearing relationships to see how to improve as they become full-service," said Daniel Hart, manager of correspondent services. "That's where we think we're going to be a fit - to help them compete with the wire houses."

On an average day, Everen clears 12,000 mutual fund, annuity, stock, bond and option trades for 30 clients, most of which are independent broker-dealers.

National Financial Services Corp.

Headquarters: Boston

Bank clients: 90

Bank contact: Joseph Kelly, senior vice president, marketing

As a subsidiary of mutual fund titan Fidelity Investments, it's no wonder National Financial is a powerhouse in its field.

The company clears about 65,000 securities and mutual fund trades a day, with tickets totaling $100 million, said Robert Middleton, vice president, correspondent services.

National Financial takes pride in being the first clearing firm to integrate mutual funds into an established, uniform process for clearing securities.

New services includes helping brokers retrieve stock and mutual fund quotes and to trade securities on the same computer program. The company also has an automated billing system for managed accounts that notifies customers and the broker electronically of charges before bills go out.

Pershing

Headquarters: Jersey City

Bank clients: 60

Bank contact: Alton C. Jones, managing director

Pershing, a division of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, is well established as a provider of clearing services, executing 70,000 to 80,000 transactions a day for brokerages, money managers, financial planners, insurance companies, and hedge funds. But it isn't resting on its laurels.

Last month, Pershing introduced four new services: a no- transaction-fee mutual fund program similar to Charles Schwab & Co.'s successful One Source; a valuation service that provides tax accounting; benchmarking software, dubbed Managers' Partner, that lets clients compare their investment results with those of competitors; and an equity dividend- reinvestment program.

"Our customers got together and asked for this. They helped us put it together," said Alton C. Jones, managing director. The dividend- reinvestment program has proved especially popular with bank broker- dealers, he said.

Stephens Inc.

Headquarters: Little Rock.

Bank clients: Not disclosed

Bank contact: R. Greg Feltus, senior vice president

Founded in 1933 as a family-owned full-service investment banking firm, Stephens began clearing securities and offering marketing services for brokerage affiliates of banks and thrifts in 1983.

Clients range in size from a $20 million rural bank to industry giants such as NationsBank and Wells Fargo Bank.

Every branch of a bank can access Stephens' clearing and trading with the firm's Link Investment Services program, according to vice president Curtis Jeffries.

Although it's a full-service broker, Stephens does not have retail offices to compete with its clients. The firm also has an insurance division that sells its variable and fixed annuities.

U.S. Clearing Corp.

Headquarters: New York

Bank clients: 110

Bank contact: Peggy LaBelle, director of bank services

Last year was a big year for U.S. Clearing Corp. in its drive to capture bank clients. The company snared an endorsement from the Independent Bankers Association of America, the leading trade group for community banks. And its 1994 acquisition of Mabon Securities Corp. added eight banks to its customer roster.

The company, a unit of discount brokerage Quick & Reilly, executes securities transactions for bank brokerages as well as more traditional securities firms. Daily volume averages 38,000 trades.

While U.S. Clearing concentrates on handling trades, the company has also started to help banks build sales forces. It does this by licensing and supervising brokers who work at banks. "We audit their actions, approve their marketing," said Leslie Quick 3d, the firm's president.

- Compiled by Howard Kapiloff and Katharine Fraser

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