As other financial services firms separate out their asset management units, ING Group has combined parts of its U.S. asset management business in an effort to give clients a broader array of products and expertise.
But while bringing the units together makes organizational sense, Amsterdam-based ING, a financial conglomerate that includes large insurance and annuity operations, may still have a distance to go in getting consciousness of its brand into the minds of American consumers, one expert said.
The change makes ING Aeltus Group part of ING Investment Management. The combined organization, called ING Investment Management U.S., has four divisions: ING Investment Management, based in Atlanta and Minneapolis and led by Robert W. Crispin; Aeltus Investment Management, based in Hartford, Conn., and led by J. Scott Fox; ING Managed Accounts and Furman Selz Capital Management, each based in New York and led by Mike Delfino; and ING Alternative Assets, in New York and led by Paul Gyra.
Aeltus Investment Management, ING Managed Accounts, and ING Alternative Assets are former divisions of ING Aeltus Group, which ING formed in June 2001 by combining Aeltus Investment Management and ING Furman Selz Asset Management. ING had acquired Aeltus in its purchase of Aetna Financial Services in December 2000.
An ING spokeswoman said the units will now work more closely together and be able to draw on expertise from throughout the operation. ING does not expect significant job cuts as a result of the reorganization, she said.
The units now report to Tom Balachowski, chairman of ING Investment Management in The Hague. Edmund A. Hajim, the chairman and CEO of ING Aeltus Group, intends to retire this summer.
With the addition of ING Aeltus Groups assets, ING Investment Management manages $300 billion of assets in 26 countries, including more than $100 billion in the United States.
ING Groups assets under management totaled $464 billion at Dec. 31.
Alexander Rinnooy Kan, chairman of ING Asset Management, said in a statement: Clients around the world will benefit from broader asset management expertise, enhanced service capabilities, and greater breadth of products and services.
Geoffrey Bobroff, the president of Bobroff Consulting Inc. in East Providence, R.I., said the reorganization is part of a continuing consolidation at ING, which has spent the past several years buying U.S. asset management operations. They have been diligently putting the product lines together, rationalizing them, and constructing basic business units, he said, calling it a very methodical process.
However, he said, as ING brings these companies together, it may encounter a lack of consumer awareness of the Dutch company.
Weve all seen their cute commercial, Mr. Bobroff said. But clearly ING is a huge financial services conglomerate in the U.S. market where brand awareness not brand is important.
There are lots of other good products that already have recognition. What does ING offer that will cause those that are currently using someone elses product all of a sudden to change? he asked.
