NU Online News Service, March 29, 10:09 a.m. – With a total of $4.3 billion in investment product sales through banks last year, Independent Financial Marketing Group, Purchase, N.Y., was the largest third-party marketer of bank-sold investment products for the third year in a row, says Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J. IFMG's total bank sales grew 41% in 2001, from about $3.1 billion in 2000.
IFMG is now a unit of Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc., Toronto.
Essex Corp., New York, moved from third place to second among TPMs in banks last year, with a strong surge in fixed annuity sales. Its total sales in banks increased from about $2.5 billion in 2000 to $3.5 billion last year. Although its bank-sold mutual funds fell from $305 million to $221 million and its VA sales from $702 million to $401 million in that time, its bank sales of fixed annuities soared to $2.9 billion, from about $1.5 billion in 2000, as it continued to lead in the product category.
