LIMRA International has acquired Kenneth Kehrer Associates, a research and consulting firm serving bank brokerage and life insurance operations.
The move will strengthen the ability of both organizations to help banks improve the performance of their brokerage and insurance businesses, according to a joint announcement by LIMRA and Kehrer.
The new operation, named Kehrer-LIMRA, will be run out of the association's Windsor, Conn., headquarters. In its new incarnation, the company will continue to sell the benchmarking research and consulting services on banks and insurance that has been Kehrer's hallmark for more than 20 years, according to the announcement.
LIMRA notes the purchase of Kehrer's business is the first time it has made an acquisition to expand its capabilities. It did not disclose terms of the agreement.
Kenneth Kehrer, who had been president of Kenneth Kehrer Associates, Princeton, N.J., will become a member of the Kehrer-LIMRA board of directors and stay on as a consultant to the organization. Christine Kehrer, his spouse and business partner, will also join the board.
Purchase of a private business by a trade association is rare, notes Bob Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA. He says the acquisition signals "a new direction for LIMRA to be creative and to look to the future."
The deal fits the association's aim to become important across the financial spectrum, he explains. LIMRA expects Kehrer's reputation for research and for conducting expert roundtables on bank sales of life insurance, annuities and mutual funds will help expand its membership ranks, he says.
"Ken provides the kind of data banks and insurers want, and now LIMRA will become far more important to banks and to insurance companies that care about growing in banks," he says.
Kehrer and LIMRA have often done joint work over the past decade, including conferences, study groups and research reports. Over that time, the two organizations occasionally talked about a possible merger. Those talks began to intensify about two years ago, according to Kerzner.
