AmeriLife Acquires Control Over J.D. Mellberg

AmeriLife Group LLC has acquired a majority interest in J.D. Mellberg Financial, a Tucson, Arizona-based firm that sells annuities and retirement planning services.

AmeriLife — a Clearwater, Florida-based life, health and annuity distributor — said earlier this week that it's getting J.D. Mellberg's lead-generation, appointment-setting, and analysis tools, as well as the company's sales and planning operations.

AmeriLife is also getting a J.D. Mellberg mobile app that can match agents with prospects.

AmeriLife is not saying what it paid for J.D. Mellberg.

Joshua Mellberg. J.D. Mellberg's founder, will become an AmeriLife principal and a member of AmeriLife's management, AmeriLife said.

Mellberg and Dan Morgan, J.D. Mellberg's general counsel and chief compliance officer, will continue to manage the newly acquired business from its offices in Tucson, AmeriLife said.

AmeriLife

AmeriLife has relationships with about 140,000 financial professionals.

The company arranged $395 million in financing in June, and it reported at the time that it had about $100 million in extra capital it could use to make acquisitions.

Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P., a private equity firm, recently agreed to acquire control of AmeriLife from another private equity firm, J.C. Flowers & Company LLC. The companies predicted that the deal would close by March 31.

Ganesh Rao, a managing director at Thomas H. Lee, said in a comment about the AmeriLife deal that AmeriLife "was poised for future growth and expansion."

J.D. Mellberg

J.D. Mellberg Financial was founded in 2005 and now has clients located all around the country.

AmeriLife said in July, when it announced plans to buy a majority stake in Brookstone Capital Management LLC, that it was generating about $3.5 billion in annual life, health and annuity premium revenue.

Acquiring J.D. Mellberg will increase total annual annuity premium revenue to $4.8 billion, AmeriLife said.

— Read Thomas H. Lee Group Agrees to Buy a Majority Stake in AmeriLife, on ThinkAdvisor.

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