Invesco will reorganize — and reduce — its combined sales force when it takes over Van Kampen Funds Inc., the $119 billion retail money management unit it acquired last October from Morgan Stanley for $1.5 billion.
Invesco will reorganize — and reduce — its combined sales force when it takes over Van Kampen Funds Inc., the $119 billion retail money management unit it acquired last October from Morgan Stanley for $1.5 billion.
The new sales organization will consist of 370 managers and representatives. Sixty positions will be eliminated due to overlap, said John Cooper, head of U.S. sales for Invesco. Mr. Cooper announced the changes to Invesco employees on a conference call Thursday.
“We believe that we are going to have one of the biggest fund sales division in the industry,” Mr. Cooper said in an interview.
Under the new structure, Invesco will have four sales channels: wirehouses, planners, independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers.
Bobby Brooks, who headed up the wirehouse channel for Invesco, will lead the wirehouse group for the newly combined organization. Overall, Invesco will now have 33 wholesalers dedicated to this channel.
Brian Lee, senior director of sales and channel development at Invesco, will lead the planner channel and will be supported by 30 wholesalers.
Mark McClure, a managing director and national sales manager of the broker-dealer channel at Van Kampen, will head the independent broker-dealer channel, which is new for Invesco.
“When we were going through this process, I was asking about who the centers of influence were and the regional firms and branch managers are huge centers of influence,” Mr. Cooper said. “Invesco didn't have a big relationship with these firms before.” This channel will have 27 wholesalers.
Andrew Scherer, managing director of the intermediary channel at Van Kampen, will lead the RIA channel, which will have five wholesalers.
The new sales structure will go into effect when the acquisition officially closes, which is expected before the end of the second quarter.
To support the channels, Terri Fiedler will continue to be head of national account management, responsible for overseeing support of all the firm's top clients across the channels, Mr. Cooper said.
Additionally, Peter Gallagher will continue in his role as director of the sales and institutional business development division, and will oversee the defined contribution, insurance and subadvisory sales through home offices. Terry Kelly, director of the sales, retirement and insurance division at Invesco, will lead the field coverage efforts in this area.
Mr. Cooper declined to comment on details of the compensation strategy for the new group, but said that the “philosophy had not changed.”
