Three ING Advisors Network B-Ds may be put on the block

Three broker-dealers in the ING Advisors Network are facing another round of strategic reviews that could lead to their sale, an ING spokesman said this morning. This comes as ING Group of Amsterdam, Netherlands, is reviewing the status of its global business lines to determine which ones are part of the insurance company giant's core and which are not. The broker-dealers with uncertain fates are: Financial Network Investment Corp. of El Segundo, Calif.; Multi-Financial Securities Corp. of Denver; and Primevest Financial Services Inc. of St. Cloud, Minn. The decision would affect roughly 5,000 reps at the three firms. The one broker-dealer ING intends to hang onto is ING Financial Partners Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa, said Dana Ripley, a spokesman in Atlanta for ING Americas. The broker-dealer network is simply a non-core business for ING, he said. No deal was imminent, Mr. Ripley said. “To suggest that a shopping process has started would be inaccurate,” he said. The uncertainty will undoubtedly provoke anxiety in the advisers, he said. “We’re fully aware of that. But transparency is better than doing it in secret.” No deadline had been set for informing management and reps at the broker-dealers whether the firms would be kept or sold, Mr. Ripley said. If those broker-dealers do go on the block anytime soon, they will be in a crowded market with other insurance-company-owned broker-dealers looking for a buyer. Beleaguered insurer American International Group Inc. of New York is looking to sell its broker-dealer network, the AIG Advisor Group, which includes three firms and more than 6,000 reps. The ING Advisors Network is clearly in flux. Its longtime leader, former chairman and CEO John Simmers, announced that he was retiring earlier this