NU Online News Service, April 15, 2004, 4:45 p.m. EDT – Independent Financial Marketing Group Inc., Purchase, N.Y., has opened a Western regional office in Irvine, Calif.[@@]

Independent Financial is a unit of Sun Life Financial Inc., Toronto, that distributes insurance and investment products through financial institutions.

The company has named 2 senior vice presidents to run the new Irvine office. John Bettfreund, who will be the operations manager, was president of Gateway Investment Services Inc., Los Angeles. Jenny Cobbs, the senior sales manager, was executive vice president of sales and marketing at AIG Valic, a unit of American International Group Inc., New York.