NU Parent Acquires Financial Publications

Summit Business Media L.L.C. today announced the acquisition of several business-to-business publications and market services from WiesnerMedia L.L.C.

The deal for the WiesnerMedia financial group includes the Senior Market Advisor, Boomer Market Advisor, Benefits Selling and Bank Advisor magazines along with ProducersWEB.com, a Web site that serves insurance agents.

The deal also includes Advisors Data Source, a collection of information about 2 million agents and advisors, and 2 leading industry events, Benefits Selling Expo and Senior Market Advisor Expo.

The transaction is the seventh acquisition Summit, New York, has completed since it was formed in November 2006.

Summit is the parent company of National Underwriter Life & Health and of National Underwriter’s NU Online News Service.

“This acquisition of one of the last significant independent financial and insurance publishers substantially increases our penetration of the life insurance and financial advisor markets, 2 of our core segments, while providing access to the benefits advisor market, one of the fastest-growing segments in the financial services marketplace,” William F. Reilly, chairman of Summit, says in a statement.

Andrew L. Goodenough, Summit’s president, says the newly acquired assets complement Summit’s existing business-to-business media platform, which now includes 25 magazine titles, 150 reference books and electronic products, and 100 live events.

“The WiesnerMedia properties further strengthen our market position in the ‘independent retail financial distribution’ sector, which we believe is a long-term, inexorable trend, as most major financial providers continue to outsource sales to independent agents and advisors,” Goodenough says.