Sammons Financial Group is starting a unit, Sammons Retirement Solutions, that will distribute mutual funds and variable annuities through broker-dealers and their financial advisors.
Sammons Financial, Chicago, is basing the new unit in West Des Moines, Iowa, and has hired Bill Lowe to be the unit’s president.
Lowe previously was president of ING Individual Retirement Distribution, Hartford, a unit of ING Groep N.V., Amsterdam (NYSE:ING).
The new unit should complement Sammons Financial’s existing life insurance and fixed annuity businesses, the company says.