Deals & People October 3, 2008

AIG Advisory Groups Put Up for Sale

American International Group (AIG), which has three broker/dealer subsidiaries, is looking for ways to unload business units in a quest to pay back the federal government.
Reported by

The company announced a widespread asset sell-off in a bid to generate enough money to repay its $85-billion Federal Reserve loan and refocus the ailing insurer on its core property and casualty lines.

AIG plans to keep its U.S. property and casualty and foreign general insurance businesses and a continuing interest in its foreign life insurance operations, according to the announcement. Other than that, the company said its looking to sell the rest of its portfolio. According to published reports, the company has put up for sale its three independent broker/dealer firms: AIG Financial Advisors in Phoenix, FSC Securities Corp. in Atlanta, and Royal Alliance Associates in New York City.

Specifically, it is “also actively at work on a number of alternatives” for its Financial Products business and its securities lending program, according to the AIG statement.

AIG’s intentions for its retirement services group were not immediately clear Friday, except for the admission in the company’s divestiture announcement that it would prefer to sell all of its U.S. life insurance operations in one piece. SunAmerica Life Insurance Co., is considered AIG’s lead retirement services company.

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