Federated Forms Wealth Management Group

Federated Investorsrecently merged its registered independent advisor wholesalers with its bank/trust channel sellers. Federated calls the 31-person wholesaler channel its wealth management group,Chris Donahue, president and ceo, said at the2006 Lehman Brothers Financial Services Conference.

Donahue did not say how large the RIA group was compared to the bank/trust wholesalers or why the RIA wholesalers were moved into the group.

Federated has 170 wholesalers in total, with 102 of those dedicated to selling in the broker/dealer channel. Another 14 wholesalers cover separately managed accounts and six make up its national accounts team, according to Donahue. The remaining 16 sell in the institutional channel and the firm has one wholesaler in London.

Federated spokeswomanMeghan McAndrewsaid the changes were made to better serve the firm's clients, but did not provide details.