ReliaStar Financial Retains Its Products In ING US Group

ReliaStar Financial Corporation was one of the largest publicly held life insurance company in the United States in the end of 1990s. The company specialized in the distribution of life insurance and related financial services businesses. In 2000, it was acquired by American section of the Amsterdam-based ING group, which is one of the largest insurance providers of the world

Till the 1990s, ReliaStar Financial Corporation was a diversified holding company which provided a wide range of insurance products and services. The company distributed individual life insurance and annuities as well as employee benefit products and services. Among other financial services provided by the company were retirement plans, health insurance plans, mutual funds, personal finance education and residential mortgages.

Even after its acquisition of ReliaStar Financial Corporation, the ING group in the US kept some its insurance products. Currently ING offers ReliaStar Life Insurance Policy of two types, one which is not admitted in New York and the other offered by the ReliaStar Life Insurance Company of New York. Other than these, ING also provides retirement plans from ReliaStar like its 401(k) Plan and 403(b) TSA Contract.

By the beginning of 2000, ReliaStar Financial Corporation was the eighth-largest publicly held insurance holding company of the United States. In April 2000, the company admitted that talks of its acquisition were going on and there were reports about negotiations with the Dutch financial giant ING Group N.V. it was also reported that ING was slated to takeover ReliaStar for around $5 billion USD. Following the news, the stocks of ReliaStar soared by $12.1875 to $43.

The headquarters of ReliaStar Financial was located at South Minneapolis in Minnesota. The company acquired Pilgrim Capital Corporation in October 1999 and in July next year it purchased Lexington Global Asset Managers Inc. At the end of 1999, the company had revenues of $3 billion USD and in this the premiums earned by the company constituted 39%, net investment income contributed to 37% and other income to 24% of the total revenues. The companys Chairman and CEO was J.G.Turner and R.C.Salipante was the President and Chief Operating Officer of the company.

As ReliaStar Financial expanded in the 1990s it ushered in advances in its technological section like a wide array of new operating systems and applications provided by companies like IBM, Computer Associates International from Islandia in NY and Innovation Data Processing from Little Falls, NJ. By 2000 ReliaStar had over four million worldwide customers from its subsidiaries and sales offices throughout the United States as well as from its European and Latin American reinsurance sales operations. As a comprehensive financial services company, it provided wide range of value-added investment, insurance, banking products and services to its customers across the globe. 64.21.60.9