"We have been out in the annuity marketplace for the last five or six years, but weve focused more on it in the last 12 to 18 months and done such things as taken a higher profile at the NAVA conferences," said Dave Mertens, senior VP of institutional marketing and sales.
Outside of the cost of a single senior sales person and three part-time wholesalers, marketing costs have been limited, Mertens said. "The conferences themselves were a pretty nominal cost, so that was not a great deal of expense," he said, adding that the firm foresees a time when it will invest more in the variable product marketing effort.
"I think longer-term as we get added to more annuity contracts, thats when the real cost will come about, when we really have to beef up our wholesaling sales force. We have a commitment to do that when the time is right," he said.
Berger, with $5.8 billion in assets under management (as of Nov. 31, 2001), according to
"We understand that the big players in the business want to see us be more substantial in size, both on the firm level and in the VA channel," he said. "Our near-term goals are to add more names to our client list, more assets to our VA channel."
Berger has also focused attention on the variable life channel. With fewer assets, the channel is less crowded than others but may be growing. "I think most fund companies have taken notice of the opportunities in variable life, but it seems to be a less crowded marketplace," Mertens said.
To develop its variable product marketing, Mertens also said that Berger has been developing a series trust line that mirrors its fund lineup. On Jan. 1, Berger swayed from a growth bent by launching mid-cap and large-cap value products, bringing the total to eight, in response to industry demand for such products and attention to Bergers offerings, he said.
"We have had the good fortune in the last 12 months to have our value products come into the limelight a bit -- as all value products have -- but ours have had exceptionally good performance, both near-term and long-term," Mertens said.
Despite its traditional image as a growth shop, Berger has diversified its offerings through its own sub-advisory relationships. Its affiliations with Chicago-based value shop Perkins, Wolf, McDonnell & Co. and
"In Denver, we are and always have been a growth equity shop," said Mertens, who put the changes at Berger into larger context. "Over the last five years, its positioned itself as more of a distribution and service organization," he said.
