Boston Firm to Buy Private Ledger of S. D.

SAN DIEGO â€”  LINSCO Financial Group of Boston has agreed to acquire Private Ledger Financial Services of San Diego from its parent company, Crown Life Insurance of Canada, in a move that will create one of the nation’s largest independent financial services networks.

Private Ledger will continue to operate under its current name, LINSCO Chairman Todd Robinson said in an interview Wednesday. No layoffs of Private Ledger administrative personnel are currently planned, although Robinson said he plans to spend much of the next six months in San Diego assessing the operation.

LINSCO has 550 affiliated brokers in 42 states while Private Ledger had 700 brokers in 352 branch offices in 45 states as of last March. Agents at both firms are typically independent contractors who sell a variety of financial products, including stocks and bonds, mutual funds, limited partnerships and insurance.

Officials at Private Ledger and Toronto-based Crown Life did not return telephone calls for comment on the deal Wednesday. Robinson said the sale is scheduled to close by early February. Private Ledger reported a pretax profit of $1.6 million on revenue of $42.8 million in 1987. LINSCO, like Private Ledger a closely held company, declined to disclose earnings figures.

Crown announced last March that it was putting Private Ledger up for sale. Robinson would not disclose the purchase price, although sources said the price was close to $10 million, the amount that Crown paid for Private Ledger in 1984.

Crown acquired Private Ledger through the conversion of $10 million in debt to equity in 1984. Crown bought it from American Principals Holdings Inc., a now defunct Del Mar-based investment firm shortly after APHI was taken over by a court-ordered receiver at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to SEC court filings, APHI officials unlawfully commingled investor funds.

Last March, Crown said it was selling Private Ledger as part of its strategy to redirect its energies and capital into its health insurance business, an area where many underwriters, including Crown, have suffered losses in recent years.