Arrivato Advisors is ramping up marketing efforts following the completion of its acquisition of Intrust Financial Services ( IFS).

New York-based Arrivato has rechristened itself American Independence Financial Services ( AIFS) to reflect the purchase and is looking to tap a bigger market for its funds.

Arrivato, which created the first batch of products based on the Dow Jones U.S. Target Date Indexes, acquired IFS, the investment adviser to American Independence Funds, for an undisclosed sum in a deal that was first announced last December.

With the transaction, AIFS is now the investment advisor to 10 mutual funds in the American Independence Trust.

Eric Rubin, president of AIFS, said in an interview that the firm aims to expand the reach of the funds beyond the Midwest, where Wichita, Kansas-based IFS had concentrated its efforts.

"Although we think the IFS institutional and retail bank funds platform was very successful in [Intrust’s] targeted geography in the Midwest, we believe there is a much broader national market opportunity," he said.

AIFS, he said, has sealed distribution agreements with Pershing, Ameritrade and Matrix, in addition to forming pacts with a number of regional broker-dealers.

Rubin said the firm is embarking on an aggressive marketing drive, beginning with a direct mail campaign that will kick off next week, to be followed by elevator advertisements later this month. Magazine advertisements will start appearing in the third quarter of the year.

Last month, AIFS boosted its sales force with the hiring of three vice presidents responsible for the western, Midwest and eastern regions, respectively. The firm is planning to add two more people to its sales lineup, Rubin said.

The widening headcount has prompted the firm, which was founded last year, to trade its office space at the Empire State Building for a larger one located at 335 Madison Ave., to which AIFS moved last week. 

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