What's going to happen to Primerica's 24,000 licensed mutual fund representatives? Bloomberg's Josh Fineman and Zachary Mider report that private equity firms are trying to buy the life insurer's 100,000-person sales arm from CitiGroup.

In at least one possible deal, only the current asset and liabilities of Duluth, Georgia-based Primerica would remain with Citi, presumably putting the fund distribution arm in the hands of the new owner(s) as well. Bloomberg lists private equity Blackstone, Ascensus (i.e. the former Bisys Retirement) owner J.C. Flowers and TPG as some of the bidders.

Citi reportedly first put Primerica on the block last year (see MFWire, 5/9/2008 and 6/9/2008), but sources told Bloomberg that the deal discussions fell apart "as the global credit crisis eroded the value of life insurers' invested assets." Also, Bloomberg claims that in January Primerica co-CEO John Addison had employees remove Citi references from their business cards and marketing materials. 

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