Bisys Group buys TIME Financial.

The Warner Center insurance and planning consulting firm TIME Financial Services has been acquired by New Jersey-based The Bisys Group Inc., a finance outsourcing company that is the largest independent wholesale distributor of life insurance in the country.

Bisys paid an undisclosed sum for the private company, which specializes in estate, charity and business planning and life insurance.

Amy Conti, vice president of investor relations for Bisys, said that TIME fits into a plan by Bisys to expand its point-of-sale insurance portfolio on the West Coast. Bisys operates a similar company in Charlotte, N.C., called LifeSource, which it bought several years ago.

The idea was that the two sides would complement each other, Conti said.

"It's strategically a great fit for us because we're both supporting national firms," she said.

Conti said TIME Financial would continue to operate out of its headquarters in Warner Center. No personnel changes are planned for the 25-year-old company's 100-member staff.

Conti said Time founder Kate Kinkade would continue in her role as CEO and president. Kinkade did not return phone calls seeking comment about the purchase, but in a statement, she said that Bisys is an ideal company to assist in expansion.

"We see an excellent fit with the LifeSource team, both philosophically and geographically, and believe that combining the resources of these organizations will provide the scope and coverage and quality of service that financial advisory firms require," she said.

Bisys Group was founded in 1989 to help community banks improve service and today has 4,800 employees in 11 offices around the world. It operates an investment services branch, which provides administrative services for hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds and retirement plans, and an insurance services group. Revenues topped $1.06 billion last year.

Since going public in 1992, the Roseland, N.J., company has aggressively expanded in the market by acquiring 37 smaller competitors. In March, it sold an information services unit.

Conti said Bisys sought to purchase TIME because the two sides were rivals. "They have basically been competing with us in the marketplace for awhile," she said.

Bisys came under fire earlier this month when a company track carrying the personal information of about 61,000 hedge fund investors was stolen, putting their identities at risk.

In June, accounting errors were uncovered in its restate financial statements that were filed in its annual report for fiscal 2005. The errors, which totaled less than $3 million, involved the acquisitions in life insurance services during fiscal year 2001, 2002 and 2003.

BY CHRIS COATES 

Staff Reporter