Financial Services Firm Targeting Low-Income Clients Moves to Waterbury, Conn.

Dec. 4--WATERBURY, Conn.--A financial services firm that specializes in helping low- and middle-income clients has set up shop in downtown, bringing eight jobs with it from Brookfield with hopes to add as many as 30 more by the end of next year.
Financial Network Investment Corp., a subsidiary of Dutch financial giant ING, moved late last month to 49 Leavenworth St. in Waterbury, said Hakeem Webb, branch manager for the Waterbury office. It officially opened for operations Monday.
The firm offers financial planning, retirement and estate planning, and other investment services. It also manages retirement plans for more than 50 Connecticut school districts, Webb said.
The firm's move to Waterbury comes after Webb himself moved in June from Danbury to Waterbury. The firm's lease was up in Brookfield, and Webb saw a population lacking some financial-management options.
"No one is really assisting the lower- to middle-class residents and showing them how to manage their money," he said.
The firm had considered options in Woodbridge, New Haven and Glastonbury, Webb said, but saw Waterbury as a more attractive market, Webb said.
"The others were pretty much established and saturated, and we felt people were already trying to fulfill that need," he said. Financial Network leases more than 1,100 square feet of space, with the potential to expand into another 2,500 to 3,000 square feet if the need arises.
Founded in 1983, the firm is one of the largest independently managed broker/dealers in the country, Webb said. Its ranks include more than 2,800 advisers.
The company's arrival is another indication of an economic resurgence downtown, said Robert M. Van Geons, the city's economic development director. Classes started this fall at the new University of Connecticut branch downtown. The $57 million arts magnet school and renovated Palace theater, both across East Main Street from the college, are expected to open in 2004.
"It's a positive sign that they anticipate having a good marketplace here," Van Geons said. "These are companies that thrive in a growing local economy."