The company is a regional brokerage based in Hartford.

Kemper, an insurance and investment company, owns five regional brokerages.

The firm has acquired 13 regional brokerages since 1969, the most recent in Texas and Michigan.

During the merger frenzy within regional brokerage of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the firm was sold to Birmingham-based Regions Financial.

So, too, would regional brokerages like Legg Mason and Raymond James.

Among regional brokerages we like Tucker Anthony.

The move signals Kemper management's mounting frustration over the performance of its network of regional brokerages, which were acquired in the early 1980's.

The reining in of authority has already caused some high-level departures from the regional brokerages.

The company, which was founded in 1850, said it was in the final stages of talks with three other regional brokerages.

Kemper's other main businesses are the troubled retail securities unit, which the company formed by acquiring regional brokerages in the 1980's, and two life insurance companies.