Three years after Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. acquired the online financial planning company LearnVest Inc., the Milwaukee-based insurer is shutting it down.

Northwestern Mutual said it would discontinue LearnVest to consumers and businesses, a move taken in connection with what the company called the “next step” in the integration of the insurer and its online subsidiary.  A letter emailed to customers says LearnVest will stop operating its online tools and financial planning on June 5.

The purchase of LearnVest in 2015 for an undisclosed price — some reports estimated it at $250 million — was a rare acquisition for Northwestern Mutual, but it gave the company a position in the “robo-adviser” market in which technology firms offer inexpensive online financial planning tools for consumers.

While the company kept LearnVest going after the acquisition, it noted about a year after the purchase that Northwestern Mutual was using the technology and employee know-how of LearnVest to create a new online platform that would help insurance policy owners craft and monitor — with advice from their Northwestern financial rep — a personal comprehensive financial plan. Read the full story here.