Amcore Investment Unit's Chief Joining Union Planters of Tenn.
Alan W. Kennebeck, head of the investment unit at $4.4 billion-asset Amcore Financial Inc., has left the Rockford, Ill., banking company for a post at Union Planters Corp. in Memphis.Mr. Kennebeck was president and chief executive officer of Amcore Investment Group and an executive vice president of Amcore Financial.
He left Amcore in January and referred questions about his new job to Union Planters' chairman and chief executive officer, Benjamin Rawlings Jr. Mr. Rawlings could not be reached, and a spokesman at Union Planters said he was unaware of Mr. Kennebeck's hiring.
An assistant in Amcore's investment group said Mr. Kennebeck had been recruited by $33 billion-asset Union Planters for a high-level post reporting to the bank's president. Amcore has yet to choose a successor.
- Amy L. Anderson
Fidelity Federal of Florida Starts Trust Unit, Names Exec to Lead It
Fidelity Federal Savings Bank of Florida has established a trust division to offer investment management and trust services.Douglas M. Brash, 57, is to head the new department. He was president of the trust division at Island National Bank and Trust Co. in Palm Beach, which was bought by 1st United Bancorp of Boca Raton in 1997 before its acquisition by Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. Fidelity Federal hired Mr. Brash about four months ago with the trust post in mind.
"In Florida the big banks are giving us a huge opportunity," Mr. Brash said. As local banks merge or are acquired by out-of-state holding companies, "people are feeling semi-abandoned."
The 47-year-old savings bank offers a known name and the knowledge that "your money is being managed right here in West Palm Beach," he added.
Fidelity Federal, a subsidiary of $1.7 billion-asset Fidelity Bankshares Inc. of West Palm Beach, had offered investment services but only got regulatory approval last Monday to offer trust services, said Vince A. Elhilow, the bank's president and chief executive officer.
- Amy L. Anderson
S&P Makes Agreement to Advise MetLife's 401(k) Plan Customers
Standard & Poor's said that it has agreed to offer investment advice to MetLife's 401(k) clients and participants.Each plan participant can get a customized investment portfolio, which is to be developed on the basis of the funds offered by the plan, the participant's investment objectives, tolerance for risk, and time frame, the companies said last Monday.
MetLife and its affiliates supplied record keeping and administrative services for defined-contribution plans with 2.7 million participants and $86.8 billion of plan assets as of Sept. 30.
The agreement came after a similar one last month for S&P to offer advice, education, information, and 401(k) account balances via the Internet to the roughly 125,000 retirement plan participants in more than 1,000 John Hancock Funds 401(k) plans.
Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill Cos., has been building its 401(k) offerings, and its recent acquisition of Rational Investors Inc. has helped it build up an on-line presence.
- Cheryl Winokur
