Wealth management

Morgan Stanley has approached asset management companies in the past two months to gauge their interest in buying or forming a partnership with its Van Kampen mutual fund business, people with knowledge of the talks said.

Societe Generale SA, France's second-largest bank, plans to expand its commodities team about 35% by the end of next year, seeking to double the business' size.

Northern Trust Corp. announced Wednesday it repurchased for $87 million a warrant issued to the Treasury Department to buy about 3.8 million shares of its common stock as part of the Tarp Capital Purchase Program.

Confidence among affluent investors grew in the second quarter, according to the TNS Investor Confidence Index.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management, a unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., has hired Kristin Nelson and Dean W. Catalano as senior sales directors in the unit's plan to expand in Southern California.

With more advisers selling its products, Jackson National Life Insurance Co. turn in a strong first half in sales of its investment and insurance products.

Northern Trust Corp. has promoted Connie Lindsey to head corporate social responsibility.

Retirees are some of the biggest financial advice customers, coming to wealth managers for help with reverse mortgages, annuities — and even vacations.

Acquisitions in which an asset manager buys a unit from a financial services company are likely to be a continuing theme in the industry.

Wells Fargo Advisors, a unit of Wells Fargo & Co., is no longer letting its advisers sell leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds through advisory accounts.

IMGCAP(1)]

When Bryn Mawr Trust Co. of Pennsylvania established a limited-purpose trust company in Delaware a year ago, the top executives of the two outfits hoped it would generate $250 million of assets under advisement in its first year.

IMGCAP(1)]

Second-quarter individual annuity sales fell 9%, to $60.5 billion, from the three months before, and 11% from a year earlier, according to a Limra International survey.

Six years ago Trustmark National Bank of Jackson, Miss., had a nice complement of wealth management businesses — trust brokerage, private banking and even a registered investment adviser.

Not many clients can invest in a fund that regularly beats the Standard & Poor's 500 index, with less risk, and enjoy the ability to call the managers' cell whenever they want. But that combination of acumen and access has helped Brock Kidd become an $830,000 producer at the $5 billion-asset Pinnacle National Bank in Nashville.

Asset managers expect it will take four to seven years to recover the assets under management lost during the recession, according to McKinsey & Co.

Changes in federal tax laws that take effect next year give high-income earners planning for retirement a decision to make: pay now or pay later.

Scotiabank Group in Toronto has introduced a suite of insurance products and services.

Retirement plan participants appear to be regaining confidence in equity investments, according to quarterly data released Tuesday by MassMutual Financial Group's retirement services division.