Wealth management

Brown & Brown Inc., a Daytona Beach, Fla., insurer, has announced the purchase of Alexander & Bolton Inc., an Alexandria, La., insurance agency.

The Investment Company Institute said that 54.5 million households had investments in equities or bonds through early 2008.

Fifty-five percent of individual investors think a financial adviser could help them, according to a survey by Opinion Research Corp. for TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

SunTrust Banks Inc. announced that it has introduced a health savings account.

For more information on this data, visit Novantas LLC and Market Rates Insight.

Wayne Hummer Asset Management Co. LLC, a unit of Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., said that it has started a Wayne Hummer Small Cap Core Mutual Fund.

Fidelity Investments announced that Hybrid-One, a product designed to help companies and advisers manage their commission- and fee-based business, has attracted 104 hybrid clients with $13 billion of assets since its June launching.

Second of two parts

First of two parts

Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., a unit of Regions Financial Corp., announced that it has bought Burke Capital Group LLC, an Atlanta investment banking firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions and private capital advisory services to financial institutions in the Southeast.

As the market turmoil pushes small, struggling mutual fund businesses toward buyouts, Federated Investors Inc. in Pittsburgh is well situated to be a buyer, according to a senior company executive.

Northern Trust Corp. announced Monday that it will cut about 4% of its work force to offset damage from its recent support of money market funds.

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. said that so far this year gross sales in its bank trust channel have increased 30% from a year earlier, and a company executive said that he thinks the Boston investment management company will be able to match that performance in the channel next year even while it struggles with overall losses.

Eight former Fidelity Investments employees are to pay more than $1 million, in all, to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they improperly accepted gifts paid for by brokers courting Fidelity's business, the agency has announced.

This year's shrinkage in assets under management in U.S. funds could reach 29%, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.

Vanguard Group has announced the filing of a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its first international small-cap index fund.

Unified managed accounts have remained more resilient than other products while markets have suffered, the Money Management Institute said.

Vision Capital Advisors LLC, a New York investment advisory firm, has announced the hiring of Andrew Lutz, a 13-year veteran in institutional fixed-income trading and investing, to be a managing director.

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