Wealth management

Wells Fargo & Co. has opened a private banking office in Oklahoma City.

Wilmington Trust Corp. announced Tuesday in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission that it expects to take a noncash impairment charge of $66.8 million this quarter related to its investment in one of its money management units.

Forward Management LLC, a San Francisco asset management company, announced that it has a deal to buy Berkeley Capital Management LLC's San Francisco retail division.

Vanguard Group Inc. of Valley Forge, Pa., announced that it selected two new portfolio managers to run two of its value funds.

Largely because of volatile market conditions and the credit crisis, the number of hedge funds launched in the first quarter was the lowest for a quarter since 2000, while fund liquidations increased from a year earlier.

Raymond James Ltd., the Canadian arm of Raymond James Financial Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla., hired Paul Allison as co-president and co-chief executive officer, with Peter Bailey.

Northern Trust Global Investments, the asset management arm of Northern Trust Corp. of Chicago, has launched the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund that tracks the ISEQ 20 Index, a benchmark for investing in Irish companies.

Pyramis Global Advisors of Boston, Fidelity Investments' institutional investment management, has hired Kevin Uebelein as president and chief executive officer.

If Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s chief executive is right, the worst of this credit cycle is yet to come for bankers, and dealing with that will soon involve efforts that go well beyond financial efforts to raise capital.

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Assets held in variable annuities fell 6%, to $1.4 trillion, during the first quarter from the end of 2007 and rose 0.5% compared with last year's first quarter, according to Nava.

Variable annuity providers are still trying to outdo one another's latest innovations, even though the stampede of bells and whistles has left some advisers and investors scratching their heads.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an insurance brokerage and risk management firm in Itasca, Ill. bought Voluntary Benefits Solutions LLC of Troy, Mich.

High-earning Citigroup Inc. employees will soon start paying for life insurance as the banking giant cuts costs amid staggering losses.

Bank of the West of Los Angeles, a unit of BNP Paribas' BancWest Corp. of Honolulu, hired Richard D. Byrd to the newly created position of senior executive vice president and head of the wealth, investments, and insurance group.

First Tennessee Bank of Memphis, a subsidiary of First Horizon National Corp., has added three investment products to its managed account platform.

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Private Bank of California in Century City, Calif., announced that it hired Kevin LaPorte as a vice president and relationship manager.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Springfield announced Wednesday that it has promoted Bob Casale, its deputy chief information officer, to senior vice president.