Wealth management

A new service from MetLife Inc. helps people approaching retirement decide when to begin taking Social Security benefits.

Observers are split about Citigroup Inc.'s decision to help investors with losses they incurred by investing in certain Smith Barney funds.

Adviser confidence in the economy and stock market improved in April, according to the Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking Advisor Confidence Index that was released Tuesday.

Putnam Investments has announced its selection as the fund management and record keeping service provider for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94 annuity fund.

Americans' retirement assets grew 0.35%, to $17.8 trillion, during the third quarter, according to a statistical report by the Investment Company Institute.

UMB Fund Services, a Milwaukee unit of UMB Financial Corp., said it had chosen AccessDiscovery, a joint product offering developed by Access Data and Discovery, to be the core technology platform for its distribution service offering.

Thanks to an external distribution push by Fifth Third Bancorp's asset management business, three key types of investments are now attracting at least as many dollars from outside the bank as inside it.

The Sequoia Fund is opening its doors to new investors for the first time since 1982.

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management announced that it has hired a dozen professionals in New York City to work directly with clients.

Dreyfus Corp., a dominant force in money market funds, will become a leader in long-term mutual funds and other investments, if its new chief executive, Jon Baum, meets his goal.

PrivateBank, a unit of PrivateBancorp Inc., said Friday that it had opened commercial banking business development offices in Denver and Des Moines and hired two executives for each from LaSalle Bank.

Investment Professionals Inc., a San Antonio investment manager, has announced the promotion of Jay McAnelly to executive vice president and director of national sales.

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U.S. Bancorp has announced the hiring of Timothy Leach to be the chief investment officer of its wealth management group.

Babson Capital Management LLC, a Springfield, Mass., investment manager, announced it has bought Murray Capital Management Inc.'s distressed-debt management business.

After reporting a net loss for the quarter due to an increase in its provisioning for problems in its Southern California and Florida loan portfolios, a top executive at Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that the company expects more chargeoffs because of difficult lending conditions in both regions.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the New York investment banking and securities arm of Deutsche Bank AG, said it had promoted Rob Ebert to head of equity sales for the Americas, in its institutional-client group.