Wealth management

Fidelity Investments announced that it plans to lay off about 250 employees as part of a restructuring of some of its units.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has launched the Morgan Stanley Global Long/Short Fund, an alternative investment fund of hedge funds that offers a diversified, institutional-quality portfolio of long/short equity hedge funds to eligible individual investors and small institutional clients.

Deutsche Bank AG has acquired the Carlsbad, Calif., hedge fund administrator HedgeWorks LLC.

The Itasca, Ill., insurance brokerage and risk management services firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has completed its acquisitions of Crist Elliott Machette Insurance Services Inc. of Oakland, Calif., and Yanni Partners Inc. of Pittsburgh.

Fifth Third Bancorp is responding to shifts in the marketplace by making fundamental changes to its investment business where it wants to take more of an advisory role with its wealthy and mass-affluent customers.

Wilmington Trust Corp.'s agreement to buy AST Capital Trust Co. is more about expanding its retirement plan services business — in both capabilities and scale — than an effort to expand geographically.

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The Chicago wealth adviser Envestnet Asset Management has started an alliance with H&R Block Financial Advisors that will allow Block's advisers to provide investment services to clients.

Legg Mason Inc. said Wednesday that net income fell 11.5%, to $154.6 million, or $1.07 a share, in its fiscal 2007 third quarter on a charge related to subprime mortgage exposure.

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. of Lansing, Mich., said record sales of variable annuities and record deposits from its separately managed accounts subsidiary, Curian Capital, helped its sales and deposits rise 22% in 2007, to $14.5 billion.

Wachovia Securities said Jeremiah Keefe joined its fixed-income division as a managing director and head of distressed debt.

Credit rating downgrades at major bond insurers could cause banks to take another $40 billion of writedowns in 2008, disappointing investors who were betting that U.S. financial institutions had put the worst of their losses behind them in the fourth quarter, according to an Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. analyst.

Futurity First Financial Corp. of Hartford, Conn., has started Futurity First Insurance Group Inc.

Israel Discount Bank of New York is suing BlackRock Inc. and MetLife Inc. over losses related to investments in subprime mortgages.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 28.1% from a year earlier, to $190.7 million.

Northern Trust Corp.’s new chief executive said he plans to use small acquisitions to expand domestically while opening offices to expand internationally.

Aurora Capital Group, a Los Angeles private-equity firm, has hired William Harrison, the former chairman at JPMorgan Chase & Co Inc., as an adviser for its investment advisory committee.

Dreyfus Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Financial Corp.'s proprietary fund arm, plans to join the growing list of banking companies offering exchange-traded funds, because they offer an opportunity to gather assets, an executive said.