Wealth management

Individual annuity sales are on pace to set a growth record this year, according to data from Limra International.

Having limited its exposure to the volatile mortgage markets, MetLife Inc. says, it expects to hit analysts' earnings target this quarter, but the difficult market forces it to project 2008 earnings below expectations, executives said at the company's annual investor conference Monday.

Northeast Bank Insurance Group Inc., the insurance arm of Northeast Bancorp of Lewiston, Maine, bought the Berwick insurance agency Spence & Mathews Inc. last week.

Vanguard Group launched the Vanguard Market Neutral Fund on Monday.

The increasingly paperless world of annuity sales is steadily taking shape, with the clearing arm of Fidelity Investments having gradually built the number of insurance carriers participating in its automated program to 20.

State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corp.'s investment management arm, hired Paul Escobar as head of U.S. business development for its insurance asset management unit, Insure-Vest.

Lloyds TSB Offshore Ltd. plans to expand its "borderless banking" strategy by adding offices in the United States and other countries.

UnionBanCal Corp. plans to invest the proceeds from the sale of its retirement record-keeping business in its fee-based asset arm, HighMark Asset Management.

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Money Management Executive

The asset manager Security Global Investors has agreed to hire a growth equity investment team from a unit of Nationwide Financial Services Inc.

John Hancock Financial is trying to help itself do better with 401(k) plan advisers by helping them keep the assets of retirement-minded baby boomers.

Five months after bowing to regulatory pressure to resign as the top executive at Commerce Bancorp Inc. of Cherry Hill, N.J., Vernon W. Hill 2nd has resurfaced with a private investment firm.

After divesting a brokerage unit this month and selling a stake in a proprietary fund arm last year, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. does not plan to shed other units that are not carrying its brand, the Pittsburgh company's top wealth management executive said, but analysts are skeptical about how long that strategy will last.

Victory Capital Management's acquisition of Austin Capital Management wasn't the only high-profile buyout of a fund of hedge funds in recent years, but it has proven to be among the more successful after some early struggles with customer retention.

Citigroup Inc. said Tuesday that it plans to start an online foreign-exchange trading platform supplied by Saxo Bank of Copenhagen.

Scottrade Inc. expects to have the necessary regulatory approvals to launch an online thrift during the first quarter, and over time it hopes to offer banking products in its brokerage branch network.