Wealth management

The human resources provider Hewitt Associates Inc. announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire RealLife HR.

Jefferson National Life Insurance Co. of Dallas has added a free service called Monument Advisor Xpress to help fee-based and fee-only advisers compare high-cost variable annuities.

Liberty Mutual Group of Boston announced Monday that it has completed its acquisition of Ohio Casualty Corp., the holding company of Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. and five other property and casualty insurance companies.

The St. Louis brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc. said it has hired John F. Lee to lead its western expansion as a senior vice president and managing director.

The merger wave that has dramatically consolidated the online brokerage market — including rumored talks between E-Trade Financial Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. — seems to have reached a point where small operators have no choice but to follow suit.

Jefferson National Life Insurance Co., a Dallas insurer, introduced Monument Advisor Xpress.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. said it is planning a large expansion of its private client banking team in India.

Asset rollovers from retirement accounts to individual retirement accounts have increased 38%, to $489.3 billion, since 2004, after an 11% decline from 2000 to 2004, a report by Spectrem Group says.

MetLife Investors Distribution Co. has announced the addition of two executives to its bank channel distribution team.

Money Management Executive

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, a unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., has been reappointed by Marshall & Ilsley Corp. as global custodian for its trust and outsourcing clients, which have more than $1 billion of assets.

Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark, N.J., said it had promoted Christine C. Marcks to president of its retirement division.

Assets held by the nation's life and health insurers increased 6.7%, to $305 billion at March 31, from a year earlier, according to TheStreet.com Ratings, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com Inc.

ING Americas announced that Carlos Muriel is to become chief executive officer and president of its insurance and pension operations in Latin America.

Expanded distribution helped John Hancock's second-quarter variable annuities sales rise 28% from a year earlier, to a record $432 million.

Northern Trust Corp.'s unit for ultrawealthy investors has increased its assets under custody by 40.4% in the past year and plans to add advisers to maintain the momentum.

Scottrade, a St. Louis online investment firm, has announced that it plans to open a branch in Murrieta, Calif.