Wealth management

Bank Investment Consultant

New York Life Insurance Co. named Christopher O. Blunt a senior vice president of the company and the chief operating officer for its life and annuity operations.

ICBA Financial Services, the retail investment and insurance services company of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said it will offer private wealth management services through its investment banking partner, Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc.'s chairman and chief executive said its definitive agreement to acquire a Bellevue, Wash., company will not set back plans to buy its way into other regions this year.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial Corp. of Toronto has added an annuity with an income-storage benefit to its product lineup.

National Investment Managers Inc., a retirement plan administrator and investment manager based in New York, has acquired Pentec Inc., a pension consulting and administration firm in Southington, Conn.

Sun Life Financial's U.S. division launched Income ON Demand, an annuity with an income storage benefit.

National Investment Managers Inc., a New York retirement plan administration and investment management company, announced last week that it has closed its purchase of Pension Alliance Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa.

Scottrade Inc. said last week that it plans to open a branch today in Oxnard, Calif.

Hub International Ltd.'s mid-February deal to buy several insurance lines from Capital One Financial Corp. was the Chicago insurance broker's third with a bank in the past five years.

Hedge Fund Research Inc., a Chicago hedge fund data provider, has started the first index designed to track the volatility sector of the hedge fund universe.

Bank Investment Consultant

The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased 1.5% in January from the previous month, to $10.57 trillion, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

Concord Equity Group Inc., a Matawan, N.J., provider of outsourced wealth management services, said it will provide Baker Boyer Bank of Walla Walla, Wash., with technology services to create a managed account platform.

Nationwide Financial Services Inc. announced it relaunched an improved version of its Nationwide ULtimatecq Universal Life, a universal life insurance policy designed to provide consumers with low-cost, permanent life insurance with a guaranteed death benefit.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. announced strong performance across its major lines of business in the fourth quarter.

Old Mutual Asset Management, the U.S. asset management arm of Old Mutual PLC of London, said its member firms' fourth-quarter assets under management rose 15% from a year earlier and 10.1% from the third quarter, to $261.3 billion.