Wealth management

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. introduced a structured settlement annuity Thursday for funding stand-alone attorney fees.

The one-third growth in average production per bank-based financial adviser last year that was documented in a study by American Brokerage Consultants and American Banker has translated into better program profitability, though investment services still bring relatively little to the bottom line.

PrimeVest Financial Services, a broker-dealer subsidiary of ING Financial Services Inc., announced an agreement Wednesday to provide investment and insurance services through MidFirst Bank.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management firm in Itasca, Ill., on Wednesday reported the death of Robert E. Gallagher, its chairman, after a brief illness.

Mellon Financial Corp. announced Tuesday that one of its investment units, Mellon Equity Associates LLP, was selected to manage a small-cap value strategy for Prudential Retirement, a unit of Prudential Financial Inc.

John Hancock College Savings announced Tuesday that it is beginning a seven-week, back-to-school campaign to increase flows into its 529 college savings program.

Ralph Parks Investment Group LLC said Tuesday that it had introduced the Ralph Parks Cyclical Equity Fund.

Branch Banking and Trust Co.'s plan to buy a U.S. insurance premium finance business and its Canadian affiliate will bulk up an important part of its specialized lending unit and allow the seller, Mellon Financial Corp., to prune away one more noncore part of its business, the companies say.

RBC Asset Management Inc., a Toronto unit of Royal Bank of Canada, said Monday that it had introduced the RBC Canadian Diversified Income Trust Fund.

North American applications for individually underwritten life insurance were off 5% in July from the year earlier, according to the MIB Life Index released Monday; it was the fifth consecutive month of declines.

When Phoenix Cos. Inc., a Hartford, Conn., financial services company, bought Harris Bank's fund family in March, it appeared to be just another bank's proprietary fund arm being swallowed up by an opportunistic acquirer.

The John Hancock unit of Manulife Financial Corp. said it had enhanced its JH Illustrator software to make it easier for producers to provide life insurance applications for their clients to complete.

The RBC Insurance unit of Royal Bank of Canada said that it had opened a Beijing representative office of RBC Life Insurance Co.

Nationwide Financial Services Inc. has announced that Duane C. Meek, its senior vice president for retirement plans, will retire Dec. 31 and be succeeded by Bill Jackson, a vice president for internal sales and service.

For more information on this data, visit Novantas LLC and Market Rates Insight.

BB&T Corp.'s principal subsidiary, Branch Banking and Trust Co., said Thursday that it had agreed to buy the insurance premium finance company Afco Credit Corp. and its Canadian affiliate, Cafo Inc., from Mellon Financial Corp.