Wealth management

Confidence among affluent investors and millionaires declined considerably in June, according to a survey released Wednesday by Spectrem Group, a Chicago research company.

After floundering briefly with a brokerage program it started in 1998, Gateway Bank and Trust Co. relaunched its brokerage in 2000 under David Twiddy, who has succeeded with an emphasis on fee business.

Morgan Stanley announced Monday that it had hired Fred C.C. Crozier to manage the Baltimore-Washington district of its global wealth management group.

Community banks in Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri and a Tennessee credit union chose its turnkey insurance agency service, the ProfitStars Insurance Agency Solutions Group of Jack Henry & Associates Inc. has announced.

Delaware Investments Dividend and Income Fund Inc., a closed-end investment management company, said Monday that shareholders had tendered about 5.75% of the company's stock in response to an offer that expired Friday to buy back up to 5% of the shares.

RBC Insurance said Monday that it had merged its core U.S. insurance businesses, Liberty Life Insurance Co. and Business Men’s Assurance Co. of America, and consolidated its brands.

UMB Financial Corp. says it is counting on partnerships to bring it success in the burgeoning health savings account business.

Bank of New York Co. announced Friday that it plans to start a unit early this fall that would incorporate brokerage and technology offerings for institutional clients.

Genworth Financial's definitive agreement to buy a California asset manager will help the company further its strategic initiative to penetrate the independent financial advisory channel, an executive says.

The Retirement Income Industry Association announced Monday that it had started a retirement income planning educational program for financial advisers.

Great-West Lifeco Inc. said Monday that it will buy 401(k) and defined benefit plan businesses from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. unit of MetLife Inc.

Rydex Investments, a Rockville, Md., investment firm, said it launched six currency-based exchange-traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange Monday.

TIAA-CREF, a New York financial services organization and provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields, has said it agreed to buy Kaspick & Co., a provider of planned-giving services for colleges, universities, and other nonprofits.

The financial services industry has long focused on building its clients’ wealth for retirement, but this is just one side of the equation, says Matt Schott, a senior analyst at TowerGroup in Needham, Mass.

First Trust Advisors LP, a registered investment adviser in Lisle, Ill., introduced two exchange-traded funds on the American Stock Exchange Friday.

Federated Investors Inc., a Pittsburgh investment manager, announced Thursday that it had a definitive agreement to buy three mutual funds from Sentinel Asset Management Inc.