Wealth management

MetLife Inc. announced the introduction Monday of a Lifetime Withdrawal Guarantee rider for most of the new variable annuities its sells.

Wachovia Corp.'s wealth management division, in conjunction with its trust unit, Wachovia Trust, said Monday that it had executed contracts with more than 50 equity and fixed-income managers to be on a recommended manager list.

UMB Financial Corp.'s hiring of veteran Bank of America Corp. executive Clyde Wendel is intended to spur the Missouri bank's fee income, according to president and chief operating officer Peter deSilva.

As most investment products have become commoditized, bank-owned wealth managers pursue ways to distinguish themselves.

Acordia Inc., the big insurance broker owned by Wells Fargo & Co., said Friday that it had hired two executives from rival Marsh Inc. to take regional responsibilities in the Southeast and East.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. reported Thursday that it averaged 280,000 client trades per day last month, up from 278,000 in April.

Security Federal Corp.'s plan to buy Collier Jennings Financial Corp. is aimed at retaining customers and making bank employees comfortable with referrals, according to Chris Verenes, president of its bank subsidiary.

Bank of New York Co. Inc. has unveiled a unit that will focus on product innovation.

AIG Valic, a provider of retirement plan services to for-profit and nonprofit education, health-care, and government organizations, announced Thursday the completion of 18 fund substitutions in Variable Annuity Life Insurance Co.'s Portfolio Director fixed and variable annuity.

MassMutual Retirement Services, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Springfield, Mass., said Wednesday that it had published a white paper on more effective techniques for retirement planning.

Early estimates released Wednesday show the HFN Hedge Fund Aggregate Average declined 0.90% in May but is up 6.66% for the year through May 31.

Vanguard Group in Malvern, Pa., said Wednesday that it is broadening its lineup of Target Retirement Funds with five portfolios intended to let investors select a fund more closely matching their expected retirement dates.

Though the bancassurance business model that is common in Europe never caught fire in the United States as analysts had expected in the late 1990s, insurers such as AIG and MetLife say they are making a variation of it work in the Far East.

The insurance subsidiary of BNC National Bank said Tuesday that it had bought T.M. Richards & Associates, a Phoenix agency specializing in employee benefits, for about $2 million.

The MetLife unit of MetLife Inc. said Tuesday that it was introducing a Roth offering through 403(b) plans as an option for customers to diversify tax risk and potentially enhance after-tax savings in retirement.

City National Bank, a private and business bank in Los Angeles, announced Tuesday that it had hired Richard J. Tribiano to be a senior vice president and national sales manager for its wealth management services division.

An executive at U.S. Trust Corp. said that banks, private banks, and trust companies are positioned to gather market share as the wealthiest Americans move toward retirement and consolidate their assets with one adviser, but analysts are less confident this will happen.

Buoyed by record sales, assets in 529 college savings plans reached an estimated $75.1 billion at March 31, up 38% from the year earlier, according to data from Financial Research Corp. that was released Tuesday by the College Savings Foundation.