Wealth management

A yearlong educational campaign through banks helped Nationwide Financial Services Inc. increase variable annuity sales through the channel by 26% in the first quarter, its head of bank sales says.

Fidelity Investments has announced that it is expanding its defined benefit platform.

American Century Investments started a fund family Monday that it said would let investors support cyclist Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation.

Trading volume rose in April at both Charles Schwab Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holdings Corp.

HSA Bank, a division of Webster Financial Corp. in Waterbury, Conn., has announced that it agreed to administer health savings accounts for Chamber Insurance Trust.

AIG SunAmerica Retirement Markets Inc. introduced a lifetime income rider Monday for some of its variable annuities.

Federated Investors Inc. of Pittsburgh announced Friday that it had reached a definitive agreement to buy MDT Advisers, a quantitative equity manager based in Cambridge, Mass.

With the ranks of health savings account custodians swelling, Webster Financial Corp. of Waterbury, Conn., is trying to protect its early position as the market leader.

CitiStreet, a joint venture of State Street Corp. and Citigroup Inc., was selected to administer the 401(k) plan of Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., the nation's second-largest provider of both recreational vehicles and manufactured homes.

To address investors’ hearty appetite for exchange-traded funds, Federated Investors Inc. has started offering three target maturity funds that invest mainly in ETFs.

Chicago insurance brokerage firm Acordia Inc. has acquired the assets of Alaska's Key Insurance Agency LLC.

American International Group Inc. put most of the blame for its 16% drop in first-quarter earnings on higher expenses.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. will pay $20 million to settle allegations that it gave kickbacks from January 1998 through 2004.

Principal Financial Group of Des Moines said it will begin selling its health savings accounts to other companies, including insurers, third party administrators and investment firms, this summer.

Pacific Life Insurance Co. added two investment options to its variable annuity offerings.

USAA Brokerage Services, a division of USAA Investment Management Co., said it is lowering its minimum trading price to the lowest in the industry.

Deutsche Asset Management Inc., a New York unit of Deutsche Bank AG, promoted Elizabeth Zieglmeier to the head of client relationship management for its institutional business in North America.

Rather than buy another fund family, UniCredito Italiano's Pioneer Global Asset Management SpA is buying an asset management and investment firm, Vanderbilt Capital Advisors, that specializes in separately managed fixed-income strategies and structured finance products.

Legg Mason Inc. said its net income from continuing operations for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 31, rose 28% from a year earlier as assets under management rose.