Wealth management

Guaranteed income, withdrawal, and accumulation options for variable annuities have increased dramatically in the past year, and insurers say they expect even more such riders to be introduced in 2006 as banks and other financial services providers try to tap the burgeoning retiree market.

AIG SunAmerica Retirement Markets Inc. said it has added a variable annuity income option.

Vanguard Group said Wednesday that it had added Armstrong Shaw Associates Inc. to its lineup of advisers managing the Windsor II Fund.

RBC Asset Management Inc., a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, has reported $444 million of net sales of long-term funds and money market net redemptions of $9 million for $435 million of overall net sales in December.

Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Missouri announced Thursday that the state had hired Upromise, Vanguard Group, and American Century to succeed TIAA-CREF as manager of its 529 college savings program.

American National Bank of Texas has found its Dallas-area retail market become intensely competitive in recent years, so this week it bought its first insurance agency to support a heightened emphasis on commercial business.

First Indiana Corp. has announced the closing of its previously announced deal to sell its trust business to Marshall & Ilsley Trust Co. NA, a unit of Marshall & Ilsley Corp. in Milwaukee.

Piper Jaffray & Co. has announced the hiring of Kathleen Leonard for its Boulder, Colo., philanthropic and social investment consulting team.

The outlook for bank-sold fixed annuities in 2006, after a year in which short-term interest rates overtook long-term rates, remains dependent on whether the Fed changes course, according to industry observers.

Sky Financial Group Inc. has announced the purchase of Peter B. Burke Agency Inc. in Pittsburgh, a specialist in property and casualty insurance and surety services.

Bank of New York Co., through its trust unit, announced Tuesday that it will open an office in Boston for affluent clients and investment advisers.

American National Bank of Texas in Terrell announced Tuesday that it had bought a Dallas insurance agency, Sleeper, Sewell & Co., with $60 million of premiums.

Paychex Inc. became one of the first payroll processing firms to enter the health savings account market last month when it started a small-business health savings account in conjunction with Mellon Financial Corp.

West Bancorp. Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa, closed its purchase of Investors Management Group, an asset management subsidiary of Amcore Financial Inc. in Rockford, Ill., the companies said Tuesday.

Touchstone Investments said Tuesday that it had renamed its Touchstone Emerging Growth Fund the Touchstone Mid Cap Growth Fund.

Protective Life Insurance Co. in Birmingham, Ala., said Tuesday that it had introduced a single-premium immediate annuity that adds three options to traditional immediate annuity benefits.

Hanover Insurance Group Inc. in Worcester, Mass., announced Friday that it had closed the sale of its runoff variable life insurance and variable annuity business to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.