Wealth management

Illinois' new 529 college savings plan has added two mutual funds from Calvert Group Ltd., which specializes in socially responsible funds, as investment options.

Mellon Financial Corp. said Thursday that it had appointed Gunjan Kedia to a newly created post, executive director for investment manager solutions in the Americas.

Though banks and other financial providers have struggled to generate profits from health savings accounts, Fidelity Investments is betting that its big customer base will give the company’s new HSA product a competitive advantage, says Kirk Arnold, an executive vice president at Fidelity Human Resources Services Co.

A.G. Edwards Inc. announced Thursday that its profits rose 10% in the fiscal third quarter.

The Investment Company Institute's guidance last week to help fund companies comply with annual-review regulations has prompted a harsh response from a lawyer who represents fund companies and says the guidelines offer little substance.

Acordia Inc., a Wells Fargo & Co. subsidiary that is the largest bank-owned insurance brokerage in the United States, has announced the purchase of M.J. Beaven Agency Inc. in Copley, Ohio.

Most U.S. investment managers expect the dominant value investing style to give way to growth investing in 2006, according to a survey released Wednesday by Russell Investment Group, and bank stocks are seen bullishly in light of the managers' expectation that the Fed will soon stop raising rates.

Canadian investors' sentiment climbed to its highest positive reading this month in more than four years, according to a national survey for Manulife Financial Corp., the big Toronto insurance and wealth management company.

New York Life Insurance Co. joined two other life insurers Tuesday with the highest rating, Aaa, from Moody's Investors Service.

OppenheimerFunds Inc. sees the markets' short-term focus as creating profitable investment opportunities for those willing to take a long-term view, and it sees four drivers of investment returns next year.

Fidelity Investments introduced a health savings account Monday that it says will play a role in individual investors' retirement planning as well as supplementing its benefit program offering to corporate outsourcing customers.

The Dutch insurer Aegon NV is considering add-on acquisitions in the United States, for which it has nearly $1.8 billion of excess capital, an executive board member said Friday.

The new chief executive officer of Curian Capital, a Denver registered investment adviser that supplies fee-based managed accounts, says he plans to grow the business by expanding distribution through banks.

Shareholders of Axa SA, the Paris-based insurance giant, and Finaxa approved their merger Friday, Axa announced, and the deal closed that day.

Gamco Investors Inc. said Thursday that it had hired Agnes Mullady, the chief financial officer at U.S. Trust Co.'s Excelsior Funds, to be CFO of Gabelli Funds LLC, its mutual funds division.

A.M. Best Co. in Oldwick, N.J., assigned indicative ratings Thursday of a-minus for senior debt, bbb-plus for subordinated debt, and bbb for the preferred stock of St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc.'s new universal shelf registration, which was filed Wednesday.

Four years after buying Acordia Inc., the big Chicago insurance brokerage, Wells Fargo & Co. has moved again to integrate it with its existing insurance operations.