Wealth management

New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corp. announced Thursday that it has added a feature to its MainStay Lifetime Income Annuity, allowing customers to customize their retirement income stream.

Millionaires' investing confidence fell to its lowest level in the past 12 months in September, according to data released Wednesday by Spectrem Group.

Evergreen Investments, the investment management arm of Wachovia Corp., said Wednesday that it had agreed Oct. 1 to buy a minority stake in Golden Capital Management LLC.

Banks and other financial services providers are enhancing the customer service features in their group employee benefits offerings, according to industry watchers.

Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. said Wednesday that it had expanded its managed account platform's availability to all its qualified retail brokerage clients.

Great-West Healthcare, the Greenwood Village, Colo., health insurance division of Great-West Life and Annuity Insurance Co., announced Tuesday its plan to introduce a consumer-driven wellness program on Nov. 1 to help people change unhealthy habits.

Amvescap PLC said Tuesday that it had hired a former Janus Capital Group executive to be its chief financial officer.

Jefferson Pilot Financial, a Greensboro, N.C., subsidiary of Jefferson-Pilot Corp., said Tuesday that it had introduced universal life and term life insurance products.

Sovereign Bank has announced a plan to offer a health savings account product that the Philadelphia bank says it will market to employers and their employees, insurance companies, and third-party administrators.

Amid heightened scrutiny from regulators, banks are intensifying their focus on the compliance issues raised by variable annuity sales, according to industry watchers, and some are looking to third-party marketing firms to help make sure their sales tactics pass muster.

Old Mutual Asset Management, a U.S. subsidiary of Old Mutual PLC in London, said Friday that its unit Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss Inc. will take leadership of a sister company, Pacific Financial Research Inc., after the planned departures of Pacific's principals, James H. Gipson, Michael C. Sandler, and Bruce G. Veaco, on Dec. 31.

NASD announced Friday that it had fined David Lerner Associates Inc. in Syosset, N.Y., $115,000 for misleading marketing - including radio advertising, client seminars, and other communications with the public.

Commerce Bancorp Inc. announced Friday that it had hired Michael Tiagwad to be president of its Commerce Insurance Services subsidiary, the 22d-largest U.S. insurance broker.

Wells Fargo Insurance Inc., a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, said it has bought the crop insurance business of Portland, Ind.-based JS Crop Insurance Inc., expanding its reach to farmer-customers in Indiana and Ohio. The deal's terms were not disclosed.

CHICAGO - About 73% of banks have begun offering separately managed accounts, according to research released this week at a conference here, and the remainder plan to begin doing so within a year.

The insurance ratings agency A.M. Best Co. said Wednesday that it believes the deal announced by Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. to buy a competing health insurer, WellChoice Inc. of New York, will strengthen the former’s reach in the Northeast.