Wealth management

American International Group's global investment unit has announced the hiring of Robert T. Thompson to run its alternative investments group.

Federated Investors Inc., a Pittsburgh investment management company, said it has started a fund portfolio benchmarked against the standard trust index.

Old Mutual PLC said Friday that it had bid $6.1 billion to buy Skandia AB, the Nordic region's biggest insurer, in order to enter Scandinavia and bolster its U.K. sales.

Genworth Financial plans to aggressively join the retirement services companies that are launching products and units aimed at gathering customers and assets from baby boomers nearing retirement.

Dundee Wealth Management Inc. in Toronto on Friday reported double-digit-percentage gains during August in fee-earning assets, which now total $45.1 billion.

MetLife Inc. said Thursday that it had completed its purchase of CitiStreet Associates, a division of CitiStreet LLC that is primarily a distributor of annuities and retirement plans to the education, health-care, and nonprofit markets.

Ameriprise, the financial planning firm that will soon be severed from its parent, American Express Co., will look to establish a highly visible brand name and emphasize its service model as it keeps vying for share in the growing mass-affluent market, says chairman and CEO James Cracchiolo.

Principal Financial Group announced Wednesday that it will provide a financial services hotline for beneficiaries of group and voluntary term life insurance products.

The head of UMB Financial Corp.'s asset management arm says he hopes to develop assets by breaking down its silo structures and selling advice rather than products to its customers.

Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co., the nation's eighth-largest insurance and risk management intermediary, said Wednesday that it would set up a $30 million national fund as part of an agreement to resolve the Connecticut attorney general's investigation of allegedly improper payments made by the company's Hartford office.

UnumProvident has started MedSupport, a voluntary insurance product designed to help employers and employees absorb the financial impact of rising medical costs, the company announced.

The National Association for Variable Annuities has announced that net assets in U.S. variable annuities rose 2.7%, to $1.1 trillion, in the second quarter, from the March 31 level.

Curian Capital, a Denver registered investment adviser that provides fee-based managed accounts, unveiled a series of concierge services Tuesday.

Mellon Global Investments, the London-based international distribution subsidiary of Mellon Financial Corp., said Tuesday that it has been awarded the global tactical asset allocation mandate for the $3.1 billion pension fund of Cheshire County Council in Britain.

The Asset Management Fund family of mutual funds has announced its Friday acquisition of about $95.2 million of mutual fund assets from Bank Investment Fund in Boston.

Wilmington Trust Investment Management, an Atlanta wealth advisory subsidiary of the Delaware banking company, has announced the hiring of Adrian Cronje to be its director of quantitative portfolio management, a newly created post.