Wealth management

Brokers in the bank channel reported the lowest job satisfaction among all the industry channels covered by Fidelity Investments' National Financial unit in a survey, indicating a need for banks to improve broker recruitment and retention, a National Financial executive said.

E-Trade Financial Corp. reported Wednesday that its July trading activity was 6% higher than in June and 18% above the year earlier.

Phoenix Cos. Inc. in Hartford, Conn., announced Wednesday that it had hired Douglas Glidden to be a wholesaler and senior vice president for its North Carolina-Tennessee-Virginia territory.

Insurance companies' share of variable annuity purchases last year fell five percentage points, while buying though brokers rose the same amount, and banks' share was stable at 15%, according to Integras, a division of the market researcher Claritas Inc.

Manulife Financial Corp. in Toronto has announced that John DesPrez will succeed James Benson, the president and chief executive officer of its U.S.-based John Hancock insurance operations, who will retire Aug. 31.

Axa Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd., a unit of Axa Group in Paris, said it is teaming up with a Malaysian company to buy the life insurance business of Tahan Insurance Malaysia.

John Hancock, the Boston unit of Toronto's Manulife Financial Corp., said Tuesday that it had sold $1.75 billion of variable annuities in the second quarter, a 17% increase from the first quarter and a 4% hike from the year earlier.

Banks and other financial services providers are increasingly viewing financial advisers as an important conduit for selling wealth management products, according to several industry players.

Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark, N.J., said Tuesday that it had started a Women and Finance section on its Web site to supply information and tools designed to help women address their financial issues.

MetLife introduced Equity Index Plus on Tuesday, an index strategy that offers institutional investors an option that replicates the performance of the S&P 500 index and offers a guaranteed enhancement if the contract is held to maturity.

Mellon Financial Corp. has been hired by Florida's State Board of Administration to oversee $113 billion of pension assets, the Pittsburgh banking company's largest public pension contract ever.

JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services, a provider of custody and investor-related services, announced the introduction Monday of two Web sites with information and tools to help chief compliance officers satisfy mutual fund regulations.

Jefferson Pilot Financial announced the introduction Monday of two universal life products to provide very high early cash values and funding for executive benefits.

The nation's property and casualty insurers reported profits of $41.3 billion last year, a 28% increase from the year before, Weiss Ratings Inc. in Jupiter, Fla., said on Monday.

American International Group Inc. has said in a conference call that sales of some of its U.S. products have improved since the company's May 31 earnings restatement. The insurer was sued by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who alleged improper accounting.

For Richard D. Byrd, the opportunity to move into the driver's seat at the wealth management division of City National Bank in Los Angeles was a no-brainer.

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed its A-plus rating for the life insurance units of Axa Financial Inc., the U.S. arm of Paris-based Axa Group.

Genworth Financial Inc. filed a shelf registration statement Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the possible future sale of any or all of the 243.2 million shares of its common stock currently held by an affiliate of General Electric Co.