Wealth management

Mutual fund firm Janus Capital Group Inc. is considering using hedge funds to help balance its product offerings, its new chief financial officer said.

As BNP Paribas aggressively gobbles up banks in the West and Midwest, its U.S. asset management arm also plans to grow by acquisition, but its chief says it will be buying specialties it can sell through its global distribution network, not primarily looking to add scale.

HSA Clearing, a company that sets up banks and credit unions to offer Health Savings Accounts, has announced an agreement with Credit Union Group of Lawrence, Kan., to make the product available to its members.

A.M. Best Co. Friday affirmed financial strength ratings of B-plus-plus and assigned issuer credit ratings of "bbb" to both Trustmark Insurance Co. in Lake Forest, Ill., and Trustmark Life Insurance Co.

AmSouth Bancorp's decision last week to sell its proprietary mutual fund business to Pioneer Investment Management Inc. made it just the latest banking company to quit money management.

Hancock Bank of Gulfport, Miss., closed its purchase Friday of the big New Orleans property and casualty insurance agency J. Everett Eaves Inc.

Wachovia Insurance Services has announced the purchases of Ingram-Brown & Associates and Gerald S. Smith & Co. Inc., employee benefit consulting firms based in Greensboro, N.C.

With its announcement this week that it has agreed to buy a Connecticut insurance brokerage, Commerce Bancorp has jumped back into the busy agency-deal arena after a three-year absence.

Janus Capital Group Inc., the Denver fund company that has been fighting outflows since the market bubble burst at the start of the decade, has named an executive recently hired from Charles Schwab Corp. to succeed its chief financial officer, who resigned.

Mellon Financial Corp. said Thursday that it is starting Mellon Global Professional Services, a provider of value-added consulting services to software and outsourcing clients.

UBS AG announced Thursday the integration of its U.S. wealth management business with that of the parent Zurich banking company under the leadership of Marcel Rohner, who had led the wealth management unit based in Switzerland.

First Niagara Risk Management Inc., the insurance agency division of First Niagara Financial Group Inc., a Lockport, N.Y., banking company, announced Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Hatch Leonard Naples Inc., the largest agency in Rochester, N.Y.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. says it plans to expand distribution and sales by going after the ultra-wealthy.

Wall Street Access, a New York asset management and institutional research and execution firm, said Wednesday that it had hired Jay Ryan to be a vice president of institutional sales.

Citigroup Inc. announced plans Tuesday to open its hedge fund, Tribeca Global Management LLC, to investors this year.

Hartford Financial Services Group said Tuesday that it had received a subpoena regarding its variable annuity sales practices.

Metropolitan West Asset Management said Tuesday that it had agreed to buy certain assets of ING Capital Advisors.