Wealth management

Spectrem Group said Wednesday that its affluent investor index fell two points in March.

PlusFunds Group Inc. said Wednesday that it has appointed Yoshiro Okawa in Tokyo to represent the New York hedge fund company in the Japanese market.

After a positive February, hedge fund performance measured by the S&P Hedge Fund Index finished March down 0.55% and the year through March 31 down 0.20%, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday.

State Street Corp., a leading provider of institutional investor services, announced additions and improvements Tuesday of services and analytics available on its my.statestreet.com Web-based platform for customer data and applications.

BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc. says its purchase of its sixth agency was a step in its plan to further expand into its bank parent's footprint.

Principal Financial Group, a Des Moines insurer that is a 401(k) leader, said Tuesday that it is introducing a variable annuity rider to let retirees invest for higher returns without risking their principal.

Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., said Tuesday that it has a definitive agreement to buy Palmer & Cay Inc., a Savannah, Ga., agency that is the 15th-largest insurance brokerage and benefits consulting firm in the United States.

National City Investment Management Co. announced the hiring Monday of four people from Harris Investment Management Inc. who will make up a structured equity team at the Cleveland unit of National City Corp.

Aon Corp. hired Gregory C. Case Monday to be president and chief executive officer.

First Horizon National Corp. said Monday that it has bought MSAver Resources LLC, an Overland Park, Kan., company that administers health savings accounts.

Bankers Life and Casualty Co. in Chicago, a subsidiary of Conseco Corp., said Monday that it will provide Penn Treaty American Corp.'s long-term-care insurance to a group of Bankers Life agents through K.F. Agency Inc.

MassMutual Financial Group has expanded its products and international reach in the past year and now has its sights set on buying a "high-net-worth" bank to support an aggressive growth strategy, its chief executive officer said in an interview.

Zurich Financial Services AG said Monday that it will sell its wholly owned Universal Underwriters Group for about $1.1 billion to a consortium of investors led by the San Francisco private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC.

National Financial, a unit of Fidelity Investments, announced a strategic relationship Monday with Chicago-based Envestnet Asset Management Inc. to offer correspondent broker-dealers and their investment representatives a unified managed account platform integrated with National Financial's brokerage platform.

First Niagara Risk Management Inc., the insurance subsidiary of First Niagara Bank in Lockport, N.Y., said Friday that it has completed the purchase of Brooks-Byer Associates Inc., a commercial insurance agency in Albany, N.Y.

Putnam Investments' chief executive officer says the rehiring of a leader for its institutional sales division last week is another step in the right direction for the Boston fund company's turnaround from its regulatory scandals.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., announced Friday that it has agreed to buy J.W.F. Insurance Cos. Inc. of Indianapolis in a deal expected to close early this quarter. Its terms were not disclosed.