Wealth management

Aon Corp. agreed Friday to pay $190 million to settle charges by five agencies in three states that it had accepted payments in exchange for steering clients toward certain insurance providers.

Low interest rates and a scandal-ridden environment affected banks' fixed and variable annuity sales in the fourth quarter, according to a consultant who tracks them.

ING Annuities announced that it is using the scale of its wholesaling team to give financial advisers nationwide resources to better help Americans save for retirement.

MetLife Retirement and Savings in St. Louis said Thursday that it has added the Morningstar Learning Station as a source of online content for the participant Web site in MetLife's 401(k) plans.

Cigna HealthCare in Bloomfield, Conn., announced Thursday that it is expanding the availability of its consumer-driven Cigna Choice Fund Health Savings Account plans to businesses with 51-200 employees in North and South Carolina.

Banknorth Insurance Group plans to step up its agency acquisition pace and branch out into several new states, mirroring its parent's intention to expand outside of New England.

Principal Financial Group in Des Moines said Wednesday that it had promoted Carey Jury, Tim Minard, and Deanna Strable-Soethout to senior vice president.

TIAA-CREF, a New York retirement services provider, said Wednesday that it had hired Susan Kempler to be the director and a portfolio manager for its institutional and retail growth and income funds.

Fidelity Investments has announced a fee reduction on several index funds in order to remain competitive.

Affluent investors grew more confident in February, according to a survey released Wednesday by Spectrem Group, a Chicago research firm.

Marsh & McLennan Cos., the world's largest insurance broker, slashed its dividend Tuesday and said it planned 2,500 job cuts after reporting a $676 million loss from settling New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's bid-rigging accusations.

BB&T Insurance Services Inc. in Raleigh has seen its revenue grow rapidly as it became a prodigious dealmaker in recent years, and along the way the company has experimented with ways to present products to customers and with business lines to cultivate organic growth.

Mellon Financial Corp. has announced the closing of its purchase of DPM, a Somerset, N.J., hedge fund administrator.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in Simsbury, Conn., and Kraft Foods, two NCAA corporate partners, announced Monday a marketing promotion to build awareness of the SMART529 college savings plan.

Putnam Investments said Monday that it had hired Bradford S. Greenleaf to be a managing director and portfolio manager of its global core equity fund.

StillPoint Advisors Inc., a midsize wealth advisory firm, is planning an aggressive campaign to hire wealth management teams from wire houses, banks, and other financial services companies.

Lexington Insurance Co., a member of American International Group Inc. in New York, started a tax-interruption insurance product Monday that alleviates municipal revenue losses when sales, property, or other taxes are disrupted by physical loss or damage to a commercial site.

KNBT Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Keystone Nazareth Bank and Trust Co., announced Monday a $28 million agreement to buy Caruso Benefits Group Inc., a benefits management company in Bethlehem, Pa.