Wealth management

Though Wilmington Trust Corp. is still looking for acquisitions, the new head of its investment management group hopes the restructuring it announced this week will help it grow organically.

Growth through acquisition is high on the agenda for some investment managers this year, according to executives who spoke at a Lehman Brothers conference in New York this week.

Bruce R. Abrams, the president and chief executive officer of AIG Annuity Insurance Co., has also been put in charge of AIG Valic, a division that markets mutual fund products and annuities through banks.

New York Life Investment Management LLC of Parsippany, N.J., has hired two BlackRock Financial Management directors and an Allmerica Financial Corp. executive as directors in its retail investment business.

Primary life insurers may face a pricing and capacity crunch this year as they seek reinsurance in a market controlled by fewer players, according to Swiss Reinsurance Co.'s Conning Research and Consulting Inc.

Acordia Inc., Wells Fargo & Co.'s insurance agency subsidiary, said Keith Burkhardt, now its managing director of northeast Ohio operations, will become the managing director for Acordia of Minnesota Inc. on Oct. 1.

MetLife Inc. is buying into the brokerage operation of BancoEstado, Chile's state-owned bank, and will sell life insurance and annuities through its branches.

Some large investment management firms, including most run by banks, are refocusing on individual products instead of relationships to generate assets in a difficult stretch of the economic cycle.

The boards of three units of Manulife Financial Corp. of Toronto have approved a plan to combine their operations.

A click-to-talk feature on Esurance Inc.'s Web site connects customers to agents of the online auto insurer by ordinary telephone or a PC-to-phone link.

Tufts Associated Health Plans Inc. of Waltham, Mass., says it is the first health plan provider to offer a health savings account for small-business owners in the state.

Aviva Life Insurance Co. aims to boost bank sales with new products that allow simplified underwriting.

Guy Carpenter & Co. Inc., a global risk and reinsurance unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., has appointed Beverly McIntosh as a senior vice president in its San Francisco office.

Rich Jandrain, an executive at Bank One's One Group Mutual Funds, has left the firm.

Reuters Group PLC of New York has introduced a desktop information system for European private bankers.

40/86 Advisors Inc., a Carmel, Ind., fixed-income asset manager and investment adviser, has made two hires for its investment team.

Two units of PA Fund Management LLC agreed Monday to pay $50 million to settle fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jefferson Pilot Corp. in Greensboro, N.C., has started offering term life insurance that cuts in half a policy's minimum face amount in an effort to broaden the product's appeal.

Alliance Capital Management reported Friday that a preliminary estimate of assets under management at the end of August showed a gain of $6 billion, to $479 billion, from July 31; Janus Capital Group reported a continuation of asset erosion; and Franklin Resources said it gained $5.7 billion of managed assets in the month.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s investment management unit has hired Alison Murdoch and Ray Uy for its international investment team.