Wealth management

Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis., information management systems and services outsourcer, said Wednesday that it had bought Results International Systems Inc., a provider of property/casualty insurance outsourcing services.

The 529 college savings plan market grew to $43 billion of assets in the second quarter despite the product's attachment to the increasingly scrutinized mutual fund industry and position in an uncertain regulatory environment.

JPMorgan Funds and One Group Mutual Funds said Tuesday they plan to combine their operations, two months after their parent companies merged.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has hired Gary F. Baker to fill the newly created post of head of strategic distribution in the company's savings product division.

MetLife Inc. announced the introduction Tuesday of an automatic-increase benefit rider to let policyholders keep pace with inflation without having to supply evidence of continued insurability.

Executives at China Life Insurance Co. said Tuesday that they do not plan to change their strategy of focusing on strong premium growth and a high market share as competitors play down expansion in favor of profitability, according to Dow Jones Newswire.

RBC Dain Rauscher says it hopes a new unified managed account platform will help it target mass-affluent customers with services once reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. said Monday that it set a company record for variable annuity sales, at more than $964 million during the second quarter, up 27% from the year earlier, compared with $33.4 billion of sales industrywide, a 1.5% increase.

After six years in the insurance business, Hibernia Corp. has learned to take an aggressive stance on providing consulting services as a means of overcoming the commoditization of insurance products and building success in cross-selling.

John Hancock in Boston announced that it has introduced a long-term-care insurance program called Corporate Solutions for the small-business market to help provide individual long-term-care coverage at the workplace.

BlackRock Inc.'s $375 million deal for State Street Research and Management Co. would bolster its institutional business and give it more depth in the equity business, which it has been trying to build, an analyst says.

Ask Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan if he thinks the SEC should have more regulatory power over hedge funds and he will answer with an unqualified "no" - as he did for the second time in a week with a response Tuesday to the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Hedge funds declined 0.78% in July, according to the Morgan Stanley Capital Investments Hedge Fund Composite Index.

Nearly two-thirds of those who took the June chartered financial analyst exam passed it, according to data released Wednesday by the CFA Institute.

PFPC Inc., a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., announced Wednesday that it will offer a middle-office suite of services for both traditional and alternative asset managers in Europe.

Arch Insurance Group in New York, a division of Arch Capital Group Ltd., said Wednesday that William Palmer has been promoted to executive vice president of its central region.

Citizens Advisers, the investment adviser to Citizens Funds, said Wednesday that it had chosen Toronto-based McLean Budden to subadvise Citizens Global Equity Fund.