Wealth management

Genworth Financial Inc. announced two appointments Thursday in its retirement income and investments business.

Assets held in hedge funds rose slightly in August, according to monthly data released Wednesday.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has introduced a fixed deferred annuity that offers a higher rate than its predecessor and flexible income features for conservative investors.

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.