Hartford offers wealth management boss $2M bonus to stay for 11 months

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., the insurer scaling back amid investor demands for a breakup, has offered as much as $2 million in a retention bonus to David N. Levenson, president of wealth management. He must remain “actively em-ployed by the company in the performance of his duties on certain specified payment dates through Feb. 28, 2013,” The Hartford said last week in a regulatory filing. Mr. Levenson, who reports to chief executive Liam McGee, joined The Hartford in 1995 from Fidelity Investments. The Hartford is seeking buyers for businesses that sell individual life insurance policies and 401(k) retirement accounts, the company said last week. It also will halt sales of variable annuities, the equity-based savings products that contributed to losses during the market slump of 2008 and early 2009. Mr. Levenson told investors at a December conference that he was prepared to reshape his businesses to improve results. “I am comfortable making tough decisions,” he said Dec. 8. “These may range from personnel changes to cutting expenses to shutting down or selling businesses that are not profitable or core.” The company is responding to calls from billionaire John Paulson, who controls the biggest stake in The Hartford, to split its life insurance and retirement businesses from its property-casualty unit.