Sales of fixed annuities climbed to $107 billion last year, up 60% from 2007, according to the Beacon Research Fixed Annuity Premium Study.
Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. is among the four suitors expected to put in a bid for American International Group Inc.’s broker-dealer businesses by the end of the month, according to The Deal.
Consumer borrowing rose unexpectedly in January after three months of declines.
The majority of executives at middle-market firms expect the financial crisis will bottom out within the next year, according to a survey released today by CIT Group.
The Phoenix Cos. Inc. said that it overstated its 2008 losses by $46 million as a result of an error in accounting for income taxes.
Captrust Financial Advisors of Raleigh, N.C., has lured Mark A. Davis, a 17-year-veteran of the retirement industry, to anchor the firm’s first West Coast office.
Aviva PLC, Europe’s biggest provider of life insurance products, posted a loss of $995 million for 2008, down from a profit of $2.98 billion in 2007.
Corporate giving is on the chopping block this year, according to a survey of 158 companies conducted by The Conference Board.
Fidelity Investments said its intermediary businesses — those that serve broker-dealers, banks, insurers, registered investment advisers and other institutional clients — set records last year.
General Motors Corp.'s auditors have raised "substantial doubt" about the troubled automaker's ability to continue operations, and the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if it can't execute a huge restructuring plan.
The number of new jobless claims and the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits both dropped unexpectedly last week, though they remain at elevated levels.
Legg Mason Inc. said Thursday it will record a $610 million charge to reflect elimination of exposure to risky structured investment vehicles in its money market accounts.
Confidence in the White House rose this year but dropped for Wall Street and corporations, according to an annual poll conducted by Harris Interactive Inc.
Advisers soon may be able to pursue a new designation that would formally qualify them as experts in managing investment portfolios during their clients' retirement years.
Insurer Old Mutual PLC reported Wednesday a 30 percent drop in 2008 profits as its U.S. Life unit made a large loss, hurt by the collapse of financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The financial services industry spent more than $5 billion on political contributions and lobbying from 1998 through 2008, according to a study released today.
Though advisers’ outlook of the economy over the next six months may be bleak, there is indeed a silver lining, according to a survey from The Charles Schwab Corp. of San Francisco.
With large pharmaceutical companies sitting on extra cash and billions, a flurry of mergers in the biotechnology sector is likely this year, analysts say.
