Hartford Fund Sales Double From Last Year

Hartford Financial Services Group has doubled the pace of its fund sales this year compared with 2005. Second-quarter sales were $2.8 billion. The Connecticut insurer has been able to gain distribution thus far by leveraging the success of its variable annuity business -- it had assets under management of $106 billion at the end of June.

The closed-end Alpine Global Dynamic Dividend Fund raised $476 million in its common-share offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in July under the symbol AGD. It will be managed by Jill K. Evans, who has managed the open-ended Dynamic Dividend Fund since its September 2003 inception, and Kevin Shacknofsky, who has been managing the fund with Evans since July 2004.

Global Dynamic Dividend will buy stocks ahead of distributions, hold them for the required period and then sell them to put the proceeds into other dividend payers. More than 50% of the fund's dividend income should qualify for the reduced tax rate. Total annual operating expenses on the closed-end fund, including its management fee, are estimated to be less than 1.3%. The Global Dynamic Dividend Fund could have up to about 80% of its assets in international securities.