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The sale of Safeco’s life insurance unit to investors, including Berkshire Hathaway and the White Mountains Insurance Group, closed at the end of July for $1.5 billion. The new owners have renamed the unit Symetra Financial, according to a report in The Seattle Times.

Georgeson Shareholder, a New York-based mutual fund proxy and shareholder communication specialist, has acquired the shareholder mailing firm Alamo Direct Mail in a $15.5 million deal.

Diversified Management Resources, a Boston-based financial services executive recruitment and consulting firm, has added Robert Goldberg, the former president of the National Investment Company Services Association, as a consultant.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday announced they have fined Fidelity Brokerage Services $2 million for destroying or altering records in at least 21 of its 88 branch offices.

Evergreen Funds confirmed Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating potential market timing at the firm and may bring an enforcement action, Dow Jones reports. The firm’s parent company, Wachovia, first made the indication that a former employee may be charged in an SEC filing. The SEC is also interested in the activities of a portfolio manager, Wachovia indicated.

The New York Stock Exchange plans to reduce the role of its massive network of specialists and floor traders by implementing an expanded electronic trading network formally known as "the hybrid market."

Morgan Stanley announced it has chosen eight independent research firms to supply stock analysis in compliance with a regulatory settlement.

Franklin Advisers has settled with the SEC for $50 million, $30 million of which is for disgorgement and $20 for a civil penalty. The entire sum will be paid out to shareholders in funds affected by the firm’s market timing, the SEC said.

When the Mutual Fund Directors Forum recommended last week that curbing the use of soft dollars for research would benefit the industry, skepticism was bound to appear. On cue, The Wall Street Journal reports that a group representing brokerage firms lashed out against the proposal, saying that the legislation would hurt the industry.

Alliance Capital Management is talking with China’s No. 2 life insurance company about becoming involved with its securities brokerage, The South China Morning Post reports.

The parent company of scandal-sapped Invesco feeling the heat from its subsidiary’s wrongdoings, as Amvescap reported that Invesco and its manager, AIM Investments, have suffered a combined mass withdrawal of $8 billion during the first half of 2004, Rocky Mountain News reports.

The Ontario Securities Commission is planning to bring market-timing charges against a number of mutual fund companies in Canada within the next few weeks, it was reported last week. But the charges are likely to be focused on market-timing abuses, rather than illegal late trading.

A new bill proposed in the House would exempt up to $20,000 in annuity income from federal taxation. The Retirement Security for Life Act of 2004 proposes that 50% of annuity income, up to $20,000 annually, be free of taxes, amounting to savings up to $5,000 for someone in the 25% tax bracket.

Fidelity Investments has started a bond fund that offers investors access to the entire U.S. dollar-denominated bond market.

The U.S. asset management arm of Old Mutual PLC has announced that assets under management by the unit increased 2.1% during the second quarter.

In a perilous time for Janus Capital Group, the news is not improving. The company indicated that one of its clients plans to withdraw $5 billion by the end of 2004, a figure that represents a huge chunk – 3.7% – of the company’s assets under management, according to Reuters.

With increasing regulation on the minds of mutual fund investors, independent fund directors are becoming better practiced at speaking their minds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Stephen Treadway, the CEO of PIMCO affiliate PA Distributors who was charged with fraud back in May, has left the company, Reuters reports.

Fidelity Investments reported that its brokerage unit got a tidal wave of net new client assets in the second quarter, while trading volume jumped 75%, when compared to the corresponding period last year. Net new client assets checked in at $23.8 billion, a large increase over the $2.5 billion the unit raked in during the second quarter of 2003. This category included the sales of both Fidelity and non-Fidelity funds and securities.

Morningstar ripped into Federated Investors and Fremont Investment Advisors last week, urging investors to avoid sending new money to the shops, only later to shy away from specific criticisms it had levied, but maintaining its recommendation.