Special Program Root Tag

Sun Life Assurance Group of Canada, a member of Sun Life Financial, has added a principal protection rider to its variable annuity lineup.

Prudential Financial and Prudential Insurance Co. of America have entered into three separate transactions to sell their property and casualty business. The sales represent a combined after-tax loss of $262 million below book value, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Victory Capital Management, the asset management division of KeyCorp, announced Tuesday it will acquire NewBridge Partners, a growth equity investment management firm with $2 billion in assets.

French Bank Societe Generale is close to bring its asset management and private banking divisions closer together, according to an inside source, Dow Jones reports.

Talk about the retirement needs of Baby Boomers is rife, but the needs of women within that group may be more acute, due to longer anticipated life expectancies, lower incomes and less wealth than their male counterparts.

Standard Life Investments, one of the larger British fund managers, announced last week it had cut back on its U.S. equity stance, Reuters reports. The company stated the recent stock rally had made shares much more expensive. According to a recently released company outlook from Standard, "Their rise has taken the edge off the valuation argument and the economic environment is still mixed," adding that market progress may now become "more erratic." Standard Life has around 75 billion pounds ($122.7 billion) in assets and recently stated it was moving its exposure to U.S. equities to "heavy" from "very heavy". In April, while expecting a rally, the fund had shifted to "very heavy."

U.S. regulators believe not enough information on what incentives brokers get to sell certain mutual fund products are disclosed, Reuters reports. "We are engaged in a fact-finding inquiry into how broker/dealers distribute mutual fund shares," said Paul Roye, director of the. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Investment Management. This comes at a time when the mutual fund industry faces increasing regulation scrutiny into fees, performance and distribution practices after a three-year bear market.

The market for real estate investment trusts (REITs) continues to look strong, but analysts at UBS Warburg warn that things may not stay that way. A recent report, "REITSearch Fundamentals: Spreads Shades of 1997," refers to the "good old days" of 1997 that, like today, saw narrow REIT margins.

Underwriting is the big bugaboo of life insurance. Because it takes so long, customers often forget why they wanted the policy in the first place and cancel the sale. A new real-time system from Sapiens International Corp. has changed that for one client, OneBeacon Insurance Group.

Bank of New York has named Steven Pisarkiewicz executive vice president and head of its investment branch BNY Asset Management.

Mark Marinella has joined State Street Research & Management Co. as chief investment officer of fixed income. In this role, Marinella will oversee the firm's fixed income investment management, research, trading and administration. Marinella will lead a team of over 35 portfolio managers, analysts and traders. He will report to Richard S. Davis, president and chief executive officer.

Overture Asset Managers, LLC, an asset management holding company that acquires and manages boutique investment advisors, announced today that industry veteran Larry "Chip" Seibert will rejoin Avatar Associates, an Overture affiliate, as senior vice president and equity portfolio manager.

AIM Fund Services, the transfer agent of AIM Management Group, has switched from using two portals to supply financial intermediaries with customer information, to just using DST Systems' Vision. Previously, AIM also used the fund industry-owned AdvisorCentral, but when it found that 90% of traffic to intermediaries and broker/dealers was running on Vision, the company decided to make the change.

Hedge funds gained an average of 1.86% in April, according to HedgeFund.net. But by comparison, the S&P 500 gained 8.24% in April and 4.83% since the beginning of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also trounced hedge funds last month, returning 6.25% in the month and 2.39% since the beginning of the year.

Brinker Capital has launched a series of principal-protected notes that are fixed income vehicles with market participation through an equity index. The first issue of notes will probably have a participation rate between 75% and 85%. As a fixed income vehicle, the fees associated with the product range between 75 and 90 basis points, as opposed to the 115 to 145 basis point range for equity products. The first offering, which has not yet opened, will close sometime in June, and subsequent notes will be offered periodically, probably every 30 to 60 days.

PFPC Trust Co., a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., says it plans to make custody and securities lending the focus of its overall business strategy. The company has promoted Sam Sparhawk IV to head its custody and securities lending businesses.

Financial services advertising in the first quarter was $205 million, a 23% decrease from the first quarter of 2002, according to Competitrack, a New York advertising tracking company for the financial services industry. And from the fourth quarter of 2002, spending declined 7%.

It isn't happy news for U.S.-based investment managers who are watching their own bottom lines shrinking. Their median compensation is expected to fall to $148,000 in 2003, which represents a decline of 22% over 2001's frothier levels of $190,000 and a 10% decline from 1999's median income level of $165,000.

BERMUDA - As if raising assets in foreign markets isn't already hard enough, there are increasing regulations to contend with, as well.

WASHINGTON - Maintaining more realistic expectations about mutual fund returns will be a critical step toward rejuvenating investor confidence.