Federated Investors has completed its acquisition of $509 million in mutual fund assets covering equities, fixed income and money markets from EquiTrust Series Fund and EquiTrust Variable Insurance Series Fund.

Hutchens Investment Management has merged with New Leaf Asset Management, with New Leaf executives Fletcher Cole and Carrie Bossi joining the Hutchens team.

DST Systems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ALPS for $250 million in cash. Once the deal closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter, ALPS will be marketed as “ALPS, a DST Company.”

CIBC is taking a 41% stake in American Century, paying $848 million in cash for the shares that JP Morgan currently holds. JP Morgan paid $900 million for a 45% stake in American Century in 1998 and pared back its holdings over the years.

A trickle of corporate cash is beginning to flow into acquisitions, business launches and other capital expenditures, according to the 2011 AFP Liquidity Survey by the Association for Financial Professionals.

Teucrium Trading, the issuer of six single-commodity exchange-traded products, has received an investment from private equity and venture capital firm Sun Mountain Capital.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. on Monday said it struck a deal to buy Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. retail banking operations for $3.45 billion.

AXA Private Equity has signed an agreement to purchase a $1.7 billion portfolio of limited partnership interests in private equity buyout funds and direct stakes in companies from Citigroup.

Northern Trust said it plans to acquire technology-driven hedge fund administration firm Omnium from Citadel, the large Chicago asset manager and market-making firm.

BNY Mellon announced Thursday it has agreed to buy Chicago-based Talon Asset Management' s wealth management operations, which have more than $800 million in assets under management.

Horizon Asset Management and Kinetics Asset Management announced Thursday that they will merge on May 1 to form Horizon Kinetics, an investment advisor with $9.8 billion in assets under management.

Charles Schwab Corp. said it will acquire the online brokerage optionsXpress Holdings for $1.0 billion.

Northern Trust announced Thursday it reached an agreement to buy the fund administration, investment operations outsourcing and custody business of the Bank of Ireland Group, Bank of Ireland Securities Services.

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse announced their merger Tuesday morning, creating “the world’s premier global exchange group, the world leader in derivatives trading and risk management, and the largest, most well-known venue for capital raising and equities trading,” the exchanges said.

Manulife Asset Management has acquired the assets of Optique Capital Management of Milwaukee, Wisc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies did say that Optique has $800 million in mutual fund and separately managed account assets under management.

Hours after the stock exchanges in London, Toronto, Montreal and Milan said they would merge, the Deutsche Börse AG and NYSE Euronext Wednesday confirmed are trying to marry.

The London Stock Exchange Group and TMX Group of Toronto said Wednesday they would combine operations in “an all-share merger of equals.’’

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has reorganized its personal retirement solutions business.

In an effort to develop jumpstart its exchange-traded fund business, Russell Investments announced Wednesday it plans to buy U.S. One Inc., a registered investment advisor and ETF provider.U.S. One is the investment advisor to the One Fund, an ETF traded on the New York Stock Exchange that provides exposure to 95% of the world’s stock markets with the objective of long-term investment growth.

In an SEC filing, Grail Advisors, a provider of actively managed exchange-traded funds launched in January 2009, indicates it may be in the process of being acquired. Should that fail, it may liquidate its actively managed ETFs.