Insurance provider positions itself for the boomer retirement wave. Hartford, Conn.-based Hartford Financial Services has created two new business groups – U.S. Wealth Management and International Wealth Management and Group Benefits – in pursuit of a more unified approach to a rapidly evolving marketplace.

“Our markets are changing in response to demographic changes, increasing the opportunities to respond to customer needs for a wide range of financial solutions,” says Tom Marra, president and COO of Hartford Life. “By focusing our efforts on wealth management and asset protection, we can take advantage of the opportunities offered by these changes and drive forward our strategy of growth and diversification.”

The demographic change Marra mentions is the passage of the baby-boom generation into retirement through the next several decades, a transition calling for post-retirement income and risk solutions as opposed to the accumulation-oriented vehicles that have held sway for the past several decades.

The U.S. Wealth Management group – made up of Hartford’s investment-product and individual-life divisions as well as Woodbury Financial Services, Hartford’s affiliated broker-dealer – will be lead by John Walters, for head of the investment-product unit.

Lizabeth Zlatkus will lead the second new business group, International Wealth Management and Group Benefits, and continue in her role as Hartford Life’s CFO until a replacement is found.

Walters and Zlatkus will report to Marra. –FWR

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