Florida Deferred Compensation Program, Tallahassee, will use six providers in its $1.2 billion 457 plan; it was not able to reach an agreement with its seventh choice, Hartford Investment Management, said Kandi Winters, bureau chief. "Hartford was not willing to commit the level of resources to the state’s information management system that the department requires to meet the expectations of its deferred compensation plan participants,” Ms. Winters said.
"It’s unfortunate that we were not able to continue in the bidding process, but we look forward to future opportunities,” said Eric Wietsma, vice president-government markets at Hartford.
Florida officials will not be searching for a provider to replace Hartford. The other providers are: AIG VALIC, Great-West/Benefits Corp., ING, Nationwide Retirement Solutions and T. Rowe Price. SafecoShareBuilder was hired to provide an online brokerage account.