Hartford slashes dividend after life unit’s capital misses target

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., the Connecticut-based seller of life insurance and property coverage, slashed its dividend by 84 percent after reporting a loss and missing a capital target.

Losses on commercial real estate and other fixed-income holdings helped push capital levels at Hartford’s unprofitable life-insurance unit below a December forecast by Chief Financial Officer Lizabeth Zlatkus... The fourth-quarter net loss of $806 million was the company’s second straight deficit.

Chief Executive Officer Ramani Ayer is cutting jobs and seeking government aid to replace capital depleted by investment declines. In October, he secured a $2.5 billion investment from Germany’s Allianz SE, and in December Zlatkus’s projection helped propel Hartford’s stock to its first monthly increase since March...

Bloomberg: Hartford Cuts Dividend After Life Unit’s Capital Misses Target