The move, along with a dividend cut, should help the struggling U.S. insurer keep its AA rating.Alan Rappeport - CFO.com | USOctober 7, 2008 Email Print Reprints Permalink The Hartford Financial Services Group is receiving a $2.5-billion capital investment from German insurer Allianz SE. The Hartford also is cutting its quarterly dividend by 40 percent, to 32 cents a share. The moves, announced by The Hartford this week, will allow the company to finish the year with a projected... Read Full Story

Both as businesspeople and citizens, CFOs have plenty of advice for the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Kate O'Sullivan - CFO MagazineOctober 1, 2008 Email Print Reprints Single Page Permalink On November 4, the nation will choose either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain as its 44th President. The winner will inherit a mess. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis in the credit markets, a painful housing bust, and soaring energy and commodity prices head... Read Full Story

Study by Merrill finds that market plunge has hit their status so that the average plan is 92-percent funded, down from 99 percent at year-end. Stephen Taub - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Permalink The global plunge in the financial markets has caused the average funded status of pension plans for U.S.-based S&P-500 companies to fall to 92 percent, from 99 percent at the beginning of the year, according to Merrill Lynch estimates. On average, pension-plan... Read Full Story

Despite running into a potential deal-breaker, Folgers parent Proctor & Gamble successfully uses a reverse Morris Trust transaction in its latest pact with Smucker.Robert Willens - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Single Page Permalink Procter & Gamble (P&G) and J.M. Smucker Co. will be using (for the second time in the past six years) a "reverse Morris Trust" transaction. In this case, the stock of Folgers will be distributed by P&G to its shareholders in... Read Full Story

Just $82.3 billion was raised by 117 funds in the third quarter, the lowest amount raised since the first quarter of 2005, when 159 funds scooped up a mere $64.8 billion.Stephen Taub - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Permalink The global credit crisis and market meltdown appear to be taking a heavy toll on the world's private-equity markets. Indeed, a mere $82.3 billion was raised by 117 funds in the third quarter according to research by Preqin, an alternative... Read Full Story

In our M&A Roundup for the week ended Oct. 5, every transaction worth more than $1 billion involves a flailing financial firm.Roy Harris - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Single Page Permalink It doesn't take a very close examination to see that North American dealmaking is becoming a creature of the credit crisis — in more ways than one. Again this week, the largest transaction in the seven-day period grew directly from the flurry of high-level negotiations... Read Full Story

The auditor, accused by Ohio of violating securities laws in its work with AIG, will pay one of the highest amounts ever for an accounting firm in a class action. Alan Rappeport - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Permalink PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed to pay $97.5 million to the state of Ohio to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors in troubled insurer American International Group, which uses PwC as its independent auditor. The "partial... Read Full Story

The International Accounting Standards Board hunkers down into defensive mode as politicians push to suspend mark-to-market accounting.Sarah Johnson - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Single Page Permalink The political stampede against fair-value accounting is intensifying outside the United States as much as inside it. The uproar has U.S. and global standard-setters scrambling to come up with new guidance, examples, and meetings to refute the notion that their... Read Full Story

The candidates offer divergent responses to the credit crunch and differ sharply over free trade. Economist Staff - The EconomistOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Single Page Permalink AT THE best of times, economic regulation does not lend itself to close examination in election campaigns. Regulation, like economics itself, is about trade-offs and judgment, whereas candidates need to put things in black and white. That is even more so in this election, when Barack Obama and... Read Full Story

The need to manage cash in a downturn leads 138 companies to slash the payout in Q3 — six times more than last year.Stephen Taub - CFO.com | USOctober 6, 2008 Email Print Reprints Permalink In a visceral sign of how companies are feeling the need to hold onto cash in a downturn, 138 dividend cuts were reported in the third quarter among the roughly 7,000 public companies that report such activity — more than six times the 21 cuts of the prior year's quarter. At the same time... Read Full Story