The Hartford will pay $55 million in penalties to settle securities violations with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC has negotiated the settlement to resolve allegations that three units of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., based in Hartford, Conn., used fund and variable annuity assets to pay 61 broker-dealers for “shelf space” from 2000 to 2003 without telling the funds' shareholders or the funds' boards that fund assets would be used to pay marketing and distribution costs.

Shelf space gives preferred treatment to the holders of the funds.

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Allison Bell

Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.