DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) plans to appoint Chief Financial Officer Lizabeth Zlatkus to be the insurer's chief risk officer as the company beefs up risk management after last year's financial crisis.

The struggling life insurer is launching an external search for Zlatkus's successor, and she will remain finance chief until a new one is named.

Both executives will report directly to Chairman and Chief Executive Liam E. McGee, who said one of his priorities is "to elevate the role of risk management. McGee, a former head of consumer banking at Bank of America Corp. (BAC), was named Hartford chief executive last month, succeeding Ramani Ayer, who led the company's aggressive move into variable annuities. Ayer announced in June that he would retire at the end of this year.

A number of other executives have left the insurer, which has been hit hard by its sales of variable annuities, which left it with big potential liabilities when the stock market tumbled.

In July, Hartford said it swung to a second-quarter loss, its fourth in a row, on bigger investment losses. The company received $3.4 billion from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program earlier this year.

Its shares rose 0.3% to $24.40 in after-hours trading. The stock has gained half its value this year, but is flat with a year ago.

-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com