Sun Life Financial reportedly wants to buy the Hartford's life insurance division, but what does that mean on the mutual fund side? Bloomberg's Zachary Mider and Sean Pasternak report that the Canadian insurer is in talks to acquire the life business, which boasts $247.9 billion in assets and includes Hartford's fund business, though not its sub-advisors.

Spokespeople for Hartford and Sun Life declined to comment on the talks.

Bloomberg cites MetLife as another recent potential bidder.

The Hartford, which had $31 billion in retail mutual fund AUM on December 31 (see MFWire, 2/6/2009), utilizes two sub-advisors for its mutual funds, one internal and one external. Hartford Investment Management is a stand-alone subsidiary that handles fixed income and asset allocation sub-advisory work; like property and casualty insurance, it is separate from the life business and thus appears to not be included in this deal. The funds' equity sub-advisor, Wellington, is independent from the Hartford. 

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