Personnel Changes: California, Hartford, Others

Tony Cignarale is the new deputy commissioner of consumer services and market conduct at the California Department of Insurance.

Cignarale, who has been acting deputy commissioner since Aug. 1, succeeds Woody Girion, who is now deputy commissioner of rate regulation.

Cignarale has been chief of the department’s consumer services division since 2001.

Cignarale has a bachelor’s degree from Clarkson University and a law degree from William Howard Taft University.

In other personnel news:

- Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, has promoted Wade Seward to chief marketing officer of the individual life division and David Levenson to president of Hartford Life Insurance K.K., Tokyo.

Seward has been director of business practices for individual life. He has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Bryant University and a law degree from the University of Connecticut. He holds the Chartered Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant professional designations.

Levenson, who has been chief operating officer of Hartford Life in Japan, will succeed Gregory Boyko. Boyko will continue to be chairman of Hartford Life in Japan while undertaking a new assignment for Hartford Life in the United States.

Levenson has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in business from Columbia University.

Levenson holds the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Mutual Funds Counselor professional designations.

- Phoenix Companies Inc., Hartford, has named Katherine Cody, a senior vice president, to be the leader of a new alternative products unit.

The unit will develop techniques for using Phoenix life and annuity products in retirement income arrangements.

Cody previously was senior vice president and chief accounting officer at Phoenix. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Syracuse University. She holds the Certified Public Accountant, Certified Treasury Professional and Fellow of the Life Management Institute professional designations.

- New York Life Insurance Company, New York, has hired Craig Merdian to be executive vice president and chief financial officer at New York Life International.

Merdian previously was a vice president in the international insurance business at Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.

Merdian has a bachelor’s degree from Drake University. He holds the Certified Public Accountant and Fellow of the Society of Actuaries professional designations.

- Washington Square Financial L.L.C., Boca Raton, Fla., a new firm that buys structured settlement and annuity income streams, has hired Andrew Hillman to be executive vice president and general counsel.

Hillman previously was chief executive of Specialty Asset Advisors Inc., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a company that buys streams of incomes from structured settlements.

He also has been a general counsel at J.G. Wentworth & Company Inc., Bryn Mawr, Pa., and Singer Asset Finance Company L.L.C., Boca Raton, Fla.