The Hartford has agreed to acquire Ohio-based company TopNoggin, a privately-held defined benefit administration and consulting firm with proprietary technology that addresses data management, administration and benefit calculations tasks.

"Our defined contribution customers have made it clear they want – 'need' is really the word – help administering their defined benefit plans," said John Walters, president of The Hartford's U.S. Wealth Management Group and co-COO of The Hartford's Life Operations. "TopNoggin's real-time technology and expertise lets us answer that call with leading edge technology. We eagerly welcome TopNoggin's employees to our team as we continue to grow The Hartford's overall retirement plans business."

TopNoggin has developed a state-of-the art, Web-based pension administration system that significantly reduces time and costs from the pension administration process. It currently services 50 clients with more than $4 billion in defined benefit plan assets and 375,000 plan participants.