Brown & Brown has acquired Synergy Benefits, a Potomac Falls, Va., employee benefits firm serving the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors, an independent retirement plan and investment advisory services provider, is opening an office in Dallas, expanding its reach to Texas.

In what is likely to be his last act as Maryland’s insurance commissioner, Ralph S. Tyler has ruled that the reserve levels of two CareFirst subsidiaries “are neither unreasonably large nor excessive.”

As New York works to finalize its own broker compensation disclosure rules, at least three mid-Atlantic states are also investigating the matter.

Wachovia Securities has finalized a deal with regulators in the District of Columbia on the repurchase of auction-rate securities to settle allegations the firm’s dealers misled investors about the safety of the market.