Hartford Financial Services Inc. (HIG) cut nearly 270 positions from its investment-products division in recent weeks due to slowing business.

The Connecticut-based insurer made the cuts in "the last weeks," due to reduced business in its investment-products business, which includes its mutual fund and annuities units, a spokesman said. A variety of job functions, such as wholesaling, were cut, he said.

The layoffs were first reported by MutualFundWire.com.

The cuts are related primarily to Hartford's variable annuity business, and aren't related to its subadvisory investment-management teams, such as portfolio managers, analysts, etc., or its sales and marketing support personnel associated with its mutual fund business, a spokesman said.

"The reductions reflect the need to realign our expenses with the reduced volume of business that we have experienced in our investment-products business, particularly variable annuities," the spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Hartford said in May that it would cut expenses, a move which included a hiring freeze and workplace reductions. The insurer laid off 500 employees in November.

A number of executives have resigned from Hartford this year, and Chief Executive Ramani Ayer plans to leave by the end of the year.

Hartford said last month that it had received $3.4 billion in federal bailout money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

-By Daisy Maxey, Dow Jones Newswires; 212 416 2237; daisy.maxey@dowjones.com

(Lavonne Kuykendall contributed to this story.)