At The Bell

Broker raids regulator

Datek Online Holdings Corp., the Iselin, N.J., brokerage, has named William H. Mohr, 48, as its assistant general counsel. He was previously deputy bureau chief of the Investor Protection and Securities Bureau in the New York State attorney general’s office. Datek, which is hoping to go public later this year, recently sold off an old securities unit that regulators fined last year.

Legg Mason gets leg up in Canada

Baltimore brokerage Legg Mason Inc. announced that it is buying Toronto-based Perigree, Canada’s ninth-largest institutional money manager, in a stock swap valued at $135 million. The Perigree acquisition would boost Legg’s managed assets to $118 billion. The deal is expected to close in May.

Ailing First Union chief quits

Edward Crutchfield, 58, chief executive of First Union Corp., is stepping down next month because he has lymphoma. The Charlotte, N.C., bank, the nation’s sixth-largest, has struggled as it tries to absorb acquisitions, including brokerages and money managers. Mr. Crutchfield will remain as chairman, but president G. Kennedy Thompson, 49, will take over as CEO.

Long-term care bill gains

Prospects improved markedly for a bill that allows deductions for long-term care insurance premiums and a $3,000 tax credit for the actual long-term care itself after the health insurance industry and the American Association of Retired Persons, which usually disagree, joined to support the bill.

Pru annuity prices go online

Prudential Insurance Co. of America is offering on its website free price quotes for variable annuities, a service the company says it’s the first to provide. The Newark, N.J.-based company also offers instant online pricing for term insurance.

Let advisers advise, fed panel told

A Congressional panel heard testimony about updating federal law to allow employers to use financial planners to counsel employees about managing their retirement plans. Workers suffer from an “advice gap” because of 1974 restrictions, said Stanford Law School Professor Joseph Grundfest.

Decimal deadline delayed

The Securities and Exchange Commission moved back the deadline to April 14 for the securities industry to submit its plan for phasing in decimal pricing.

From Post to Polaris

After 18 years as president and chief operating officer of the Washington Post Co., Alan Spoon, 48, is becoming a general partner at Waltham, Mass.-based venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners, which has $2 billion invested in Internet companies.