A deal for Prudential (PRU +0.8%) to buy Hartford's (HIG +2.4%) individual life-insurance...

A deal for Prudential (PRU +0.8%) to buy Hartford's (HIG +2.4%) individual life-insurance business for about $1B could be inked as soon as today, reports the WSJ. The sale would be another step in Hartford's narrowing of its focus to property-casualty and group-benefits insurance, not to mention the vanishing of its once-booming (but eventually disastrous) variable annuity business.