The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said it will sell an annuities operation that it has been winding down since 2012 to a group of investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Connecticut-based insurer created the unit, Talcott Resolution, several years after the 2008-09 financial crisis to house the variable annuity business that had made it one of the hardest-hit U.S. life insurers during the market’s steep slide. As a “run-off” business, Talcott services existing insurance contracts but doesn’t sell new products. Among the Investors in the $2.05 billion deal is Global Atlantic Financial Group, which said in a release it is reinsuring approximately $9 billion of fixed annuities and other spread-based reserves. Global Atlantic’s life insurance operations are based in Des Moines.