TD Asset Management CEO Brian Murdock Resigns

Brian Murdock, the chief executive of TD Asset Management, has resigned to return to the United States from Canada.

NEW YORK -- Brian Murdock, the chief executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank unit TD Asset Management, has resigned to return to the United States from Canada.

Murdock, 56, has decided to leave because his family wants to be in New York, his home town, he told Reuters in an interview.

He does not yet have another position, he said.

Murdock, who joined TD as chief executive of TD Asset Management in 2009, has held a number of positions in the asset management industry.

Before joining TD, Murdock was president of New York Life Investment Management. Before that, he held a number of positions at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, including chief operating officer for MLIM Americas.

Earlier this year, executive recruiters named Murdock as a favorite to replace Mark Fetting, who resigned as Legg Mason's chief executive last year.

Murdock was approached for the Legg Mason position, but he is not leaving to join that firm, he told Reuters. He said he will stay on with TD until August 1 and help with the management transition.

Murdock has been replaced by Tim Wiggan, who on Monday took on the CEO of asset management position, a TD spokeswoman said.

Wiggan had previously been managing director and co-head of institutional sales at TD Securities' institutional equities business, the spokeswoman said.

TD Asset Management has C$207 billion ($208 billion) in assets under management.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Additional reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Tim Dobbyn and Dan Grebler)