Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. cut its staff by 16 percent last year as Chief Executive Officer Liam McGee narrowed the insurer’s focus.

The insurer had about 18,800 employees as of Dec. 31, a decline of 3,700 from a year earlier, according to the company’s annual filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hartford is “currently focusing on its property & casualty, group benefits and mutual fund businesses,” according to the filing.

McGee sold a life insurer and a retirement plans business last year and is limiting obligations from annuities. Hartford, based in the Connecticut city of the same name, had more than 30,000 employees at the end of 2007.

–Editor: Dan Kraut