Only 40 or so of the 2,200 life insurers in the nation sell them.

"I haven't heard of any other life insurers that are in trouble."

It is the first significant failure of a life insurer in 16 months.

Life insurers had their own reasons for taking more and bigger risks.

One big loser: life insurers, which face the biggest tax increase of any industry.

Together, the three big life insurers command about 80 percent of the marketplace.

Their proposal, the life insurers say, would have no immediate costs.

With more than $169 billion in assets, it is the nation's largest life insurer.

In one sense, market anxieties have benefited the life insurers.

The snag is that life insurers, too, are relationship investors.