Analysts: Life Earnings May Be A Little Weak

Some life insurers may have done worse than Wall Street expected during the fourth quarter of 2007, but they are unlikely to post big writedowns.

Securities analysts at UBS Investment Research, New York, give that assessment, in a comment on the upcoming round of life insurance company fourth-quarter earnings releases.

Weak variable investment income and weak sales of products linked to the stock market could hurt profits, but most big life companies have only small amounts of the sorts of assets that have been causing problems for the banks and securities dealers, the analysts write.