Beneficial Will Stop Selling Life Insurance and Annuities

by L.A.S.
Another victim of the subprime debacle has hit the skids. Beneficial Financial Group, a Mormon-owned company, declared it will have to stop issuing new life insurance and annuities by Oct. 31 of this year. It will put 150 people out of work promptly, and concedes it cannot compete against bigger companies offering more products.
The cause of this turn of events is that Beneficial had about one-fourth of its assets in securities containing subprime mortgages.
Existing contracts will be honored, although the company is expected to expire in about 50 years.
To repeat, the current policies are good and will be honored. It is just not going to be able to sell new policies.