Retire—On What?

The introduction of variable annuities, based on the changing values of investments in stocks rather than on the relatively fixed values of bonds and mortgages, has split the life insurance industry into two camps.

One faction, under the leadership of the giant Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its president, Frederic W. Ecker, contends that variable policy promises, based on equity investment, are most undesirable. Others, led by the president of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, emphatically advocate the adoption of such new insurance practices as supplements to current policies written in fixed dollar amounts.