The nation's seven biggest life insurers reported dismal business results Friday with all of them logging a fall in outstanding contracts for individuals in fiscal 1999.
The amount of outstanding contracts -- insurance and annuity benefits promised to individuals -- has been on the decline for years.
Industry officials attribute the dismal performance to the lingering recession as well as to still-rampant policy cancellations, caused in part by a series of collapses seen in the industry in recent years.