Business: INSURANCE'S BELATED AWAKENING

IN the decades since World War II, insurance companies have often seemed like dinosaurs—gigantic and impregnable, but slow-moving and ill-adapted to a swiftly changing environment. As a result, the insurance industry has been losing its relative importance in the business world. Inflation has made the fixed-dollar guarantees that insurance policies provide look less attractive year by year. The share of the savings dollar used to purchase life insurance has dwindled steadily from 51% in 1945 to less than 15% today. Conservative management and restrictive federal and state regulations have kept most...