Life Insurers Threaten to Abandon Plan To Aid Baldwin-United Annuity Holders
NEW YORK -- The life insurance industry threatened to abandon its plan to aid those who bought Baldwin-United Corp. annuities before the company filed for bankruptcy-law reorganization last year.</br></br>The threat was contained in a statement by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., which has led the industry effort. It surprised insurance regulators and Baldwin officials, who have been negotiating over how much Baldwin will contribute to a fund to help annuity holders.</br></br>Metropolitan's statement was interpreted by some as an effort to increase the pressure on Baldwin, regulators and others involved in the negotiations. Metropolitan, however, said it simply wanted to inform the 165,000 Baldwin annuity holders that it doesn't believe "a solution is near."</br></br>In its statement Friday, Metropolitan said it couldn't set up a plan to improve the interest rates currently paid to Baldwin annuity holders because several financial questions weren't resolved by a Dec. 1 deadline the industry had set.</br></br>A plan still could be implemented if those questions are resolved "within a short time," Metropolitan said.