No industry has been battered as badly this year as insurance. The alarming jump in failures -- 17 in 1991 so far -- has enraged policyholders and angered Congress. But last week the industry had some good news for a change: a private insurance group announced a $1 billion plan that will guarantee the full value of virtually all 372,000 policyholders of Executive Life, the doomed California insurer that was seized by the state last April.
The agreement, largest of its kind to date, requires 2,200 insurers to provide the funds needed to restore the full value of policies and annuities...