Life insurers face huge hit to earnings as pensions bite

Life insurers face huge hit to earnings as pensions bite  Life and health insurers face a significant headwind to growth in the form of lower pension discount rates according to an equity research note issued by RBC today. Low-interest rates, tighter credit spreads, and a flatter yield curve are causing havoc across the financial world, and there’s nowhere where this is more apparent than the pension industry. At the beginning of August, Bloomberg reported that the S&P 500 total pension deficit was near $500 billion, and as rates have fallen further it’s highly likely this total will have grown. As…