> Life insurance doesn't have a contagion effect like housing. Yes they do because insurance companies invest their "float" in other assets. To me it is conci

> Life insurance doesn't have a contagion effect like housing. Yes they do because insurance companies invest their "float" in other assets. To me it is concievable that a large enough forced seller of debt instruments could cause a) movement in prices b) readjustments of the balance sheets of anyone holding those instruments on a "mark-to-market" basis. I feel like the attitude that "the government would step in" is doubtful (at least in the UK, the history of insurance insolvencies is that the government lets them go to the wall, particularly as a lot of insurance is unlimited liability - meaning creditors come for the partner's houses) and alternatively just a tacit acknowledgement that Prudential Financial is systemically important.