Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 22, 1993                   TAG: 9312220014
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FOR THE RECORD

An illustration accompanying an article on Monday's Money Page about insurance company ratings should have indicated that the second-highest grade awarded a company by A.M. Best Co., a rating service, is A-plus. The A-minus rating is the fourth-highest rating awarded by service.

The accompanying story indicated that it is important to examine ratings of insurance companies because it can be expensive to surrender a cash-value life insurance policy or annuity. That is especially true in the early years of such a policy or annuity. That's because they earn little money at first because of the cost of commissions to agents who sell the policies. Annuities usually have an initial cash surrender penalty of 8 or 10 percent, and the penalty decreases to zero over a period of eight to 10 years.