During 2003, life insurance companies' stock prices will outperform the market in general, and life insurance companies will be trading about 1.5 times book value and 10.7 times the year's earnings per share, according to estimates by Bear Stearns life sector analyst Andrew Kligerman. He predicts that the Standard & Poor's 500 increase of 7.9 percent will strengthen earnings releases for the fourth quarter of 2002 and relieve some life insurers' profit squeezes that were caused by guaranteed minimum death benefits and deferred acquisition costs. Kligerman also estimates that earnings per share will grow by over 0.4 percent for every 1 percent increase in the equity markets.