THE FEBRUARY ISSUE of the Insurance Forum contained a memo from Western National Life's marketing department to its agents summarizing its ratings.

• Joseph Belth, the editor of the Insurance Forum, believes that the memo was deceptive for

  three reasons.

Joseph Belth wrote to Western and asked about the omissions in the definitions. Western responded by saying that "our Field Up-date publications are intended for the sole use of, and are distributed only to, our...agents... These summaries [were not] intended for clients."

Belth's response: "Outrageous...lnformation is deceptive if it gives recipients an erroneous impression of important relationships...A company has an obligation to provide nondeceptive information to all its constituencies, including its agents." Indeed.