Business Notes Pensions

His monthly pension is only $43.33, and every penny of it matters to Paul Hudspeth, a North Carolina textile worker who retired in 1975 from Cannon Mills. But last April, California regulators seized the ailing Executive Life Insurance Co., slashing payments to Hudspeth and 8,800 other Cannon retirees 30%. Last week former Cannon owner David Murdock came to the rescue, promising he would make good on their losses with $800,000 of his own money, until Executive Life is shored up. Yet many blame Murdock for the mess. When he sold Cannon in 1985, Murdock replaced its pension plan with a group annuity contract from Executive Life -- reaping $35 million in the process.