getting larger with the hope of achieving economies of scale, while some companies are getting smaller with the hope of accentuating their core businesses.

Tuesday's news that Aon Corp. agreed to sell its Life Insurance Co. of Virginia unit to General Electric Capital Services for $960 million is a combination of those trends, analysts said.

Aon is a Chicago-based insurance and financial services holding company with two operating Bermuda subsidiaries.

For Aon the sale frees it of the last of its large, pure life insurance businesses. In November, GE Capital agreed to acquire Union Fidelity Life Insurance Co., another Aon unit, for more than $400 million.

"It's an important move for Aon as part of their reconfiguring of their business mix,'' said Jeff Schuman, an analyst at Conning & Co.

The two units GE Capital agreed to buy represent slower-growth and lower-return businesses for Aon. Now, Aon will be more intently focused on its higher-return brokerage and services businesses.

Aon, one of the largest insurance brokers in the nation, is "focusing on service and distribution as opposed to insurance products,'' said Gloria Vogel, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co.

For GE Capital, the fast-growing financial services unit of General Electric Co., the acquisitions boost its presence in the life insurance sector.

The latest acquisition will become a unit of GE Capital's GNA Corp. division; it will add about $9 billion of assets, bringing GNA's total assets to $30 billion.

GNA Chief Executive Patrick Welch said the deal gives it big boosts in both life insurance and variable annuities, giving it greater flexibility to package its various insurance products.

Analysts also expect GE Capital will be able to reduce costs when it adds the business to its stable of insurance companies.

Schuman said investors seem pleased by Aon's direction, pointing out that the stock was only trading around $39 in September, when the company disclosed it was looking to sell the two life insurance businesses. Tany disclosed it was looking to sell the two life insurance businesses. Tany also said Aon's sale of Life Insurance Co. of Virginia is part of a trend of insurers trimming their assets to focus on their higher-return or "core'' businesses.

Aetna Life & Casualty Co., for example, sold its property-casualty division in November for $4 billion to focus on its higher-return health insurance and managed-care lines.