The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took an important step this week toward getting big financial institutions, foreign and domestic, to submit resolution plans — also known as living wills or funeral plans — as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. If the new, so-called orderly liquidation authority is going to work, it is going to depend on F.D.I.C.’s ability to understand and plan for financial distress in advance. And thus the living wills are key.

Whether living wills will be as useful as hoped is another matter.”

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