First Executive May Call Special Holders Meeting : Insurance: The ailing L.A. firm declined comment. However, First Boston Corp. was hired earlier this year to look into a restructuring.

First Executive Corp., the troubled Los Angeles-based life insurance holding company, notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may soon call a special meeting of shareholders.

In telephone interviews, however, company officials refused to say why. William C. Adams, senior vice president for corporate services, said: “It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to make any comment.” Securities analysts who follow First Executive said they weren’t aware of plans for such a meeting and said they didn’t know of specific developments that would warrant one.

First Executive held its regular annual meeting of shareholders on July 30.

A computerized index at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington showed that preliminary proxy material for a special meeting was filed with the SEC late last week. However, preliminary proxy material normally isn’t made public by the SEC, and The Times was unable to obtain a copy late Tuesday.

One source close to First Executive said the SEC filing doesn’t specify a date for the meeting, and said it isn’t certain that one will be called. “What it’s in relation to is tentative at the moment,” the individual said, but declined to elaborate.

First Executive is the parent of two large life insurance companies, Executive Life, which principally serves the California market, and Executive Life of New York.

The company invested very heavily in junk bonds during the 1980s and recently has suffered severe losses as the junk bond market plummeted. The company has said in public filings that it may soon have to stop making dividend payments on several issues of preferred stock and warned that the parent company might not be able to continue meeting its debt obligations because regulators are preventing the insurance units from passing on profits to the parent.

First Executive earlier this year said it had hired the investment banking firm First Boston Corp. to advise it on a possible restructuring, which sources said might involve a sale of the company or of its junk bond portfolio. The company, however, hasn’t announced any specific plans.