METLIFE INC

Overview

MetLife, Inc. is a global financial services company focused on insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. It sells products and services to corporations and other institutions, including governments, as well as their employees and individual customers [1][2]. The company’s footprint spans the U.S., Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, and it is organized around six main segments: Group Benefits, Retirement and Income Solutions, Asia, Latin America, EMEA, and MetLife Holdings [1][3]. Its offerings include life insurance, dental, disability, paid family and medical leave, accidental death and dismemberment, accident and health, vision, and institutional funding and financing solutions linked to employee benefit liabilities [4][5].

Geographically, MetLife’s Asia business operates in nine jurisdictions with Japan as its largest market; in Latin America its largest operations are in Mexico and Chile; and in EMEA its largest operations are in the Gulf region, the U.K., and France [6]+2. MetLife states its purpose as “Always with you, building a more confident future,” and says it has a presence in more than 40 markets globally [9][10]. As general indicators of scale, the company reported about $71.0 billion in total revenues for 2024 and had approximately 45,000 employees at year-end [11][12]. [1]+11

Products & services

MetLife’s main U.S. employee-benefits offerings are housed in Group Benefits, which includes life insurance, dental, group short- and long-term disability, paid family and medical leave, individual disability, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, accident and health insurance, vision, prepaid legal plans, pet insurance, and administrative-services-only arrangements for some employers.[4] Within that lineup, term life provides a guaranteed death benefit for a specified period; variable life combines insurance coverage with separate-account investment options and puts investment risk on the policyholder; universal life allocates premiums and account balances to the general account and may include premium-based guarantees; disability products provide income replacement and related protections such as business-overhead-expense or mortgage-protection benefits; accident and health products include accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity coverage; and dental and vision products are offered both on an insured and ASO basis.[13] In MetLife’s segment revenue disclosure, Group Benefits represented about 46.8% of 2024 premiums and universal life and investment-type product policy fees ($23.4 billion of $49.9 billion total).[14][15]

MetLife’s Retirement and Income Solutions segment focuses on institutional products that help customers manage employee-benefit liabilities through life- and annuity-based insurance and investment products.[5] Its stable-value products include general account guaranteed investment contracts, separate account GICs, synthetic GICs or wraps, and private floating-rate funding agreements; these are designed to provide contract-value liquidity or guarantees for defined-contribution plans and other institutional cash portfolios.[16] RIS also offers pension risk transfer annuities for full or partial transfer of defined-benefit pension liabilities, institutional income annuities purchased for employees at retirement or termination, and structured settlement annuities that convert litigation or workers’ compensation obligations into customized periodic payments rather than lump sums.[17][16] RIS represented about 16.7% of 2024 premiums and universal life and investment-type product policy fees ($8.3 billion of $49.9 billion total).[14][15]

MetLife also carries a legacy U.S. retail portfolio in MetLife Holdings, consisting of products it no longer actively markets, including variable, universal, term and whole life insurance, variable, fixed and index-linked annuities, and long-term care insurance.[18] In that portfolio, whole life is described as a fixed-premium death-benefit product with dividend participation, variable annuities allow contractholders to allocate deposits among separate-account investment options and elect certain minimum death or living benefits for additional fees, fixed annuities support asset accumulation and distribution, indexed-linked annuities provide participation in equity-index returns, and long-term care products help cover costs when insureds need assistance with activities of daily living or have cognitive impairment.[19] [4]+8

Geographic presence

MetLife’s geographic footprint spans U.S.-based businesses and international regional operations. The company is organized into six segments: Group Benefits, RIS, Asia, Latin America, EMEA and MetLife Holdings, with Group Benefits and RIS both based in the U.S.[20]+2 In Asia, MetLife operates in nine jurisdictions and identifies Japan as its largest operation. In Latin America, its largest operations are in Mexico and Chile. In EMEA, it operates across Western Europe as well as emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with its largest operations in the Gulf region, the U.K. and France.[6]+2

For 2024, total premiums, universal life and investment-type product policy fees and other revenues were geographically concentrated in the U.S.: $37.3 billion from U.S. operations, or about 71.0% of the total, compared with $4.7 billion from Japan, or about 9.0%, and $10.6 billion from other markets, or about 20.1%.[21][22] Using MetLife’s regional segment reporting, 2024 adjusted premiums, fees and other revenues were $6.8 billion in Asia, $5.9 billion in Latin America, and $2.5 billion in EMEA.[23]+2

MetLife’s principal executive offices are at 200 Park Avenue in New York, and it had approximately 45,000 employees as of December 31, 2024.[26][12] [20]+12

Business segments

MetLife reports six operating segments: Group Benefits, Retirement and Income Solutions (RIS), Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and MetLife Holdings; it also reports Corporate & Other separately. In the fourth quarter of 2023, MetLife reorganized from five segments to six by splitting the former U.S. segment into Group Benefits and RIS. Group Benefits is the U.S. employee benefits business, offering life, dental, disability, paid family and medical leave, AD&D, accident & health, vision, legal plans, pet insurance and ASO arrangements; RIS is the U.S. institutional and retirement business, including stable value, pension risk transfer, institutional income annuities, structured settlements, longevity reinsurance, benefit funding, funded reinsurance and capital markets products. Asia offers life, accident & health, and retirement and savings products; Latin America and EMEA each offer life, retirement and savings, accident & health, and credit insurance; MetLife Holdings contains U.S. run-off businesses and product blocks no longer actively marketed, including older life, annuity and long-term care products. Corporate & Other includes start-up, developing and run-off businesses, unallocated corporate items and the institutional investment management business.[20]+8

Using 2024 segment revenues as the contribution measure, Group Benefits was the largest segment at about 36% of total segment revenues, followed by RIS at 24%, Asia at 16%, Latin America at 11%, MetLife Holdings at 10%, and EMEA at 4%. On the narrower measure of premiums plus universal life and investment-type product policy fees, Group Benefits represented about 47% in 2024, RIS 17%, Asia 13%, Latin America 12%, MetLife Holdings 6%, and EMEA 5%, with Corporate & Other immaterial.[33][15] [20]+10

Company history

MetLife traces its roots to a predecessor insurer incorporated in 1866 as National Travelers Insurance Company; it adopted the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company name on March 24, 1868, the year MetLife identifies as its founding.[34][35] Metropolitan Life completed its mutualization on January 6, 1915, becoming a mutual company owned by policyholders.[36]

The current parent, MetLife, Inc., was incorporated in 1999, and on April 7, 2000 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company converted from a mutual life insurer to a stock life insurer and became a wholly owned subsidiary of MetLife, Inc.[1][37] MetLife then expanded through major transactions, including the 2005 acquisition of Citigroup’s life and annuity businesses, which brought The Travelers Insurance Company and The Travelers Life and Annuity Company under MetLife ownership, and the 2010 acquisition of American Life Insurance Company (Alico), which MetLife later described as the largest and most transformational acquisition in its history.[38]+2 In 2017, MetLife completed the spin-off of Brighthouse Financial, separating that business into an independent public company.[41][42] [1]+9

Sources

• METLIFE INC — Full financial report (2024 Y)
  31 citations

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• www.metlife.com[9]
• www.metlife.com[10]
• s201.q4cdn.com[11]
• METLIFE INC — Full financial report (2023 Y)[27]
• www.sec.gov[34]
• sustainabilityreport.metlife.com[35]
• www.loc.gov[36]
• investor.brighthousefinancial.com[38]
• www.metlife.bg[39]
• METLIFE INC — Transcript (2010 Y)[40]
• metlife-prod.adobecqms.net[41]