Best Success Story of MetLife

In this article, we take you on a journey of how the insurance giant, MetLife has achieved growth and leadership in its industry.

The largest life insurance company in the United States is MetLife. In addition, it provides health, home, automobile, and even pet insurance. Profession potential open doors in online protection, information science, designing, programming advancement, and more are accessible at MetLife. It is headquartered in New York City. It serves approximately 100 million customers worldwide. It operates in forty countries across six segments: MetLife Holdings, the United States, Asia, Latin America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and Corporate & Other. MetLife has given nearly $1 billion to communities in need of financial assistance, disaster relief, education funding, and other services because of its focus on ESG and giving back.

The National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company, which would later become MetLife, was founded in 1863 by a group of New York City businessmen with $100,000 in the bank. The company offered disability insurance to sailors and soldiers who served in the Civil War against injuries, accidents, and illnesses. James R. Dow, a doctor and president of the National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company, made the decision to concentrate solely on life insurance rather than the casualty business after struggling in the industry for five years. On March 24, 1868, it changed its name to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and focused on the life insurance industry. In 1890, MetLife’s headquarters were moved to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building on 23rd Street in Manhattan. The building was completed in stages throughout 1905. A clock tower was constructed in 1907 adjacent to the home office. The building was the tallest in the world until 1913 when it was finished two years later. Until 2005, the company’s headquarters were located in the home office complex’s Metropolitan Life North Building.By 1930, MetLife insured one man, woman, and child in the United States and Canada. In the 1930s, it also started diversifying its portfolio by replacing individual mortgages with loans, investments in government securities, and public utility bonds. In 1929, the company contributed to the construction of the Empire State Building and in 1931, the company contributed to the construction of Rockefeller Center. During World War II, MetLife invested more than 51% of its assets in war bonds, making it the largest private donor to the Allies.

The business expanded its suburban presence, decentralized its operations, and refocused its career agency system to cater to all market segments after World War II. Additionally, it began selling products for group insurance to organizations and businesses. By 1979, there were four primary businesses in operation: pensions, investments, individual insurance, and group insurance. MetLife went from being a mutual insurance company that was run for the benefit of its policyholders to being a for-profit public company in the year 2000. MetLife was able to enter insurance companies that were not related to it through the process of demutualization and increased executive compensation. During this process, policyholders received stock in the new company. During this process, MetLife was accused of violating federal securities laws by providing policyholders with materials that misrepresented and omitted information. As a result, years of litigation culminated in a $50 million settlement in 2009. MetLife maintained its position as the largest life insurer in the United States from 2004 to 2011. The business has expanded into a variety of markets over the years, eventually establishing itself as a market leader in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Since its inception in 1976, the MetLife Foundation has assisted communities in need of financial services, disaster relief, assistance for veterans, education funding, and other services. It assists communities with their financial health by utilizing grants and its financial expertise. Additionally, it encourages MetLife employees to volunteer to boost the foundation’s impact. It also collaborates with organizations all over the world to develop initiatives, such as competitions, that assist low-income individuals in managing their financial health. In 2018, competitions were held in Australia, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, and the United States thanks to the MetLife Foundation’s partnership with social innovation platform, Verb. The foundation distributed grants totaling $200 million that same year to promote global financial inclusion. MetLife Foundation intends to continue assisting low-income individuals with household budget management and planning.

In July 1999, Robert H. Benmosche was appointed chairman and CEO of MetLife.The position was held by Benmosche until C. Robert Henrikson took over in 2006. Despite the national recession, the company’s sales increased by 11.5 percent between 2008 and 2009. Steven A. Kandarian, who had served as a chief investment officer and was responsible for the company’s “US$450,000,000,000 investment portfolio,” succeeded Robert Henrikson as CEO in 2011. Henrikson was chairman of the company until the end of 2011, when he reached the age at which the company required him to retire.

Michael A. Khalaf was then named president and CEO of Metlife in 2019. Through MetLife’s acquisition of American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) in 2010, Khalaf became the chief executive officer of the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia region. In 2011, Khalaf became the president of the EMEA region. In over 25 markets, he was in charge of individual and group insurance businesses sold through banks, brokers, and direct channels. He was given charge of the company’s US businesses and global employee benefits in 2017, which included group benefits, retirement and income solutions, and property & casualty.

Term life insurance and a variety of permanent life insurance options, such as whole, universal, and final expense whole life insurance, are among MetLife’s individual life insurance products and services. The duration and amount of coverage provided by these services, as well as the necessity of a medical exam for coverage, vary. Additionally, the company offers term life, permanent life, and accidental death and dismemberment coverage through employer-provided group life insurance. Based on the number of people who have life insurance, MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States.

MetLife administers dental plans for over 20 million people and offers individual dental benefit plans to employees, retirees, and their families. The MetLife dental HMO network had over 13,000 participating dentist locations in California, Florida, and Texas as of May 2010. The MetLife dental PPO network had over 135,000 participating dentist locations nationwide. Additionally, MetLife oversees a dental continuing education program for allied health care professionals and dentists.

Individuals, as well as employee and association groups that receive disability benefits from their employers, can purchase disability products from MetLife. If an individual is unable to work as a result of illness or injury, the company’s individual disability income insurance can help cover some of the lost income. MetLife provides both short-term and long-term disability insurance for organizations.

With $22.4 billion in sales in 2009, MetLife is one of the largest providers of annuities worldwide. It offers fixed annuities, variable annuities, deferred annuities, and immediate annuities. MetLife was the first business to offer group annuity contracts in 1921. In 2004, it was the first insurance company to offer longevity insurance. With $60 billion in global group annuity assets and $34 billion in transferred pension liabilities as of December 31, 2009, MetLife paid out monthly benefits to over 600,000 annuitants.

MetLife’s nine affiliate personal lines insurance companies operate under the brand name MetLife Auto & Home. These businesses provide policies for personal lines property and casualty insurance in all fifty states and the District of Columbia as a whole. MetLife Auto & Home’s flagship company, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, was established in 1972. MetLife Auto & Home companies serve 58 of the Fortune 100 and currently have over 2.7 million active policies.

• MetLife generated $71.08 billion in revenue in 2021, a 4.77 percent increase from 2020. The twelve months ending June 30, 2022 saw MetLife’s revenue decrease by 1.74 percent year-over-year to $68.306 billion.
• 2021’s MetLife gross profit was $20.712 billion, a 3.16 percent increase from 2020. For the twelve months ending June 30, 2022, MetLife’s gross profit was $16.719 billion, a decrease of 11.02% year-over-year.
• MetLife generated $8.126 billion in annual operating income in 2021, a 17.31% increase from 2020. For the twelve months ending June 30, 2022, MetLife’s operating income was $4.061 billion, a decrease of 30.76% year-over-year.
• 2021 MetLife net income was $6.353 billion, a 22.38% increase from 2020.For the twelve months ending June 30, 2022, MetLife’s net income was $3.406 billion, a decrease of 22.82% year-over-year.
• As of 2021, Metlife has over 43,000 employees.