MetLife, Inc. -  Group Life Insurance -  Category Main Page 

(212) 578-2211

ONE MADISON AVENUE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10010-3690
www.metlife.com
 

Sales

$35.8 billion

Business Description 

MetLife, Inc., (ticker: MET) through its affiliates and subsidiaries, is a leading
provider of life insurance and other insurance products and financial services to a broad

spectrum of individual and institutional customers. The Company offers life insurance,
annuities, automobile and homeowners insurance and mutual funds to individuals,
as well as group insurance, reinsurance, and retirement and savings products and
services to corporations and other institutions. The MetLife companies serve
approximately 13 million households in the U.S. and provide benefits to
approximately 37 million employees and family members through their plan
sponsors, including 88 of the FORTUNE 100 largest companies. MetLife, Inc. also
has direct international insurance operations in 10 countries serving
approximately 8 million customers.

MetLife is one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in
the U.S. The Company's unparalleled franchises and brand names uniquely position
it to be the preeminent provider of protection and savings and investment
products in the U.S. In addition, MetLife's international operations are focused
on emerging markets where the demand for insurance and savings and investment
products is expected to grow rapidly in the future.

MetLife's well-recognized brand names, leading market positions,
competitive and innovative product offerings and financial strength and
expertise should help drive future growth and enhance shareholder value,
building on a long history of fairness, honesty and integrity.

Over the course of the next several years, MetLife will pursue the
following specific strategies to achieve its goals:

- Build on widely recognized brand names

- Capitalize on large customer base

- Enhance capital efficiency

- Expand multiple distribution channels

- Continue to introduce innovative and competitive products

- Focus international operations on emerging markets

- Maintain balanced focus on asset accumulation and protection products

- Manage operating expenses commensurate with revenue growth

- Strengthen performance-oriented culture

- Further commitment to a diverse workplace

- Optimize operating returns from the Company's investment portfolio

MetLife is organized into six business segments: Institutional, Individual,
Auto & Home, International, Reinsurance and Asset Management. Financial
information, including revenues, expenses, income and loss, and total assets by
segment, is provided in Note 18 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

INSTITUTIONAL

The Company's Institutional segment offers a broad range of group insurance
and retirement and savings products and services to corporations and other
institutions.

Group insurance products and services include group life insurance,
non-medical health insurance, such as short and long-term disability, long-term
care and dental insurance and related administrative services, as well as other
benefits, such as employer-sponsored auto and homeowners insurance provided
through the Auto & Home segment and prepaid legal services plans. The Company
offers these products either as an employer-paid benefit or as a voluntary
benefit in which the premiums are paid by the employee. Revenues applicable to
these group insurance products and services were $10.3 billion in 2003,
representing 72.5% of total Institutional revenues of $14.2 billion.

MetLife has built a leading position in the U.S. group insurance market
through long-standing relationships with many of the largest corporate employers
in the U.S. MetLife serves companies and institutions with approximately 37
million employees and family members through their plan sponsors, including 88
of the FORTUNE 100 largest companies.

MetLife's retirement and savings products and services include an array of
annuity and investment products, as well as bundled administrative and
investment services sold to sponsors of small- and mid-sized 401(k) and other
defined contribution plans, guaranteed interest products and other stable value
products, accumulation and income annuities, and separate account contracts for
the investment of defined benefit and defined contribution plan assets. Revenues
applicable to MetLife's retirement and savings products were $3.9 billion in
2003, representing 27.5% of total Institutional revenues.

The employee benefit market served by Institutional is a dynamic one.
Employers continue to seek ways to reduce costs and improve the productivity of
their workforces. The continued high annual increases in the cost of providing
employee medical care benefits have resulted in many employers reviewing all of
their employee benefit programs. Such reviews are designed to identify ways to
reduce costs while continuing to provide desirable benefit programs to attract
and retain valuable employees. The employee benefit market also reflects
employees' increasing concern about the future of government-funded retirement
and safety-net programs, an increasingly mobile workforce and the desire of
employers to share the market risk of retirement benefits with employees.
MetLife believes these trends are facilitating the introduction and increasing
employer support of "voluntary" products, such as supplemental group life,
long-term care insurance, annuities, auto and homeowners insurance, and certain
critical care products, as well as leading more employers to adopt defined
contribution pension arrangements, such as 401(k) plans.

GROUP INSURANCE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

MetLife's group insurance products and services include:

Group life. Group life insurance products and services include group
term life, group universal life, group variable universal life, dependent
life and survivor benefits. These products and services can be standard
products or tailored to meet specific customer needs. This category also
includes specialized life insurance products designed specifically to
provide solutions for non-qualified benefit and retiree benefit funding
purposes.

Non-medical health. Non-medical health insurance consists of short
and long-term disability, long-term care, dental and accidental death and
dismemberment. MetLife also sells excess risk and administrative services
only arrangements to some employers.

Other products and services. Other products and services include
employer-sponsored auto and homeowners insurance provided through the Auto
& Home segment and prepaid legal plans.

RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

MetLife's retirement and savings products and services include:

Guaranteed interest and stable value products. MetLife offers
guaranteed interest contracts ("GICs"), including separate account and
synthetic (trust) GICs, funding agreements and similar products.

Accumulation and income products. MetLife also sells fixed and
variable annuity products, generally in connection with defined
contribution plans, the termination of pension plans or the funding of
structured settlements.

Defined contribution plan services. MetLife provides full service
defined contribution programs to small- and mid-size companies.

Other retirement and savings products and services. Other retirement
and savings products and services include separate account contracts for
the investment management of defined benefit and defined contribution plans
on behalf of corporations and other institutions.
 
INDIVIDUAL

MetLife's Individual segment offers a wide variety of protection and asset
accumulation products aimed at serving the financial needs of its customers
throughout their entire life cycle. Products offered by Individual include
insurance products, such as traditional, universal and variable life insurance
and variable and fixed annuities. In addition, Individual sales representatives
distribute disability insurance and long-term care insurance products offered
through the Institutional segment, investment products such as mutual funds, as
well as other products offered by the Company's other businesses. Individual's
principal distribution channels are the MetLife Financial Services career agency
system, the New England Financial general agency system, the GenAmerica
Financial independent general agency system and MetLife Investors Group.
Individual distributes its products through several additional distribution
channels, including Walnut Street Securities, MetLife Resources and Texas Life.
In total, Individual had approximately 11,200 active sales representatives at
December 31, 2003.

MetLife's broadly recognized brand names and strong distribution channels
have allowed it to become the third largest provider of individual life
insurance and annuities in the U.S., with $12.7 billion of total statutory
individual life and annuity premiums and deposits through September 30, 2003,
the latest period for which OneSource, a database that aggregates U.S. insurance
company statutory financial statements, is available. According to research
performed by the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association ("LIMRA"),
based on sales through September 30, 2003, MetLife was the second largest issuer
of individual variable life insurance in the U.S. and the fifth largest issuer
of all individual life insurance products in the U.S. In addition, according to
research done by LIMRA and based on new annuity deposits through September 30,
2003, MetLife was the fourth largest annuity writer in the U.S.

Reflecting overall trends in the insurance industry, sales of MetLife's
traditional life insurance products have declined in recent years. However,
during the period from 1999 to 2003, the statutory deposits for annuity products
increased at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 23%. Annuity
deposits represented approximately 58% of total statutory premiums and deposits
for Individual in 2003. Individual had $12.4 billion of total revenues, or 34.7%
of MetLife's total revenues in 2003.
 
PRODUCTS

The Company offers a wide variety of individual insurance, as well as
annuities and investment-type products aimed at serving its customers' financial
needs throughout their entire life cycle.

INSURANCE PRODUCTS

The Company's individual insurance products include variable life products,
universal life products, traditional life products, including whole life and
term life, and other individual products, including individual disability and
long-term care insurance.

The Company continually reviews and updates its products. It has introduced
new products and features designed to increase the competitiveness of its
portfolio and the flexibility of its products to meet the broad range of asset
accumulation, life-cycle protection and distribution needs of its customers.
Some of these updates have included new universal life policies, updated
variable universal life products, an improved term insurance portfolio, and
enhancements to one of MetLife's whole life products.

Variable life insurance. Variable life insurance products provide insurance coverage through a
contract that gives the policyholder flexibility in investment choices and,
depending on the product, in premium payments and coverage amounts, with certain
guarantees. Most importantly, with variable life products, premiums and account
balances can be directed by the policyholder into a variety of separate accounts
or directed to the Company's general account. In the separate accounts, the
policyholder bears the entire risk of the investment results. MetLife collects
specified fees for the management of these various investment accounts and any
net return is credited directly to the policyholder's account. In some
instances, third-party money management firms manage investment accounts that
support variable insurance products. With some products, by maintaining a
certain premium level, policyholders may have the advantage of various
guarantees that may protect the death benefit from adverse investment
experience.

Universal life insurance. Universal life products provide insurance coverage on the
same basis as variable life, except that premiums, and the resulting accumulated
balances, are allocated only to the MetLife general account. Universal life
products may allow the insured to increase or decrease the amount of death
benefit coverage over the term of the contract and the owner to adjust the
frequency and amount of premium payments. The Company credits premiums to an
account maintained for the policyholder. Premiums are credited net of specified
expenses and interest, at interest rates it determines, subject to specified
minimums. Specific charges are made against the policyholder's account for the
cost of insurance protection and for expenses. With some products, by
maintaining a certain premium level, policyholders may have the advantage of
various guarantees that may protect the death benefit from adverse investment
experience.

Whole life insurance. Whole life insurance products provide a guaranteed benefit upon the
death of the insured in return for the periodic payment of a fixed premium over
a predetermined period. Premium payments may be required for the entire life of
the contract period, to a specified age or period, and may be level or change in
accordance with a predetermined schedule. Whole life insurance includes policies
that provide a participation feature in the form of dividends. Policyholders may receive dividends in cash or apply them
to increase death benefits, increase cash values available upon surrender or
reduce the premiums required to maintain the contract in-force. Because the use
of dividends is specified by the policyholder, this group of products provides
significant flexibility to individuals to tailor the product to suit their
specific needs and circumstances, while at the same time providing guaranteed
benefits.

Term life insurance. Term life insurance provides a guaranteed benefit upon the death of the
insured for a specified time period in return for the periodic payment of
premiums. Specified coverage periods range from one year to 20 years, but in no
event are they longer than the period over which premiums are paid. Death
benefits may be level over the period or decreasing. Decreasing coverage is used
principally to provide for loan repayment in the event of death. Premiums may be
guaranteed at a level amount for the coverage period or may be non-level and
non-guaranteed. Term insurance products are sometimes referred to as pure
protection products, in that there are typically no savings or investment
elements. Term contracts expire without value at the end of the coverage period
when the insured party is still living.

Other individual products. Individual disability products provide a
benefit in the event of the disability of the insured. In most instances, this
benefit is in the form of monthly income paid until the insured reaches age 65.
In addition to income replacement, the product may be used to provide for the
payment of business overhead expenses for disabled business owners or mortgage
payment protection.

MetLife's long-term care insurance provides a fixed benefit for certain
costs associated with nursing home care and other services that may be provided
to individuals unable to perform the activities of daily living.

In addition to these products, MetLife's Individual segment supports a
group of low face amount life insurance policies, known as industrial policies,
that its agents sold until 1964.
 

Life Insurance Companies in the Directory

Genworth

Jefferson Pilot

Kansas City Life Insurance Company

Lincoln National

Manulife

Metlife

National Western Life Insurance

Nationwide Financial Services

Presidential Life

Protective Life

Prudential

Reinsurance Group of America