MetLife Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

MetLife, Inc., is one of the biggest insurance companies in the world. It represents a group of companies offering insurance and other financial services in the United States and internationally. MetLife maintains its operations from the principal executive office in New York City. It was incorporated in 1999 and now employs around 49,000 people (as of January 1, 2008). MetLife is quoted in the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol MET. The company has approximately 87,000 shareholders (as of January 1, 2008).

In addition to its U.S. operations, MetLife provides direct insurance products in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. However, the United States is MetLife’s largest geographical market (87 percent of 2006 revenues). MetLife operates in five business areas: institutional, individual, auto and home, international, and reinsurance, which generated revenues in 2006 as follows: institutional (42 percent), individual (31 percent), reinsurance (11 percent), international (10 percent), and auto and home (6 percent).

Metlife’s products include 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. Metlife’s institutional division offers group insurance and retirement and savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. These include group life insurance and nonmedical health insurance. The individual segment offers insurance products such as traditional, universal, and variable life insurance and variable and fixed annuities. Auto and home division offers personal property and casualty insurance through employer-sponsored programs, as well as through a variety of retail distribution channels, including career agency system, independent agents, specialists, and direct response marketing.

The international segment provides life insurance, accident and health insurance, annuities, savings, and retirement products to both individuals and groups, and auto and homeowners coverage to individuals primarily within Latin America and the Asia-Pacific market. MetLife operates in international markets through subsidiaries and joint ventures. The reinsurance segment provides traditional life, asset-intensive products, and financial reinsurance primarily in North America. This involves indemnifying another insurance group for all or a portion of the mortality insurance risk it has written.

MetLife has numerous subsidiary companies. These include RGA Reinsurance Company, MetLife Life and Annuity Company of Connecticut, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, New England Life Insurance Company, Texas Life Insurance Company, MetLife Limited, Sino-U.S. MetLife Insurance Company, and United MetLife Insurance Company.

The executive team of MetLife includes C. Robert Henrikson (chief executive officer and chairman), Ruth A. Fattori (chief administrative officer), Steven A. Kandarian (chief investment officer), James L. Lipscomb (general counsel), Maria R. Morris (subsidiary officer), William J. Wheeler (chief financial officer), William J. Mullaney (division officer), William J. Toppeta (division officer), and Lisa M. Weber (division officer). MetLife’s board of directors includes Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Eduardo Castro-Wright, Cheryl W. Grise, William C. Steere, Lulu C. Wang, John M. Keane, Hugh B. Price, Kenton J. Sicchitano, Burton A. Dole, R. Glenn Hubbard, James M. Kilts, and David Satcher.

The success of MetLife is a result of many factors including its strong market position. It is a well-known company. In the sales of some of its products, MetLife is the largest provider in the U.S. market. Its leading role in insurance sales gives it a key competitive advantage. Considering the hypercompetitive insurance market, MetLife performs better than its rivals in many insurance products, especially in group life insurance and group auto and home insurance sales. Another reason may be regarded to be the company’s well-organized sales network. MetLife is able to reach a wide range of customers through multiple distribution channels. These include direct marketing, independent agents, agency network, brokerage, direct employer sales, and the internet. Also, MetLife’s multiple range of products makes the company stronger than its rivals. Its life and nonlife insurance, savings, and investment products are among the highest-selling products in the insurance industry. Using its massive financial power, MetLife can provide insurance solutions designed specifically for diverse customers by considering their differentiated needs. This is not limited to institutional customers with sales of life, nonmedical health, and retirement and savings operations, but also available to individual customers via individual life and annuities operations. These several revenue-generating operations with their similarity in relevant products and services enhance cross selling opportunities between product segments. At the same time, they decrease MetLife’s business risk across various market segments.

Bibliography:

MetLife, metlife.com (cited March 2009);
Todd Raphael, “Well Done—MetLife Shifts Culture Quickly,” Workforce (v.80/7, 2001);
SEC-EDGAR, www.sec.gov (cited March 2009).

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