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MetLife, MassMutual Win $1.6 Billion Pension-Risk Deal with PPG

"MetLife Inc. and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. agreed to take on $1.6 billion in pension liabilities from PPG Industries Inc., the maker of paints and coatings.... The deal accounts for about 13,400 of PPG's salaried and non-union hourly retirees or their survivors who began receiving benefit payments before April 2 ... The insurers will assume the obligation to make all future annuity payments and administer the arrangements. Other participants will remain in PPG's pension plan."

Third Circuit Holds That Plan Participants Lack Standing to Challenge MetLife's Retention of Prescription Drug Rebates

"The participants alleged that the rebates were plan assets because they were obtained through the exercise of discretionary authority by MetLife in negotiating the contracts and in allocating the rebates to itself at the expense of plan participants.... The district court granted MetLife's motion to dismiss, concluding that plaintiffs did not have standing to pursue their claims." [Knudsen v. MetLife Grp., Inc., No. 23-2420 (3d Cir. Sep. 25, 2024)]

Do the J&J and Wells Fargo Health Plan Excess Fee Cases Meet the MetLife Decision’s High Bar for ERISA Plan Standing?

"[The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently] made clear that any future case must allege harm to participants by showing that they were charged more than is allowed under the plan document. Standing cannot be based on pure conjecture or speculation that the plan sponsor had discretion to lower participant health plan fees if the plan experiences an overall lower rate of health expenses.... The key issue is whether the alleged contribution formula is speculation, or grounded in the J&J plan document. This narrow nuance will define whether plaintiff lawyers have standing to sue health plan sponsors for fiduciary breaches in failing to reduce plan health costs." [Knudsen v. MetLife Grp., Inc., No. 23-2420 (3d Cir. Sep. 25, 2024)]

Third Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Putative ERISA Class Action Alleging MetLife Unlawfully Kept $65 Million in Drug Rebates for Its Own Benefit

"The court explained that Plaintiffs must show that they have an individual right to the withheld rebate monies, such that MetLife's purportedly unlawful retention of the monies harmed Plaintiffs. Because Plaintiffs failed to allege financial harm that is actual or imminent, they lack Article III standing." [Knudsen v. MetLife Grp., Inc., No. 23-2420 (3d Cir. Sep. 25, 2024)]

MetLife Reaches Settlement With Massachusetts Over Failure to Pay Thousands of Workers' Pensions

"MetLife Inc. MET 1.90% will pay a $1 million fine to Massachusetts in its first regulatory settlement after the insurer failed to pay 13,500 people their pension benefits. The big New York insurer disclosed almost exactly one year ago that it had failed to adequately search for beneficiaries of private-sector pension plans for which it had taken on responsibility.... Some retirees were owed money from as far back as the 1990s, with amounts averaging less than $150 a month."

FINRA Levies Its Largest VA-Related Fine Against MetLife Securities

Fidelity Suspends MetLife Annuity Sales as Insurer Mulls Breakup

"Fidelity Investments, the second-largest U.S. mutual fund company, suspended sales of MetLife Inc.'s annuities as the life insurer weighs a possible sale, spinoff or public offering of a retail unit that provides the retirement products.... The loss is a setback for MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, which has declined about 21 percent this year in New York trading. The insurer's Accumulation Annuity and Growth and Income Annuity are no longer available to new investors through Fidelity[.]"

The 2011 MetLife Market Long-Term Care Costs' Survey of Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, and Home Care Costs (PDF)

This market survey, conducted in conjunction with LifePlans, Inc., contains daily private-pay rates for private and semi-private rooms in licensed nursing homes, monthly base rates for assisted living communities, hourly rates for home health aides from licensed agencies and agency-provided homemaker companion services, and daily rates for adult day services across the United States.

The MetLife Study of Women, Retirement, and the Extra-Long Life (PDF)

[The study] examines mature women's retirement-related thinking and behaviors in the context of all the 'extra' challenges women experience in retirement. It exposes the 'perilous paradox' of women's retirement income security needs and their response to them.

Third Circuit Upholds Dismissal of ERISA Claims Over Allocation of Drug Rebates

"The Third Circuit found that the plaintiffs, who were former MetLife employees, had failed to allege the necessary financial harm to establish standing ... The plan document terms expressly stated that the rebates would be applied to plan expenses ... The plaintiffs alleged that MetLife's misappropriation of plan funds caused participants to pay higher out-of-pocket (OOP) costs, primarily in the form of premiums[.]" [Knudsen v. MetLife Grp., Inc., No. 23-2420 (3d Cir. Sep. 25, 2024)]