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District Court Upholds MetLife's Denial of Life Insurance Benefits Where Coverage Lapsed Despite Continued Premium Payments

"[T]he court found that MetLife reasonably determined that Troy's coverage terminated six months after he ceased active work, as defined by the plan. The court emphasized that Cleveland-Cliffs' support of the claim did not bind MetLife or override its policy interpretation.... [T]he court found no evidence that MetLife was even aware that Troy's coverage had lapsed, as Cleveland-Cliffs had continued paying premiums and apparently misinterpreted the policy. Without notice of the lapse, no duty to notify of conversion rights had yet been triggered on MetLife's part." [New v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, No. 24-0212 (S.D. W.Va. Aug. 7, 2025)]

MetLife to Pay $10 Million to Settle SEC Charge of 'Longstanding Internal Control Failures'

"According to the SEC's order, MetLife improperly released reserves for annuity benefits associated with MetLife's Retirement and Income Solutions Business, which resulted in an increase in income. For over 25 years, MetLife's practice was to presume annuitants had died or otherwise would never be found if they did not respond to only two mailing attempts made approximately five and half years apart. MetLife later determined that its processes for locating and contacting unresponsive annuitants were insufficient to justify the release of reserves. To correct this error, MetLife increased reserves by $510 million as of year-end 2017."

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)]

Massachusetts Charges MetLife with Fraud Over Filings Related to 13,500 Missing Participants

"[T]he complaint alleges that MetLife's public filings contained material misstatements about company finances, because reserves set aside for missing participants were released and 'became assets which inflated MetLife's bottom line.' ... [In a February 8-K filing with the SEC, MetLife] said about 13,500 participants had been affected over the past 25 years. MetLife said the reserves set aside for those participants were released. Now, the company has added $510 million back to those annuity reserves."

MetLife's Failure to Pay Retirees' Pensions Is Under Scrutiny

"Massachusetts securities regulators have begun an investigation into MetLife's failure to pay thousands of workers' pensions.... The disclosure by MetLife does not state the exact number of retirees who are impacted, what efforts MetLife has made to find correct addresses, how long the problem has been going on, or when and how MetLife learned of the problem."

MetLife's Missing Pension Payments?

"Companies offload pension risk, and it's up to the insurers to manage those pensions, including the administration of pension payments.... [As] more and more companies offload pension risk to insurers, these type of operational blunders are simply not acceptable. It's not just embarrassing, it could cost MetLife future business."

FINRA Finds MetLife Does the Ol' Bait and Switch with Its Annuities

"According to the [May 3] settlement, MetLife sometimes overstated the cost of a customer's existing variable annuity contract, which in some instances increased a customer's cost by 2% annually.... FINRA sampled some 35,500 replacement contract applications submitted by MetLife representatives, and found that 72% -- or about 25,560 applications -- contained at least one error that understated the value of the contract being replaced.... MetLife representatives sold these replacement annuities to their unsuspecting clients and collected commissions that ranged between 5-7% on the new sales!"

MetLife Releases Retirement Income Practices Study (PDF)

"[MetLife] is pleased to introduce the new MetLife Retirement Income Practices Study(sm): Perspectives of Plan Sponsors and Recordkeepers for Qualified Plans. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between the largest U.S. plan sponsors and recordkeepers with regards to the provision of lifetime income options for qualified plan participants."

MetLife Testimony at ERISA Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans Hearing, 'Stable Value Funds and Retirement Security in Current Economic Conditions'

Excerpt: MetLife's testimony provided an overall perspective on stable value, including its purpose, how it evolved, how it's used in practice today, how well stable value has met its objectives, key considerations in designing financially sound stable value products and how stable value differs from other investment alternatives. MetLife testified that we believe stable value funds should be included as a fourth Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) without restrictions.

MetLife Employee Benefits Benchmarking Report (PDF)

136 pages. Excerpt: The MetLife Employee Benefits Benchmarking Report is based on findings from MetLife's 2004 Study of Employee Benefits Trends, and covers benefits-related topics from the perspectives of both employers and employees.