MetLife life insurance

Overview

MetLife is the New York company behind Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), one of the oldest and best-known names in American life insurance. Today its U.S. business is mostly coverage bought through work. The parent, MetLife, Inc., is a publicly traded company listed on the NYSE as MET. The NAIC's Metropolitan group, which also includes Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, American Life Insurance Company and Delaware American Life Insurance Company, ranked #23 among U.S. life insurance groups by 2024 individual life direct premiums written, according to NAIC market share data, with $1.98 billion in premiums and a 1.27% share.

Most of those individual premiums come from older policies, not new sales. MetLife moved most of its U.S. retail life and annuity business into Brighthouse Financial and spun Brighthouse off to shareholders in 2017. The individual life, annuity and long-term care policies MetLife kept are now reported as run-off business: products, in the words of its 2025 annual report, that it "no longer actively market[s] in the U.S." What MetLife does sell at scale in the U.S. is group benefits: employer-paid and voluntary term life, group universal and variable universal life, disability, dental, vision, AD&D, legal plans and pet insurance. It also sells pension risk transfer annuities and structured settlements through its Retirement and Income Solutions unit, and it has large life insurance operations in Japan, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

History

MetLife traces its roots to 1863, when New York businessmen formed the National Union and Limb Insurance Company to insure Civil War soldiers and sailors. After reorganizing to focus on life insurance, it opened as Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on March 24, 1868. In 1879 it began selling industrial insurance, small policies with weekly premiums collected door to door. It started selling group insurance in 1917, and in 1934 Fortune called it the biggest company in the world by assets.

Metropolitan merged with The New England in 1996. It demutualized on April 7, 2000, when MLIC converted from a mutual to a stock company owned by the new MetLife, Inc. A closed block was set up to support the dividends of participating individual policies then in force. MetLife bought Travelers Life & Annuity from Citigroup in 2005, and in 2010 it acquired American Life Insurance Company (Alico) for $16.3 billion, which greatly expanded its overseas business.

In 2017 MetLife completed the spin-off of Brighthouse Financial, which took over most of its U.S. retail insurance and annuity business, including New England Life. Under its New Frontier strategy, launched in 2024, MetLife is focusing on group benefits, retirement, asset management and international growth. It bought the asset manager PineBridge Investments on December 30, 2025. In 2025 it also ceded certain participating whole life and annuity business to Chariot Reinsurance, a Bermuda reinsurer in which it holds an investment, and in December 2025 it reinsured certain variable annuity contracts with Talcott Resolution. Michel Khalaf has been president and CEO since May 2019.

Life insurance products

In the U.S., MetLife's life insurance is sold to employers and associations, not to individuals buying on their own:

• Basic term life: usually employer-paid coverage, often a flat amount or a multiple of salary. See employer group life insurance: what it really covers.
• Supplemental and dependent term life: employee-paid coverage on yourself, a spouse or domestic partner and children, usually bought at enrollment. See supplemental (voluntary) life insurance at work.
• Group universal and group variable universal life: permanent coverage offered through some employers, which can build cash value and may be kept after you leave the job.
• AD&D: accidental death and dismemberment coverage, often packaged with group life.

Group coverage usually lets you continue it on your own when you leave the employer, either by porting the group coverage or converting it to an individual policy. The rules and deadlines are in your certificate; see keeping group life insurance when you leave a job.

If you own an older individual MetLife policy, such as whole life, universal life, variable life or term, MetLife still services it even though it no longer sells those products in the U.S. Participating whole life policies issued before the 2000 demutualization may be in the closed block, which exists to protect their dividends. Policies issued by the companies that became Brighthouse are serviced by Brighthouse Financial, and MetLife's contact page links to Brighthouse for those customers.

Other products

MetLife's U.S. group business also includes short- and long-term disability, paid family and medical leave, individual disability sold through the workplace, dental, vision, accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity coverage, prepaid legal plans and pet insurance. For institutions it sells pension risk transfer annuities, stable value contracts, structured settlement annuities and company-owned life insurance used to fund executive benefits. MetLife also provides life, dental, accident and health, and vision coverage to certain U.S. government employees.

Buying and service

You get MetLife life insurance through an employer's or association's benefits enrollment, not from an agent or an online quote. Coverage amounts, pricing and any health questions depend on your employer's plan. Members manage workplace coverage through MetLife's MyBenefits portal. Owners of individual life, annuity, disability and long-term care policies use MetLife's online service (eService).

MetLife lists separate phone lines by product: individual life insurance client relations at 800-638-5000, employer group term life at 866-492-6983, group universal life at 800-523-2894 and group variable universal life at 800-756-0124. Its general line is 800-638-5433. Owners of older Metropolitan Tower Life and General American Life policies are directed to a contact form.

Claims

Beneficiaries can start a life claim through MetLife's File a Claim page. For workplace coverage, the employer's benefits office can also help. MetLife's beneficiary resource page suggests ordering 10 to 12 certified copies of the death certificate and points to its online Policy Finder tool for people unsure whether the deceased had MetLife coverage. Our how to find a lost life insurance policy guide covers other search methods.

Life and AD&D benefits of $5,000 or more are generally paid into a Total Control Account, MetLife's interest-bearing settlement account, subject to state law and the employer's direction. MetLife says the account has no fees or withdrawal charges, gives immediate access to the money and pays interest from day one. The assets backing it are held in the insurer's general account and are subject to the insurer's creditors; it is not a bank account. See retained asset accounts: the checkbook you didn't ask for before deciding whether to leave money there. The Total Control Account service line is 800-638-7283.

Ratings and reputation

MetLife was not among the 23 brands ranked in the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study, released in October 2026, which measures customer satisfaction with buying and owning a policy; in the 2025 study it scored 654 points against a study average of 650 but was not eligible for a ranking.

MetLife's 10-K, filed in February 2026, lists these financial strength ratings for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Metropolitan Tower Life, all with stable outlooks: A+ (Superior) from AM Best, AA- from Fitch, Aa3 from Moody's and AA- from S&P. See AM Best, S&P, Moody's and Fitch ratings explained.

MLIC still faces old legal matters, including asbestos claims tied to its historical business. A New York False Claims Act suit, unsealed in 2017 and still pending at the time of the 2025 annual report, alleges that MetLife and other insurers filed false unclaimed property reports to avoid turning over the proceeds of more than 25,000 life policies. MetLife disputes the allegations, which remain unproven. The unclaimed life insurance money and state unclaimed property guide explains how to search state unclaimed property databases for any policy.

Who it suits

MetLife is a sensible choice for employees whose employer offers its group life: basic coverage is often employer-paid, supplemental and dependent coverage can be added at enrollment, and the insurer is highly rated. It is also the company to call for many older MetLife individual policies and for workplace death claims. It is not a place to shop for an individual policy on your own. Group coverage is usually tied to the job, can be lost or become more expensive to keep when you leave, and is rarely enough by itself. See is life insurance through work enough?.

• Strengths: A+ (AM Best), Aa3 (Moody's) and AA- (S&P, Fitch) ratings; a long-established group life, disability and dental carrier; portable and convertible workplace coverage; continued service for its older individual policies.
• Weaknesses: no individual life policies sold to consumers in the U.S.; life benefits of $5,000 or more generally go into a retained-asset account rather than a check; older policies are split between MetLife and Brighthouse, which can confuse owners and beneficiaries; parts of its run-off business, including some participating whole life, have been reinsured, including to a Bermuda reinsurer in which MetLife has invested.

How to contact MetLife