It hardly pays off to be in the life insurance trade these days. With trends like decreasing consumer interest in purchasing life insurance and payouts to settle charges stemming from improper methods used to pay life insurance claims, it seems that it's high time for the industry to shake itself up a little.
That's exactly what Metlife
Metlife has been suffering quite a bit for the last year or so, as it was assessed penalties for some lousy business decisions it has made over the years. One example: using Social Security's Death Master File to find deaths, which would allow the company to stop annuity payments to customers who had died, but then not looking further to find beneficiaries for deceased life insurance policyholders. Metlife and fellow insurer Prudential
Getting into the mortgage loan business was not a great idea for Metlife, either, and it may suffer fines and other penalties related to faulty loans originated by its First Horizon National unit beginning in 2008. After failing the Fed's stress test earlier this year, Metlife has decided to leave the banking business and is currently working on divesting itself of all of its finance-related subsidiaries.
Metlife's Q1 losses of $94 million following losses in the derivatives market paled in comparison to those of Prudential, which booked a loss of nearly $1 billion during the same time period. Canadian counterpart Manulife
A Fool's take
Despite all of its issues, Metlife delivered a sweet Q1 report last month, showing decent year-over-year increases in both EPS and revenue. The company is taking the bull by the horns, shedding non-profitable and troublesome businesses and setting its sights on expansion in emerging markets. If the company truly learned its lesson from the recent life insurance dust-up and concentrates on its core customer base, it might have much happier news to deliver to investors this time next year.
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