MetLife Shifts Two Top Executives as Part of Ongoing Reorganization

MetLife Inc. is continuing with the reorganization it started last November by shifting two top executives to different roles at the company.

Michael Farrell, previously head of U.S. distribution, is moving to a position in global employee benefits. He is president and chief executive officer at MetLife Investors USA Insurance Co., a subsidiary of MetLife, according to BestLink.

MetLife Investors was one of the channels that was part of U.S. distribution, said John Calagna, a spokesman for MetLife. MetLife Investors provides insurance and other financial services mainly to individual customers, and markets and administers variable annuities and fixed annuities, traditional life and universal life through brokers, according to BestLink.

Eric Steigerwalt remains interim chief financial officer of MetLife Inc., and will move to head of retail for the Americas region after a new CFO is named, Calagna said.

The company is continuing to implement the reorganization as planned since November when it announced it was changing its structure from United States and international to three geographic regions — the Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia, Calagna said. MetLife is taking the necessary steps to transform from a leading life insurance company to a global insurance and employee benefits provider, Calagna said.

The reorganization was to better manage its growing global presence as the result of its $16.2 billion acquisition of American Life Insurance Co. from American International Group (NYSE: AIG) in 2010 (Best's News Service, Nov. 21, 2011).

In the third quarter, net income for MetLife (NYSE: MET), the largest U.S. life insurer, skyrocketed to $3.5 billion on huge derivatives gains helped by lower interest rates. U.S. annuity sales jumped 79% to $9.2 billion, driven by stock market-linked variable annuities, but operating earnings for retirement products, which includes U.S. annuities, dropped 56% to $104 million on declining stock markets (Best's News Service, Oct. 28, 2011). The company will announce its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings Feb. 14 after the market closes.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and MetLife Investors USA Insurance Co. each currently have a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior).

Shares of MetLife were trading at $37.64 the afternoon of Feb. 3, up 3.46% from the previous close.

(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: [email protected])