MetLife, Inc.
Market Data Current As Of: September 12, 2026
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MetLife, Inc.
Compare market positioning with top industry peers
Explore MetLife
Core profile pages, annual revenue records, and related research hubs for this company.
Company History
Founded 1868 in New York, New York
Henry S. Terry and William A. Brewer founded Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York City in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended. The immediate market was working-class Americans who needed life insurance coverage but could not afford the lump-sum premium payments that existing insurers required. Metropolitan Life pioneered the industrial insurance model: small policies, collected in weekly door-to-door visits by company agents. The company grew through the late nineteenth century on the strength of that distribution model — tens of thousands of agents visiting workers' homes every week, collecting premiums and building relationships. By 1909, Metropolitan Life had introduced an Industrial Savings Department and by 1912 had launched a Home Service Insurance division that extended the door-to-door model to a broader range of financial products. The industrial insurance market was enormous, and MetLife's early dominance in it funded the capital accumulation that enabled the company's transition to a full-scale life and group benefits insurer. The demutualization in 2000 was a watershed event: converting from a mutual company, owned by policyholders, to a public corporation, owned by shareholders, required regulatory approval in New York and involved one of the most complex financial transactions in insurance history. The IPO raised billions and gave management the currency to pursue acquisitions: New England Financial in 2006, Hartford Life Insurance operations in 2009, Delphi Financial Group in 2012. The Brighthouse Financial spin-off in 2017 completed the transformation from a sprawling, capital-intensive life insurer into a focused group benefits and institutional company. MetLife Investment Management, which had always managed the investment portfolio, was repositioned as an institutional asset manager serving third-party clients as well as MetLife's internal needs.
MetLife (Metropolitan Life Insurance Company) possesses a historic, foundational founding story, rooted in the precarious industrial expansion of post-Civil War America and defined by a revolutionary, empathetic approach to working-class financial security. The company was founded in 1868 in New York City by an ambitious group of local businessmen. Initially, the company was a failure; it attempted to sell traditional life insurance to wealthy individuals, but the market was saturated and the company nearly went bankrupt. The world-changing pivot occurred in 1879 under the visionary leadership of President Joseph F. Knapp. Knapp possessed a foundational 'eureka' moment after studying the successful 'industrial insurance' programs operating in Great Britain. At the time, the rapidly expanding class of American factory workers possessed no financial safety net; if a factory worker died, their family often could not even afford a basic funeral, resulting in shameful 'pauper's graves.' Knapp revolutionized American insurance by importing the British system. MetLife began selling 'Workingman's Insurance.' The masterstroke was the ingenious, localized payment structure. Instead of requiring an annual premium, MetLife employed an army of trusted local agents who physically walked the impoverished tenement neighborhoods of New York City, collecting premiums of just three to five cents a week directly from the workers. This localized, accessible model transformed MetLife from a struggling, elitist startup into a powerful, trusted institution that stabilized the American working class.
A group of New York merchants, including Henry S. Terry, founds the company as a mutual life insurance organization, introducing the revolutionary concept of industrial life insurance that provided affordable, weekly-premium protection to the underserved urban working class.
The enterprise launches a revolutionary savings program for its industrial policyholders, transforming the company from a pure death-benefit provider into a comprehensive financial institution for the working class, expanding its deposit base and community penetration.
The company introduces a comprehensive health and home nursing service for its policyholders, establishing the enterprise as a pioneer in the integration of insurance and healthcare services, long before the modern managed care era.
The enterprise executes one of the largest demutualizations in history, transforming from a mutual company owned by policyholders into a publicly traded stock company, MetLife, Inc., raising billions in capital and providing the flexibility to compete in a rapidly consolidating global market.
The enterprise acquires the US life insurance and annuity book from Citigroup for approximately eleven point five billion dollars, instantly catapulting the company to the number one position in the US retail life insurance market and expanding its investment scale.
Recognizing the capital intensity and low return on equity of its legacy variable annuity book, the enterprise announces the strategic decision to spin off its US retail business into a separate, publicly traded entity, altering its capital profile.
The enterprise completes the spin-off of its US retail business into Brighthouse Financial, shedding billions in statutory capital requirements and regulatory burdens, and instantly unlocking shareholder value through a radically improved return on equity.
Michel Khalaf is appointed Chief Executive Officer, bringing a renewed focus on capital efficiency, digital underwriting, and the aggressive deployment of artificial intelligence to drive long-term margin expansion and operational excellence.
The enterprise reports FY2024 total revenues of $70.986 billion, demonstrating the success of its capital-light strategy and organic growth, while simultaneously accelerating the rollout of advanced AI-driven underwriting and claims processing across its global network.
MetLife reported $77.084B in FY2025 total revenues, $3.173B in net income available to common shareholders, $57.6B of premiums, fees and other revenues, and nearly $4.4B returned to shareholders.
The enterprise acquired New England Financial, a respected mutual insurer with a dominant position in the US variable annuity and retail life insurance markets. The purpose was to instantly catapult the company to the number one position in the US retail market, achieve unprecedented scale, and realize immediate cost operational efficiencies through the consolidation of overlapping distribution networks and administrative functions.
The enterprise acquired Metropolitan Property and Casualty, a leading regional auto and homeowners insurance carrier, to expand its footprint in the fragmented P&C market and leverage its existing customer base for cross-selling opportunities. The purpose was to transform the company from a pure life insurer into a comprehensive, multi-line financial services provider.
Following the financial distress of The Hartford, the enterprise acquired a significant block of the company's US life insurance and annuity operations. The purpose was to opportunistically capture high-quality, loyal customers and assets under management at a discounted valuation, thereby instantly increasing the company's investment scale and market share in the institutional segment.
The enterprise acquired Delphi Financial Group, a specialized provider of life insurance and annuities to the senior and retirement market, to expand its footprint in the rapidly growing demographic of aging baby boomers. The purpose was to capture the unmet demand for retirement income solutions and leverage Delphi's specialized distribution network to drive high-margin, capital-efficient growth.
Since its establishment in 1868, MetLife, Inc. expanded from an early-stage venture into a recognized leader in Life Insurance, Annuities, and Employee Benefits, overcoming key market challenges.
Over its history, MetLife, Inc. executed decisive strategic pivots toward scalable monetization and digital distribution, securing its current market leadership.
By continually modernizing operations and embracing workflow automation, MetLife, Inc. maintains resilience through changing technological and economic cycles.