Insurer Review: MetLife

With origins that go back to 1863, Metropolitan Life Insurance Inc., commonly known as MetLife, is an insurance company with legs. Officially founded in 1868, it wasn't until the dawn of the new millennium that the insurance company based in New York City went public. Debuting in 2000 on the New York Stock Exchange, MetLife has favored a long history as one of America's most successful insurers - and her largest with assets in excess of $3 trillion. Belying this serious history - including buying 51% of the war bonds offered during WWII - let's take a look at the company that hired Snoopy as its spokesperson in 1980.

Financial Outlook

After a long stretch with a credit rating of AAA, in 2008 the premier business rating agency Standard & Poor reduced MetLife's rating to AA+. Despite this reduction, an AA+ rating is still considered exceptional. Nonetheless, the reason given by the rating firm was a reduction in sales of life insurance by the giant insurer. Also cited were investigations into MetLife's sales practices.

Claims Service

In an effort to improve claims service, MetLife embarked on a controversial outsourcing of its telephone claims reporting process in 2001. There's little doubt that it improved the bottom line for the company, but did it actually increase their claims service? Well, according to revered customer satisfaction rating firm JD Powers & Associates, MetLife is among the worst receiving two stars out of five. They placed in the bottom five out of 25 leading insurers for their claims service.

Customer Service

Curiously, MetLife does receive high ratings from JD Powers for its customer service and among the best in customer satisfaction for homeowners insurance. While many online complaint sites paint an anecdotal picture to the contrary, particularly for MetLife's auto insurance, any objective look at MetLife places them near the top of the heap for customer service. One downside is the company's reliance on overseas phone banks.

With a strong financial outlook in a weakened economy where former giants are needing federal bailouts, Metropolitan Life is an old guard company that reacts to its customers with the intention of improving customer service. But that is downgraded by the poor customer ratings of their claims service which is really where the rubber meets the road. That leaves MetLife in the good column, but not superior. Our report card score is an A-.