MetLife, also known as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, is one of the largest global annuities, insurance, and employee benefit programs. Their reach is so extensive that it extends across more than 60 countries; naturally, they serve almost 100 million customers due to that reach.

The insurance company currently holds leading market positions in many countries, including the United States, Latin America, Asia’s Pacific region, Japan, and the Middle East. In addition, they are the largest leading provider of life insurance throughout the United States. That means that most people in the United States have a MetLife life insurance policy of some kind.

While MetLife being one of the world’s largest insurance countries is a benefit, not everyone may benefit from enrolling in a MetLife insurance policy. As a large insurance and financial services company, MetLife does its best to provide all customers with affordable services to fulfill their economic and insurance-related needs.

MetLife also has the distinction of serving 90 of the largest Fortune 500 countries. Such a large company is naturally headquartered in an equally large city. MetLife’s headquarters are locked in New York City, notably Midtown Manhattan. They have several executive offices and boardrooms scattered around the city, though they eventually sold most of those properties by 2005.

Advertising And Logo

As a large insurance and financial services company, MetLife has a significant presence in the insurance industry and advertising. While they’re not known for having memorable advertisements, they provide promotions and accompanying campaigns that reach countless people.

The best-known factor about MetLife’s advertisement and promotional materials is their use of peanut characters. For example, one of the most famous commercial series by MetLife features Snoopy in various situations that relate to needing MetLife to step in. MetLife has used Snoopy and other Peanuts characters in its promotional materials, premium items, and sales literature since 1985.

Peanuts’ presence in their advertisement campaigns has allowed MetLife to gain a more significant business presence across the country and around the world. Some of their best-known advertisement campaigns with the Peanuts characters include slogans like ‘Get Met. It pays.’ ‘Have you met life today?’ and ‘Guarantees for the If in Life.’ The company continues to use Peanuts characters in its promotional materials, including its advertisements, to this day.

MetLife also makes charitable contributions to various organizations and establishments involved in health, civic affairs, culture, and education. The MetLife Foundation, founded in 1976, was created to promote its charity-related efforts. By 2010, MetLife and the MetLife Foundation contributed well over $44.7 million to non-profit organizations, in addition to providing over $480 million in loans and other investments designed for community development.

As for MetLife’s logo, it’s relatively simple in design. It’s usually depicted as ‘MetLife’ printed in bold type, usually in blue, though it’s also known to appear in black or white (reversed against the blue). In addition, some versions of the logo are depicted with peanut characters like Snoopy beside it.

The History Of MetLife

MetLife was first formed out of its predecessor company, a company known as the National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company. That company was started in 1863 after people from New York City raised 100 thousand dollars to open the company. They initially provided Civil War soldiers and sailors who needed insurance for their disabilities resulting from war wounds, sicknesses, or accidents.

By March 1868, the company became what we now know as MetLife, founded as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. To accommodate its customer base, the company focused on providing life insurance. While the company continued to operate after its opening, it was soon forced to consolidate its services due to a severe business depression that hit the 1870s.

By the 1900s, MetLife had become the largest life insurance provider in the United States. That was thanks to the efforts of MetLife President Joseph F. Knapp, who adapted industrial insurance programs from Great Britain to the United States in 1879. By the following year, MetLife experienced incredible growth, earning as much as $1 million in revenue from about a quarter-million insurance policies.

MetLife’s former headquarters was commissioned for construction in 1907. Following its structure, it was the world’s tallest building until 1913. In 1915, MetLife completed its mutualization process, which changed the company from a stock life insurance company owned by individuals into a mutual company operating without external shareholders. That provided policyholders benefits they wouldn’t have gotten had they employed shareholders.

The company soon experienced more growth into the 1930s, having insured every ‘fifth woman, man, and child’ within Canada and the United States. They also, at the time, provided financing for constructing the famous New York buildings: the Empire State Building  (1929) and the Rockefeller Center (1931).

By the postwar era, MetLife continued expanding its presence into many markets across the United States and Canada. They even focused on reworking their career agency system, ensuring it provided services for all needs. Around 1979, they segmented their operations into four primary businesses: their group insurance business, life insurance business, investments business, and pensions business.

In 1981, MetLife purchased what eventually became the MetLife Building; the building was purchased for about $400 million from a collective that included Pan American World Airways.

Services At MetLife

As mentioned, MetLife is currently the largest life insurance provider in the United States. It’s also the largest life insurer in Mexico and serves as Japan’s second-largest foreign insurance provider.

Since MetLife is best known for its life insurance products, they naturally provide customers with a wide selection of life insurance products. This selection comprises several term life insurance and several different permanent life insurance plans.

Their permanent life insurance includes universal life, whole life, and variable universal life insurance coverage. In addition, MetLife also provides a group life insurance policy, though that’s primarily offered through employers. That insurance policy includes term life, universal life, group variable universal life insurance, and group universal life.

They also provide dental insurance plans for retirees, individuals, families, and employees and provide dental plan administration. In addition, MetLife also provides services related to dental education, including its continuing education program for health care professionals under prominent dental organizations like the American Dental Association.

MetLife’s disability insurance products provide coverage for employees and associates who receive insurance through their employer. Like similar insurance plans, customers under MetLife’s disability insurance plan receive coverage if their disability impedes their ability to work.

Other insurance policies and services at MetLife include auto insurance, life insurance, and annuities. In addition, MetLife is one of the biggest providers of subsidies worldwide, offering deferred annuities, fixed annuities, immediate annuities, and variable annuities.