MetLife to Sell Banking Unit to Avoid ‘Too Big Too Fail’ Regulation

via www.insurancejournal.com

MetLife, the largest life insurance company in the United States, has put its banking operations up for sale to avoid the “too big to fail” regulatory scrutiny that analysts have said was likely.

MetLife said Thursday it may sell MetLife Bank’s depository business, which includes savings and money market accounts. The company said it will still write home mortgages; life insurers tend to like mortgages as part of a diversified investment portfolio.

MetLife has hired Deutsche Bank, which ran the recent sale process for larger online bank ING Direct USA, to handle the sale. One industry source said many of the companies that lost out on ING Direct may look at MetLife Bank, among them Ally Financial and CIT Group.

DENVER, June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Life Insurance Selling, a Summit Business Media publication, announces the top-performing print advertisements highlighted in a Baxter Research Center, Inc. advertising effectiveness survey of the March 2011 issue.

The Baxter Research ad study measures the overall effectiveness of ads among readers, then reports an ad’s performance in the context of three essential steps to the brand building experience: exposure, engagement, and involvement. The research tracks ad effectiveness in two ways: “recall seeing” and “read some.” (Links to the actual ads of the top performers are linked to their names below.)

An ad’s “recall seeing” score shows the ability of an ad to attract the reader’s attention and indicates that the reader had been exposed to an item by either seeing it or reading it. The following companies received the highest recall “seeing” scores:

• Ohio National Financial Services
• Prudential
• Allianz
• American General
• American Equity Investment
• The Standard

An ad’s “read some” score indicates the percentage of “recall seeing” readers, who after seeing the item, were engaged enough to be led into the copy by the headline, layout or subject material. These ads effectively engaged Life Insurance Selling readers after capturing their initial attention. The following companies received the highest recall “starting to read” scores:

• Sales Art Media
• Prudential
• Allianz
• Ohio National Financial Services
• American General

“Life Insurance Selling continues to provide our advertisers in the life & health insurance market valuable feedback from Baxter Research Center on the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns as a value added service,” said John K. Moore, publisher of Life Insurance Selling. “These ad study results help our partners understand if their advertising message captures the attention of producers and if it resonates in the producer market.”

Baxter Research Center, Inc. (BRC) is a global marketing information firm supporting the world’s most successful business-to-business media brands and professional journals, and is a leading provider of independent, mixed media audience analytics. BRC’s audience metrics guide, optimize and inspire ad-campaign effectiveness in print, digital and online media.

About Life Insurance Selling

Life Insurance Selling is written for the comprehensive producer who offers multiple product lines to clients while focusing on the life insurance product market. Life Insurance Selling offers in-depth, field-tested sales strategies directly from industry producers who provide selling insight and best practices to readers. Life Insurance Selling focuses on innovative and practical sales tools and product information designed to help the producer educate their clients and build their book of business, across a multi-generational client base.

About Summit Business Media

Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial services, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world’s largest mining investment conference in South Africa. Summit’s Data division provides financial data on 6,000 insurance companies and detail on nearly one million health and benefits plans in the U.S.

Summit employs 400 employees in eleven offices across the United States.  For more information, please visitsummitbusinessmedia.com.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

John Moore: http://www.profnetconnect.com/johnmoore

SOURCE Life Insurance Selling

Apr 24, 2011 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) — Below are the top five companies in the Life & Health Insurance industry as measured by the price to cash flow ratio. Often companies with the lowest ratio present the greatest value to investors.

March 21, 2011 | Business Wire, Inc.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– New York Life Insurance Company announced today it will donate $100,000 to the relief efforts in Japan.

Ted Mathas, chairman and CEO of New York Life, said, “On behalf of the entire New York Life family, we extend our heartfelt sympathy to all those affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The families caught in the disaster area and the rescue workers who are working valiantly to save lives have been in our thoughts and prayers since we learned of this tragic event. Accordingly, the company will be making a contribution to help alleviate some of the suffering and to help the Japanese people begin to recover from this disaster.”

Mr. Mathas said that New York Life will immediately donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible financial strength ratings from all four of the major credit rating agencies. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments** provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds. Please visit New York Life’s Web site at www.newyorklife.com for more information.

*New York Life is the largest mutual life insurance company based on the Fortune 500, ranked within industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual), Fortune magazine, May 3, 2010.

**New York Life Investments is a service mark used by New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management LLC.

New York Life
Terri Wolcott, 212-576-5624
Theresa_M_Wolcott@newyorklife.com
or
Sloane & Company
John Hartz, 857-598-4779
JHartz@sloanepr.com

02.17.2011– Roseville, CA – Pinney Insurance Center, Inc., a leading provider of life insurance products, tools, and services, has welcomed Alec Cohen as a Brokerage Director.

Mr. Cohen brings nearly 9 years experience to his position as a Brokerage Director for Pinney Insurance Center, Inc. Through his experience, Mr. Cohen has acquired a great depth of knowledge with his experience in Life Insurance and Long Term Care working with clients on various planning strategies.

He will be in charge developing and maintaining business relationships with broker dealers, financial institutions and independent channels while utilizing Pinney’s full-range of products and tools such as Life Insurance, Long Term care, Annuities and Disability Income and EZLifeSales.com.

Alec Cohen has a Corporation for Long Term Care Certification. He is a past board member for the Baltimore chapter of NAIFA. He currently resides in Towson, Maryland with his wife Samantha.

About Pinney Insurance Center:
Pinney Insurance Center, based in Roseville, California, is a leading provider of products, tools and services that focus on the life insurance and financial services markets. Pinney Insurance through their Pinney Platform Solutions models offer financial professional’s results orientated tools and services that bridge the gaps keeping organizations and individuals from effectively and efficiently offering insurance products.