MetLife 2008 Annual Report Download - page 2

Chairman’s Letter
To my fellow shareholders:
In December, I started our annual investor day meeting with a very powerful message
about MetLife: we are big, we are strong and we are trusted. While this has been true for
many years, it is even more important and relevant today given the many challenges
facing our economy. MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States, has financial
strength ratings that are among the highest in the industry and has built its businesses
and reputation on fulfilling guarantees to our customers. These attributes differentiate us
in the marketplace and, combined with our focus on delivering long-term value, enabled us to achieve a number
of strong results in 2008.
Strong Growth
Last year, MetLife grew premiums, fees and other revenues 11% to reach $32.9 billion and generated
$3.2 billion in net income. These are solid accomplishments, and they are even more significant when you
consider the impact that the poor equity and credit market conditions have had on earnings in our industry.
Our largest business — Institutional — continued to generate significant top line growth across all of its
segments as premiums, fees and other revenues grew 19% to reach $16.6 billion. The largest growth, by far, was
in retirement & savings, which almost doubled to $2.9 billion on a significant increase in U.S. and U.K. pension
closeout sales. MetLife has a long history of developing innovative pension risk transfer solutions for U.S.
institutions. We are increasingly exporting that expertise to U.K. companies and their trustees by providing bulk
annuity solutions to secure pensioners’ benefits. In addition to retirement & savings, many of our other industry-
leading Institutional product lines, including group life, group dental and group disability, generated solid top line
growth. Year after year, we continue to leverage our scale in the Institutional marketplace to achieve further
revenue growth and bolster our position as a leading employee benefits provider.
In our Individual business, total premiums and deposits grew 10% to reach $26.7 billion. This growth was
driven by a significant increase in fixed annuity deposits as well as strong variable annuity deposits. Our annuity
product portfolio remains competitive and, just as important, we are maintaining our pricing discipline. It is at
times like these that consumers increasingly seek out the guarantees that only the insurance industry can
provide, and we remain committed to delivering on the promises we make.
In International, we once again saw strong growth as premiums, fees and other revenues grew 11%. We
have leading market positions in Mexico, South Korea, Chile and Japan, and our efforts to create a foundation for
future international growth are serving us well. Much like in the U.S., we are leveraging our financial strength and
risk management expertise to deliver quality protection and retirement & savings products through both
proprietary channels and third party distributors. On the product side, we acquired Odonto A Saúde Empresarial
to add dental insurance in Brazil and we are expanding our major medical business in Mexico by launching an
individual major medical offering. On the distribution side, we continued to strengthen our variable annuity reach:
in Japan, we doubled our Japan Post locations to more than 300 outlets; in South Korea, we launched fixed
annuities in 7 of the largest banks in the country while also expanding our sales force; and, in India, we increased
the size of our agency sales channel from 40,000 to over 50,000 professionals.
Our Auto & Home business also continued to perform well in 2008, generating solid results and a year-end
combined ratio of 91.2% in what remains a very competitive property and casualty insurance market. We are able
to distinguish ourselves in this business with services and features that set us apart, such as identity theft
resolution services at no extra cost and guaranteed replacement cost homeowner coverage.