MetLife, Inc.

Is MetLife a subsidiary of a bigger company?
No. MetLife, Inc. is the publicly traded parent (NYSE: MET). Brighthouse Financial was spun off in 2017 and is separate.

Is MetLife publicly traded?
Yes, on the NYSE under MET, and it is an S&P 500 component.

When was MetLife founded?
In 1868 in New York as National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company, renamed Metropolitan Life shortly after.

Who owns MetLife in 2026?
Public shareholders, predominantly institutional investors. Michel Khalaf is Chairman, President, and CEO.

Does MetLife still sell individual life insurance?
Not in the U.S.: that business became Brighthouse Financial in 2017. MetLife's U.S. focus is employer group benefits, retirement/income solutions, and investment management; it sells individual products in Asia, Latin America, and EMEA.

Does MetLife sell pet insurance?
Yes, through MetLife Pet Insurance, built on the 2019 acquisition of PetFirst Healthcare.

MetLife traces to 1868, when the National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company began insuring Civil War sailors and soldiers; it reorganized as Metropolitan Life Insurance Company the same year. By the early 1900s it was America's largest life insurer, pioneering industrial (weekly-premium) insurance for working families.

The twentieth century cemented the icon: the MetLife Building (originally the Pan Am Building, acquired 1981) above Grand Central, the Metropolitan Tower, the Snoopy partnership (1985-2016), and growth into employee benefits. MetLife demutualized in April 2000, then became the largest U.S. life insurer by buying Travelers Life & Annuity (2005) and American Life Insurance Company (Alico) from AIG for $16.2 billion (2010), which built its Asia business.

A legal fight over its "systemically important" non-bank SIFI designation ended in MetLife's favor in 2016, and the 2017 Brighthouse separation shed U.S. retail life and annuities. Under CEO Michel Khalaf since 2019, MetLife has grown group benefits, pension risk transfer, Asia, and investment management while returning capital through buybacks.

Recent milestones include MetLife Pet Insurance (built on the 2019 PetFirst acquisition), continued Japan/Asia growth, and in 2026 the largest quarterly Group Benefits earnings gains on record. Q2 2026 adjusted earnings rose 15% to $1.6 billion.

MetLife's defining regulatory battle was its 2014 non-bank SIFI designation, which it fought and won in court in 2016, prompting the FSOC to retreat on entity-level designations. The company remains designated as a leading insurer under standard state and international solvency regimes.

In 2018 MetLife disclosed a long-running failure to pay annuity benefits to about 13,500 retirees, triggering state fines, a $10 million SEC penalty for internal-control failures, and reputational damage it has since remediated. It also paid a 2012 multistate settlement over unclaimed-death-benefit practices common to the industry.

As the largest pension risk transfer provider, MetLife faces periodic policyholder and congressional scrutiny of pension de-risking, and as a large fossil-fuel and securities investor it is a recurring target of climate and ESG campaigns.