Talk:MetLife/Archive 1

Headquarters
The article mentions multiple times that MetLife is headquartered in the MetLife Building. While this may be the business address of some subsidiaries (such as Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.), the company's current headquarters is 1095 Avenue of the Americas. Until 2008 it was in Long Island City. Any objection to making these edits? 74.67.53.160 (talk) 00:37, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * How do you define "headquarters"? According to the source, the MetLife Building was the headquarters even after many operations moved to Long Island City.  And I think the boardroom remains in the MetLife Building even today. Rlendog (talk) 02:43, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Name
This article consistently refers to the company as MetLife, although this has not been its name for its entire history. Could somebody find the period-appropriate names for the eras mentioned? D. J. Cartwright 22:46, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Clean Up
This article changes tenses in the middle and reads a bit like something a company brochure might have. Can someone modify it to provide a more objective perspective? --IVinshe 18:51, 5 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Probably because some of it was copied directly from the MetLife website. I've added the cleanup tag. Jauerback 03:45, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm new and too busy to learn at the moment, but this needs a neutrality tab. "Tradition of public service"?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sesamekinjiru (talk • contribs) 23:12, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Proposed Rewrite of the History Section
Seeing as how the current article’s History section contains a warning tag concerning its present list format, I have taken a stab at rewriting the History section in the suggested prose format in order to bring the section up to Wikipedia’s standards. I’ve also addressed the previous names and headquarters location question which was posed on the Discussion page. You can check out my proposed revision here: User:Hamilton83/my_sandbox

With this revision, I’ve sought to explain the history of MetLife and have split this up into three different sections: Early years, Postwar and Current era. Each section contains information on the numerous changes that MetLife underwent in its history and helps tell the story of how MetLife arrived at where it is today, based on reliable sources.

I also wanted to note that MetLife is a client of my employer, so per Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines, I’d like to get others’ thoughts on this proposed revision before moving forward. In the near future I also think it would be helpful to expand the products section and provide more coverage of MetLife’s international presence as well as its sports and blimp sponsorships; however, I felt it best to approach this article one step at a time, beginning with the proposed revision linked to above. Please let me know what you think; I’m open to any suggestions or changes to this proposed draft. --Hamilton83 (talk) 19:56, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and made my updates to the History section after discussing my revisions with Rlendog on his talk page. Feel free to let me know if you have any other suggestions that you think should be included in the section.--Hamilton83 (talk) 14:14, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
 * After discussing some proposed edits with Rlendog and ScottyBerg on their user talk pages, I have updated the MetLife article to bring the products and services section from a bulleted list into prose form, provided citations and added some new sections. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas for other improvements that could be made to the article, I would love to hear them. Thanks.--Hamilton83 (talk) 18:31, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Metropolitan Life's Public Health Efforts
Might reference to Metropolitan Life's Public Health efforts - see Principles of Metropolitan Life's Public Health Efforts, 1920s http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/timelines/diseases-and-vaccines#EVT_102227 - be mentioned under Early history? An example is the 1926 Diphtheria Campaign - "As a part of a massive five-year campaign, coordinated by Dr. Béla Schick, 85 million pieces of literature were distributed by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. with an appeal to parents to 'Save your child from diphtheria.'" http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/virtour/page18.html --User:Brenont (talk) 06:21, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Looking to improve this article
Hi, just a quick introduction here for any editors watching this page: I'm working on behalf of MetLife and looking to bring this article up to a better standard both in terms of quality of information and making sure its content adheres to Wikipedia guidelines. With the help of any editors who are interested, I'm looking to make significant changes, as there are some missing details and a few areas that could be better written and properly sourced. In particular, I want to address the "advertisement" tags on the article by suggesting improvements to bring the article in line with WP:NPOV and WP:PROMO.

Because of my financial COI, I won't be making any direct changes to the article. Once I have some specific changes to propose, I'll ask that editors review what I have prepared and assist in making the updates to the article if they approve.

To tackle the main issue with the article head on, I'd like to start out by suggesting alterations to the Products and services section of the article. Much of the language in this section is cited to MetLife's website and press releases, so I'd like to suggest a series of edits to ensure the language is encyclopedic and backed up with more credible sources. I'm working on that now and hope to have a draft to share soon. In the meantime, I'm open to any comments or suggestions! Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 16:28, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Help with improving History section?
Hi anyone watching this page, I'm looking to suggest some edits to this article, starting with the History section. I did post about my interest in the article previously (see above) and suggested I'd be looking at the Products and services section first, but as I'm still working on sourcing for that (turned out more tricky than anticipated!), I'd like to dive in with History instead. My proposed changes for the latter are less complex, focusing just on updating the Current era subsection. As it stands now, the information included in that subsection spans from 1998 to 2011, breezing through several decades of information and not actually bringing us up to the present day.

My suggestions are to:
 * Create a new section to cover the 1990s through early 2000s, called Expansion and IPO
 * Information from Current era covering these years will be moved into this section
 * Likewise, the final sentence of Postwar can be moved into this section
 * Bring the Current era subsection up-to-date with information on major events from 2011 to date

Essentially, I'm suggesting replacing the existing Current era subsection with my drafted sections, below:

{{hidden|header=Markup|content=

Expansion and IPO
MetLife made several business acquisitions during the 1990s, including a merger with Mutual Life Insurance Company, the only African-American life insurer in New York, in 1992. The merger with Mutual Life brought 30,000 new policyholders under MetLife's coverage.

Additionally, in a process that began in 1992, MetLife acquired Executive Life's single premium deferred annuity business, which was worth approximately $1.2 billion. MetLife also acquired the firm's life insurance business, valued at about $260 million. In addition to these acquisitions, MetLife purchased New England Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1995 and acquired Security First Group in 1997 for $377 million.

MetLife experienced rapid growth during the late 1990s and into the 2000s. The company became the fifth largest individual disability insurance company in the United States in 1999, following its acquisition of Lincoln National Corporation. Also in 1999, MetLife bought out reinsurance provider GenAmerica Corporation for $1.2 billion, as well as its subsidiaries, Reinsurance Group of America and Conning Corporation. That year, the company had grown to serve 7 million policyholders.

MetLife named Robert H. Benmosche as chairman and CEO in July 1999. Benmosche occupied the position until 2006, when he was replaced by C. Robert Henrikson.

After announcing in 1998 that it planned to go public during the next two years, in 2000, the company followed through on the plan. The IPO was valued at $6.5 billion, the largest IPO to that date in U.S. financial history. MetLife policyholders were asked to choose a cash or stock stake. This IPO made MetLife the most widely owned stock in the United States, and it raised MetLife's value to over $4 billion. By 2000, MetLife's reported number of policyholders had risen to 11 million, and that year it had become the United States' number one life insurer, surpassing Prudential, according to The New York Times.

In December 2000, MetLife announced a $470 million voice and data network management deal with AT&T Solutions. In February 2001, MetLife became the first insurance company to purchase a nationally chartered bank, when it acquired Grand Bank of Kingston, New Jersey. The company began offering banking services through the newly named MetLife Bank, including checking and savings accounts and online banking.

===Current era=== In 2004, MetLife continued to hold its position as the largest life insurer in the United States, according to The San Francisco Gate. The company had $2.5 trillion in policies written, $350 billion in assets under management, over 12 million customers in the United States, 8 million customers outside the United States, and a net income in 2003 of $2.2 billion. That year, Barron's reported that 13 million American households owned at least one product from MetLife. In 2005, the company acquired Citigroup’s Travelers Life & Annuity and all of Citigroup’s international insurance businesses for $11.8 billion.

The following year, MetLife opened its joint-venture insurance company in Shanghai, in May 2006. Also in 2006, it sold Peter Cooper Village, or Stuyvesant Town, the largest apartment complexes in New York City at the time, for $5.4 billion. MetLife had developed the apartment complexes between 1945 and 1947, to house veterans returning home from serving in World War II.

The company's sales grew 11.5% between 2008 and 2009, despite the national recession. The company continued to grow through acquisition, as AIG sold Alico Health Insurance to MetLife in 2010 for $15.5 billion. In 2011, CEO Robert Henrikson was replaced by Steven A. Kandarian, a former private-equity executive.

In September 2014, the U.S. government observed the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law by proposing the application of an official label to MetLife as "systemically important" to the American economy. If implemented, MetLife would be subject to different sets of rules and regulations, with increased oversight from the Federal Reserve. The company appealed this proposal in November 2014. In December 2014, federal regulators decided that MetLife required the special regulations reserved for financial companies and organizations deemed "systemically important," or "too big to fail". Other companies already designated as "systemically important" included AIG, General Electric and Prudential. MetLife announced in January 2015 that it would file a lawsuit against the District of Columbia to overturn the federal regulators' decision.

In 2015, MetLife was ranked as number one on Fortune magazine's list of World's Most Admired Companies in the Insurance: Life and Health category. |headerstyle=background:#ccccff}}

If anyone here would like to discuss my proposed changes and possibly implement them, I'd love your feedback on this! Just to be clear before discuss these changes, I will not make any edits to the article myself. As I've mentioned above, I'm a paid consultant for MetLife, which means I do have a conflict of interest and I've drafted these changes with their approval, attempting to improve the article while maintaining neutrality. Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 17:50, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
 * You removed quite a bit, and since I know nothing about MetLife, I have no idea why. Without that knowledge, I'd say you should re-add the following: demutualization, April with 2000, mention what IPO stands for, mention the 9/11 bit, mention "largest individual life insurer in North America". Mention buying First Horizon and the unit of First Tennessee Bank, and Everbank. Otherwise this seems fine and I'll go ahead and make the changes.-- ɱ    (talk  ·  vbm)  02:26, 10 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Hey Ɱ, thanks for taking a look! I've added information into the draft regarding your suggestions, and I've responded to each of your notes below. As an overall point, the removals I made were perhaps being overly sensitive to not relying on primary sourcing and taking out minor details that would be less interesting to a broad audience. Anyway, here's my thoughts on each:


 * Although I did remove the term "demutualization", as it was only sourced to the company's website, I actually added details on the process and moved it into Expansion and IPO, rather than keeping it in Current era. My reasoning here was to include only details supported by third party sources, and to begin the Current era in the mid-2000s. I just found a Wall Street Journal post that mentions MetLife's demutualization process, so I've added in the word.
 * The April 2000 details are now included in the Expansion and IPO subsection as well, although citing the particular month is not supported by the third party sources I found, which is why I'd snipped it originally. Only MetLife's website specified that the IPO began in April.
 * For IPO, on the first mention, I've now written it out in full and linked it to the relevant article.
 * I did remove the mention of MetLife's investment in the stock market following 9/11, only because the fact was only supported by MetLife's website and press releases. Given that there wasn't significant press coverage of it, I felt it better to remove. I'm open to leaving it in, with MetLife's website as support, if you feel it would be appropriate?
 * I originally removed the bit about MetLife being the "largest provider of individual insurance in North America" because that fact isn't supported by news sources since 2005. For now, I've reinserted it in my draft but added in the year. Let me know what you think.
 * For the mentions of First Horizon, First Tennessee Bank, and Everbank, these were relatively small acquisitions for MetLife and didn't have significant press coverage. Compared with the other details in the section, these are much smaller events and had a smaller impact on the company's overall growth and development. Again, I'm open to adding them in, if you feel it's necessary?


 * Here's the updated draft, with mark-up:

{{hidden|header=Markup v.2|content=

Expansion and IPO
MetLife made several business acquisitions during the 1990s, including a merger with Mutual Life Insurance Company, the only African-American life insurer in New York, in 1992. The merger with Mutual Life brought 30,000 new policyholders under MetLife's coverage.

Additionally, in a demutualization process that began in 1992, MetLife acquired Executive Life's single premium deferred annuity business, which was worth approximately $1.2 billion. MetLife also acquired the firm's life insurance business, valued at about $260 million. In addition to these acquisitions, MetLife purchased New England Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1995 and acquired Security First Group in 1997 for $377 million.

MetLife experienced rapid growth during the late 1990s and into the 2000s. The company became the fifth largest individual disability insurance company in the United States in 1999, following its acquisition of Lincoln National Corporation. Also in 1999, MetLife bought out reinsurance provider GenAmerica Corporation for $1.2 billion, as well as its subsidiaries, Reinsurance Group of America and Conning Corporation. That year, the company had grown to serve 7 million policyholders.

MetLife named Robert H. Benmosche as chairman and CEO in July 1999. Benmosche occupied the position until 2006, when he was replaced by C. Robert Henrikson.

After announcing in 1998 that it planned to go public during the next two years, in 2000, the company followed through on the plan. The initial public offering was valued at $6.5 billion, which was the largest IPO to that date in U.S. financial history. MetLife policyholders were asked to choose a cash or stock stake. This IPO made MetLife the most widely owned stock in the United States, and it raised MetLife's value to over $4 billion. By 2000, MetLife's reported number of policyholders had risen to 11 million, and that year it had become the United States' number one life insurer, surpassing Prudential, according to The New York Times.

In December 2000, MetLife announced a $470 million voice and data network management deal with AT&T Solutions. In February 2001, MetLife became the first insurance company to purchase a nationally chartered bank, when it acquired Grand Bank of Kingston, New Jersey. The company began offering banking services through the newly named MetLife Bank, including checking and savings accounts and online banking. That same year, the company also invested $1 billion in the U.S. stock market during 2001, immediately after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

===Current era=== In 2004, MetLife continued to hold its position as the largest life insurer in the United States, according to The San Francisco Gate. The company had $2.5 trillion in policies written, $350 billion in assets under management, over 12 million customers in the United States, 8 million customers outside the United States, and a net income in 2003 of $2.2 billion. That year, Barron's reported that 13 million American households owned at least one product from MetLife. In 2005, the company acquired Citigroup’s Travelers Life & Annuity and all of Citigroup’s international insurance businesses for $11.8 billion. At the time of the deal, which was completed on July 1, 2005, the Travelers acquisition made MetLife the largest individual life insurer in North America based on sales.

The following year, MetLife opened its joint-venture insurance company in Shanghai, in May 2006. Also in 2006, it sold Peter Cooper Village, or Stuyvesant Town, the largest apartment complexes in New York City at the time, for $5.4 billion. MetLife had developed the apartment complexes between 1945 and 1947, to house veterans returning home from serving in World War II.

The company's sales grew 11.5% between 2008 and 2009, despite the national recession. The company continued to grow through acquisition, as AIG sold Alico Health Insurance to MetLife in 2010 for $15.5 billion. In 2011, CEO Robert Henrikson was replaced by Steven A. Kandarian, a former private-equity executive.

In September 2014, the U.S. government observed the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law by proposing the application of an official label to MetLife as "systemically important" to the American economy. If implemented, MetLife would be subject to different sets of rules and regulations, with increased oversight from the Federal Reserve. The company appealed this proposal in November 2014. In December 2014, federal regulators decided that MetLife required the special regulations reserved for financial companies and organizations deemed "systemically important," or "too big to fail". Other companies already designated as "systemically important" included AIG, General Electric and Prudential. MetLife announced in January 2015 that it would file a lawsuit against the District of Columbia to overturn the federal regulators' decision.

In 2015, MetLife was ranked as number one on Fortune magazine's list of World's Most Admired Companies in the Insurance: Life and Health category. |headerstyle=background:#ccccff}}


 * Let me know if this version looks good to go, or if any more tweaks are needed. Thanks again for your help on this. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:14, 13 July 2015 (UTC)
 * You do good work. I'll make the live change. Let me know if anything else needs changing here.-- ɱ    (talk  ·  vbm)  03:42, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much, Ɱ! Just one small edit needed: under Postwar, the final sentence "In 1995, New England Mutual merged with MetLife." can be deleted as this is covered in the Expansion... section. Thanks again, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:53, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Done.-- ɱ    (talk  ·  vbm)  15:36, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Demutualization, "too big to fail" and Products
Following on from my reply above, here are some responses to John Nagle's notes and recent edits:

On the subject of demutualization, I see you've added in some more information there. Although I had added some detail on this (see previous request, above compared with the previous version, here), I take your point that the lawsuit should be covered and I'm sorry I missed that. One thought about your additions: while absolutely valid, they are a bit out of place in the section, chronologically. I'm wondering if they should go before—or after—the paragraph describing the IPO (which was the action by which the company demutualized).

Also, and this is an error I realize I introduced in my above draft and for which I apologize sincerely, the mention of "demutualization" in the sentence re: Executive Life should not be there, but instead in the sentence about the IPO. Basically, the word "demutualization" and the WSJ source supporting it should be deleted from where it is now, and it should be added to the IPO sentence per the below:

Again, so sorry about that, and I hope this change makes that section easier to follow.

Regarding the federal stress test and bank sale, I'd been working on a draft to propose doing exactly what you've now done: merging it into the History to streamline all of that information into one place. I very much like what you have in the article now, though I do have a couple of suggestions:
 * 1) Linking the stress test to the GE Capital sale is incorrect, since sources show this sale was planned before the stress test occurred. I think it would be helpful to note that MetLife began working to leave the banking business in 2011, per sources at that time.
 * 2) The bank sale to GE concluded in 2013, again sources confirm the details, so it would be great to note this.

Here are the sentences that I'd prepped on these points, which I hope can be helpful with updating the article text:

On the labeling of MetLife as "systemically important", is there anything else there that you think should be included? I had expanded this information quite a lot in my drafted language compared to the previously existing text. I see you've added a sentence about the litigation being ongoing, so I'm sure the details can be updated as this progresses.

Finally, regarding Products and services, I absolutely agree the section needs some work. I have been working on a new draft that does address your note on compressing the information, as well as integrating information about the company's international presence. My aim in doing so is to make sure the article reflects the company is an international organization, since this point feels like an afterthought in the current article. Let me know if you'd be curious to see that now, or prefer to wait til we've worked through the other points above. Again, I'd like to note my COI here: I am a paid consultant working for MetLife on behalf of PR agency Burson-Marsteller. Due to this, I will not be editing this article directly. Thanks! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:32, 28 August 2015 (UTC)


 * The sequence of acquisitions needs to be fixed, but that's about all that seems necessary. More emphasis on being an "international organzation" is really PR, and may be improper. John Nagle (talk) 20:50, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi again John Nagle, I'm not sure which section you're referring to re: fixing the sequence of acquisitions, but please go ahead and make any edit you think is needed. Are you able to make the fix to the sentence about "demutualization" that I mentioned above, or shall I put a request edit template on this? Also, what do you think about adding in the details about the sale of the banking business to GE, that this began in 2011 and was completed in 2013? About the international organization part, I think it would be easiest for me to share here what I have so you can see what I mean, but essentially I'm talking about merging the International presence section into the Products. If you take a look and think it's too PR-y, I can rework and try again then. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:27, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Put all the acquisitions and deals into one list, which separated the Executive Life deal from the de-mutualization. With a list, it's easier to fix any sequence issues. Please check that list. Thanks. John Nagle (talk) 18:30, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry this took me a little while to get back to, John Nagle. Thanks for fixing the demutualization mention. I've looked over the list and there's just one item to fix that I can see: the first point reads 1990, but is about a merger that took place in 1992. Other than that, I note that a few details have been cut, but that's likely due to fitting this into a list format. For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of lists in articles, preferring to follow WP:PROSE on that. I don't know if this list drastically improves readability and it seems a little confusing to be dropped in the middle of History coming before the Current era section, in which many of these events took place. Perhaps spinning this off into its own section would work?
 * Not to harp on it, but in the discussion of the sale of the banking business to GE within the "Too big to fail" section, it still appears of out sequence and is misleading mentioned after the 2012 stress test. As you can see, the sources on the announcement were from 2011, prior to that test. It would be most accurate to say that before the stress test, MetLife was looking to move out of the banking business to avoid increased regulation and had announced the sale to GE in December 2011. What are your thoughts? 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Fixed date on 1990 acquisition. As for exiting the banking business, American Banker says "The insurer wants to sell its depository but keep writing mortgages. Essentially, it’s making a bet on regulatory arbitrage — the idea that certain categories of institutions can dodge scrutiny being placed on their competitors." . MetLife remains a non-bank bank - no depositors, but a lender. It still has a mortgage unit.. One which recently paid $123 million to the DOJ over mortgage violations.  John Nagle (talk) 22:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I think that's a really interesting detail, that surely could be added if you feel it's appropriate. The main point I'm trying to make here is that we currently have a section that reads (paraphrased): MetLife failed a Federal Reserve stress test in 2012, banking was under stricter regulation, so MetLife sought to sell its banking unit—MetLife Bank—to GE Capital. Whereas the actual sequence of events is: Banking was under stricter regulation, MetLife therefore sought to sell its banking unit and in 2011 announced the sale of its depository to GE Capital, then in 2012 it failed the Federal Reserve stress test. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 12:34, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Just following up on this now that it's been a couple weeks, John Nagle. Does my request make sense? I'd like to see the above details rearranged so they're in chronological order. If you're busy, I can root around for another interested editor. Of course, if any interested editors are reading this, I'd appreciate the extra help! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:45, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Suggesting new Operations section
Hello again everyone, working on behalf of MetLife, I'm looking to suggest some additional edits to this article. Specifically, I'd like to propose the creation of a new Operations section, which would include corporate information, financials, and bring together the information from several existing sections. In a bit more detail, my suggestions are to:
 * Create a new section, Operations, to bring the article in line with what is typical for company articles on Wikipedia
 * Include an overview on the company's structure, leadership and financials, which are currently not covered at all within the article body
 * There is currently a section called Finance, which I suggest should be removed. This is a one-sentence section, focusing on a single adjustment to reported earnings. This type of adjustment happens from time to time in large companies, and I don't believe it's important to include in the article, much less necessitate its own section. Instead, I'm suggesting including a short summary of general financial information within a Corporate overview
 * ✅ The Finance section has been removed
 * Incorporate the existing section on MetLife's charitable giving, renaming it to MetLife Foundation, the company's charitable and grant-funding arm and updating the information. I've cut the information on MetLife's investment in renewable energy as this was only supported by press releases, likewise I trimmed the mention of their buildings' LEED status since the sourcing was not very strong
 * Part-✅: the Charitable activity section has been renamed to MetLife Foundation, but the text has not yet been updated
 * Move the existing sections regarding sports sponsorships and MetLife's Peanuts affiliation into new subsections under the Operations section, namely Sports sponsorships and Peanuts affiliation; I've also provided updated draft versions of each of these to add new references, clarify details and bring the information up-to-date

With this reorganization, moving the current separate sections for the various pieces of corporate information under one umbrella heading, I believe the article will be much clearer to readers. I've put together a draft reflecting all the above suggestions, which you can see in my userspace, here: User:16912_Rhiannon/MetLife_Operations

I'd love to get editors' feedback on this! Just to clarify again, I am not making any edits to the article myself, since I do have a conflict of interest. Instead, I'm hoping that interested editors will review and discuss my proposed changes, and implement them, if they look good. Thanks for your help! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:36, 23 July 2015 (UTC)


 * A quick update here as I see that Jim.henderson has made a couple of these edits: the Finance section has been removed, and the Charitable activity section has been renamed to MetLife Foundation (although the text has not yet been updated). If anyone is able to look at the rest of the proposed changes, particularly the restructure I'm suggesting, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:09, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Too much PR here. We need more info on MetLife's problems. I just added a section about the de-mutualization litigation. We also need more about the failure of MetLife to pass the Fed's stress tests and the "too big to fail" lawsuit. John Nagle (talk) 18:21, 26 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi John Nagle, thanks so much for taking a look! I definitely agree that this article needs attention and am glad you're interested in working on it. I'd love to discuss your thoughts and edits so far, and I'd also like to get your input on the Operations suggestion I have. So that these two quite separate discussions don't get confusing, I'll break out my notes on the former into a new section, below.


 * Re: the Operations section suggestion I have, what I'm aiming to do here is to demote and reduce some of the sections already included in the article regarding its corporate activities. As well, per WP:WPCOMPG it's typical to include some basic information about the structure and leadership of a corporation in its Wikipedia article. The latter is all I'm really adding here in terms of all new content, the rest of the user draft would replace the existing sections for MetLife Foundation, Relationship with Peanuts, Blimp and sports sponsorship. In the case of the Foundation and Peanuts info, the wording I'm providing is shorter and removes some detail that is unsupported or supported by press releases.


 * I understand that you feel there should be more coverage of some of the problems MetLife has faced, and I can certainly offer my thoughts on that (see below!), but I don't think that goal and my proposal here are mutually exclusive. I hope you agree. Eager to hear your thoughts, and those of any other editors who are able to take a look at this. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:32, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
 * It's been a couple weeks and I haven't heard anything about the proposed Operations section, so I thought I'd ping this thread again. John Nagle, did you have further thoughts on what I touched upon? In particular, I'm keen to get thoughts on updating the existing sections where there are issues in terms of content supported only by press releases or details that appear to be copied from company information. I just want to check back here to see if you have any strong feelings or if I should seek additional editors to review. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:56, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Improvements for MetLife Foundation section
It appears John Nagle and I reached a sort of impasse on the Operations section I suggested previously. I'd still like to make some improvements to the article, but I think simplifying my request might prove helpful. However, if anyone is interested in taking a look at the complete Operations section I drafted, that's here in full. Meantime, I am going to break my request for Operations down into subsections, so I can make clear exactly what I'm trying to improve. Just to reiterate my disclosure, I am here as a paid consultant for MetLife and appreciate editors reviewing my suggestions to ensure they're appropriate.

Let's consider the MetLife Foundation section as it stands: all the details included are supported by press releases and the choice to include the amount of money donated in 2010 appears arbitrary. My version is more neutral and supported by sources that meet WP:RS. I've also shortened the section, cutting the details about the company's LEED certification and Energy Star buildings, which seems extraneous and again is supported by press releases.

I propose the following as an improvement to the MetLife Foundation section:

Any feedback would be appreciated. If this looks like an improvement upon the existing section, and there's no issues of neutrality or promotionalism, I hope that editors will move this draft language into the article in place of the existing section content. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 12:53, 24 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I made the change. I wish I could've helped earlier, but my schedule, along with the prospect of reading all of the above and figuring out how I could help, well, wasn't helping. Your changes are good, and I can make further ones, especially this weekend.-- ɱ    (talk  ·  vbm)  16:17, 24 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Ɱ, much appreciate you reviewing this! Glad that breaking down the request is making this easier to follow, I'll post up the next subsection soon. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:23, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

MetLife Insurance Company USA
MetLife seems to have some unit called "MetLife Insurance Company USA", formed by merging some of the entities in the article. There's some info available about them. That needs a better source. There's no one big "MetLife" from the standpoint of one giant entity's assets backing up their policies. Some policies are backed only by a subsidiary's assets. So financials of the subunits matter. John Nagle (talk) 07:23, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

Improvements for Relationship with Peanuts and Blimp and sports sponsorship
Hello again! As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm attempting to keep each of my requests as simple as possible. In this request, I'd like to address two sections that are interrelated: Relationship with Peanuts and Blimp and sports sponsorship

Both MetLife's sports sponsorships and its affiliation with the Peanuts brand could be presented more succinctly and clearly in the article; both sections are cluttered with minor details, and I think the subjects could be streamlined to include only encyclopedic information that is directly about these particular topics. The existing sections currently rely on citations to the MetLife website and several press releases from the company. A key issue I'd like to remedy is that a large portion of the wording in the ...Peanuts section appears to be taken directly from official MetLife materials, raising concerns of WP:PLAGIARISM. Finally, I think the section headings can be simplified a bit, too. Let me show you what I have in mind!

I've included my proposed changes below, followed by the mark-up:

Do these updates seem reasonable? Any feedback or edits needed?

Just to make sure any new editors to this page are aware: I am a paid consultant to MetLife and putting forward these suggestions on the company's behalf. As always, I won't be making edits to the article myself, due to my paid conflict of interest. I'd be more than happy to discuss my suggestions with any interested editors, though! Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 20:59, 24 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Overhauled Peanuts section. Cited licensing rights company Ikonix, and the two big ad agencies involved.  Kept New York Times references, added Forbes reference, dropped references to company site. All sources are now clearly WP:RS. John Nagle (talk) 21:34, 25 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Hey Nagle. Thanks for editing! A couple things, though. I've noticed the current Peanuts section is still missing a few key details from my proposed draft, which are:
 * The blimp program is still listed under Sports sponsorship, instead of Peanuts, though the Snoopy blimps are a part of that contract
 * MetLife's exclusive rights to the Peanuts characters beginning in 1985
 * The Iconix brand detail is a good addition but not quite accurate, as the MetLife licensing deal is currently run through Peanuts Worldwide, a joint venture that Iconix formed with Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates
 * Also, I'd like to understand why you elected to drop the reference to the Forbes ranking. I believe Forbes is a reputable enough source, and that the detail about MetLife's Snoopy mascot is notable enough for inclusion in the section, so would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
 * Also, did you take a look at my suggestions for Sports sponsorship? The current section still cites both press releases and MetLife's website, and I'd like to see those non-biased sources removed. The current section also employs some promotional-sounding language that could be cut, using the text I suggested. The sponsorship section I proposed also includes the following details which aren't addressed in current article:
 * MetLife becoming the first marketing partner at Meadowlands Stadium in 2008
 * MetLife's partnership with the Yankees, which began in 2008
 * MetLife's partnership with the Badminton World Federation and title sponsorship of the tournament
 * Let me know your thoughts on this! I'm also pinging Roadrunner3000 and Nihiltres, as they were helpful in editing this page recently, too. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:21, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Returning to requests for updates and corrections
Hello again. After a brief pause, I'm returning to pick up and clarify my outstanding requests for this article. I've closed the edit requests above and will summarize the details here, so that it is clearest for any new editors to this page, and for returning editors who might have been overwhelmed with previous discussion. Noting again: I have a financial COI with this article as I am proposing changes on behalf of MetLife, as a client of the company I work for, Beutler Ink. Below, I'll outline the key requests I'd like to make to address some current issues in this article, related to recent changes:

Chronology issue in "Too big to fail"
Thanks again to Nagle for their edits to the "Too big to fail" section, which brought together the key details about MetLife's labeling as "systemically important" with the relevant information about the results of the Federal stress test. However, the details in that section are out of chronological order and present an incorrect picture of what happened re: MetLife's sale of its banking unit.

The section currently reads as though the company failed a Federal Reserve stress text in 2012, then sought to sell its banking unit to avoid stricter financial regulation. The correct sequence of events, per sourcing, is that the company was already seeking to sell the banking unit to avoid the stricter regulation, while the sale was in process it failed the stress test. To correct the current text, I propose the following adjustment to the existing wording to clarify the announcement of MetLife Bank sale in 2011 and its completion in 2013:
 * MetLife was subject to stricter financial regulation due to its ownership of MetLife Bank and its mortgage business. Seeking to escape that level of regulation, in December 2011, MetLife announced the sale of its banking unit to GE Capital. In early 2012, MetLife failed the Federal Reserve’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review stress test, intended to predict the potential failure of the company in a recession. The Fed stated that the minimum total risk-based capital ratio should be 8% and it estimated that MetLife at only 6%. The company had requested approval for a $2 billion share repurchase to prop up the stock price, along with an increased dividend. On November 2, 2012, MetLife said it was selling its $70 billion mortgage servicing business to JPMorgan Chase for an undisclosed amount. The sale of its depository banking unit to GE Capital was completed in January 2013. Both sales were part of its strategy to focus on the insurance side of its business.

Correction and suggestions for Relationship with Peanuts
Following my initial request for updates to the Relationship with Peanuts and Blimp and sports sponsorship sections, some updates were made that have made some improvements. There is one correction that is needed to the new text in the Relationship with Peanuts section and I have a couple of additional suggestions for the section:


 * The discussion of the Peanuts affiliation is inaccurate, as the MetLife licensing deal is managed via Peanuts Worldwide not Iconix. Here is my suggested text, which also adds a detail about MetLife having exclusive rights within the financial services sector:
 * Since 2010, MetLife has licensed Snoopy and other Peanuts characters for promotional purposes from Peanuts Worldwide, the entity which currently oversees the Peanuts brand. Iconix Brand Group formed Peanuts Worldwide as a joint venture with Schulz’s heirs, buying out E.W. Scripps Co. and United Features Syndicate for $175 million. MetLife is reported to pay $12 million per year for licensing rights. Prior to the Iconix deal, MetLife had licensed the characters from other rights-holders. In 2006, MetLife's CEO at the time, C. Robert Henrikson, extended the company's license to use Peanuts characters to cover exclusive global use in the financial services category.


 * The section doesn't mention when the relationship with Peanuts began. I'd like to suggest adding the following:
 * MetLife acquired exclusive rights to use Peanuts characters in the company's advertising in 1985.


 * Additionally, the Snoopy blimps are currently discussed within the Sports sponsorship section, however I wonder if it would fit more neatly in the Peanuts-related section? The blimps are part of Metlife's licensing contract with Peanuts Worldwide. If this is a reasonable move, I'd like to propose a streamlined wording that uses WP:RS citations (currently the blimp information is supported by press releases, among other sources):
 * MetLife has operated a blimp program featuring the Peanuts characters since 1987. Two blimps, Snoopy One and Snoopy Two, fly in the United States. Snoopy J, a third blimp, operates for MetLife in Japan.

Fixing non WP:RS refs and adding detail in Sports sponsorship
The Sports sponsorship still includes details sourced to press releases and the MetLife company website. My suggested draft provides WP:RS citations for the information and covers details about the company's sponsorships which aren't included in the current article, so it serves as an update as well. In particular: Here's my suggestion for the section:
 * MetLife becoming the first marketing partner at Meadowlands Stadium in 2008
 * MetLife's partnership with the Yankees, which began in 2008
 * MetLife's partnership with the Badminton World Federation and title sponsorship of the tournament

-

Thank you to anyone who is able to help with this. As always, I'm open to any feedback or additional suggestions. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 22:30, 23 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Pinging Ceyockey who has been making some updates on the article, to see if they can look at the above. Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:33, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
 * For now, I'm closing and collapsing this request and would like to direct editors to my proposal below. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:40, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

Corporate Structure
Corporate structure operating segment is either inaccurate or out of date.

As of today, 3/28/16, MetLife is divided into 6 operating segments plus corporate and other. There are 4 'Americas' Operating segments: 1. Retail, 2. Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits, 3. CBF, 4. Latin Americas and the non-Americas operating segments: 5. Europe-Africa-Middle-East, and 6 Asia in addition to Corporate & Other. My source is MetLife's most recent 10K.

This corporate structure is subject change as MetLife will be divesting their Retail operating segment. I recommended this section to be updated to reflect the most up-to-date-information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.84.42.59 (talk) 04:22, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

New draft for this article
Hi again. As editors have not been able to dive in on my individual requests above, I'm concerned that I may have made things too complicated, so I've taken a step back and placed a full new draft of what I'd propose for this article into my user space. My aim for this is to make it clearer what I'm hoping can be done to update and improve this article overall, and putting into place the edits suggested above in my most recent request.

Here are the main changes in this draft vs. the current version of the article:
 * Updated the introduction and infobox with latest company structure and financial details
 * Corrected the chronology in the "Too Big to Fail" section
 * Removed the quotebox from the Fines section, as this didn't add any new detail compared to the text in the section
 * Updated the corporate information and added in financial information, and renamed this section to Corporate overview
 * I've moved the MetLife Foundation, Peanuts relationship and Sports sponsorship sections below this header
 * Updated both the Peanuts relationship and Sports sponsorship sections to remove primary sources and include further details
 * Replaced the Products and services with a totally refreshed version of this section, splitting the product and service information under the company's three divisions: Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia
 * I appreciate this is potentially the most sensitive section from a conflict of interest perspective and I'm more than happy to discuss and make any changes recommended here. My aim has been to add more third-party sourcing, make this less America-centric vs. the current version, and to update the information about products so that it is accurate
 * Removed the International presence section but retained the information, moving it into relevant sections of the article
 * Updated the Awards section, renaming to Awards and recognition

Once again, just to be clear: I'm proposing this draft on behalf of MetLife as I am working for them via my firm, Beutler Ink. I'm very much open to any feedback or edits needed to this draft, just looking to get to a better place with this article in terms of addressing issues in the current version. If editors think that any part of my draft is an improvement, I'd be very grateful if they'd made the edits to the current article. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 16:37, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * A short follow-up note here to say that from tomorrow I will no longer be working for MetLife, however I do wish to continue to help bring this article up-to-date and resolve some of the issues in the current content. If anyone has a chance to review the linked new draft, I'm happy to help with any questions. I hope that it can be a good resource in making changes to improve this article.
 * Also, I've recently updated the draft to ensure that the listed subsidiaries and affiliates are up-to-date, including removing MetLife Bank, as that entity no longer exists.
 * Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to take a look at this. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 19:46, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Bear in mind that Wikipedia doesn't have to be current on every corporate change. The usual approach is to date info about what a company is doing, and not update it too often. See WP:NOTNEWS. If the company reorganizes significantly, we would often mention the reorganization, not silently change to the new corporate structure. Also, proposing an entire new draft is generally frowned upon; small changes are easier to evaluate. John Nagle (talk) 06:22, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Chimps
The section on chimps clearly falls afoul of WP:UNDUE and is being pushed by a WP:SPA. I'm reverting it. Please discuss here and do not add it back unless there is a clear consensus. Pburka (talk) 22:06, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 9 external links on MetLife. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110725050839/http://ebn.benefitnews.com/news/bread-and-butter-products-help-vendors-outlast-recession-2683249-1.html to http://ebn.benefitnews.com/news/bread-and-butter-products-help-vendors-outlast-recession-2683249-1.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110719100122/http://www.insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?n=1&neID=20080731290.2_86eb01bcff7e6e39 to http://www.insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?n=1&neID=20080731290.2_86eb01bcff7e6e39
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100829120532/http://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-profile/metlife-history/metlife-begins/index.html to http://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-profile/metlife-history/metlife-begins/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150714150859/https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-profile/metlife-history/supporting-country-and-community/index.html to https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-profile/metlife-history/supporting-country-and-community/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120815065752/http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/242495-metlife-fined-32-million-for-mortgage-servicing-problems to http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/242495-metlife-fined-32-million-for-mortgage-servicing-problems
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101224201618/http://www.calbrokermag.com/surveys/dental-survey/ to http://www.calbrokermag.com/surveys/dental-survey/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141129033332/https://www.metlife.com/brokers/retirement-and-benefit-planning/index.html to https://www.metlife.com/brokers/retirement-and-benefit-planning/index.html
 * Added tag to http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/aig_met_metlife-completes-alico-acquisition-in-usd16bn-cash-and-stock-deal-1271316.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150906154008/https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-responsibility/metlife-foundation/mission-and-vision/index.html to https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-responsibility/metlife-foundation/mission-and-vision/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141129033346/https://www.metlife.com/about/advertising/MetLife-blimp/schedule/index.html to https://www.metlife.com/about/advertising/MetLife-blimp/schedule/index.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 23:06, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on MetLife. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added tag to https://www.metlifedefender.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150925134614/http://www.kashmirobserver.net/news/local-news/rather-launches-jk-bank-pnb-metlife-joint-initiative-children to http://www.kashmirobserver.net/news/local-news/rather-launches-jk-bank-pnb-metlife-joint-initiative-children

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 00:37, 16 December 2017 (UTC)