MassMutual, Northwestern Mutual and Ohio National Set 2021 Dividends

The boards of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Ohio National have announced 2021 dividend payout estimates.

The announcements mainly affect holders of the companies' participating whole life policies.

A mutual life insurer is a life insurance company that's owned by some or all of its policyholders. A mutual may use dividends to pay part of its profits to the policyholder owners.

MassMutual is cutting its 2021 dividend rate slightly, to 6%, from 6.2% for this year The company says it expects to pay a total of $1.7 billion in dividends in 2021. A year ago, MassMutual said it expected to pay $1.7 billion in dividends for 2020.

MassMutual is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based company that was founded in 1851. It reported $33 billion in 2019 annual revenue.

Northwestern Mutual says the interest rate it uses to calculate the 2021 dividend payments will hold steady at 5%. Total dividend payments are on track to increase to $6.2 billion, up from $6 billion in dividends for 2020, and up from $5.6 billion in 2019.

Northwestern Mutual is a Milwaukee-based company that was founded in 1857. It reported $30 billion in 2019 annual revenue.

Ohio National says the interest rate it uses to calculate the dividend payments will fall to 4.7% for open block policies, from 5.2% for this year, and to 4% for closed block policies, from 4.5% for this year.

Total dividend payments are on track to hold steady at about $100 million.

Ohio National is a Cincinnati-based company that was founded in 1909. It had $2.3 billion in 2019 annual revenue.

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