The COVID-19 summer surge pushed MetLife's ratio of U.S. group life benefits payments to group life revenue to 106.2% in the third quarter. The normal level is less than 90%.
MetLife has paid a total of about $2.1 billion in life insurance benefits in connection with COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic started in January 2020. The 2021 COVID-19 death benefits payments have been higher than the 2020 payments, according to Michel Khalaf, the New York-based company's CEO.
Khalaf talked about the devastating impact of the pandemic on MetLife insureds Thursday, during a call with securities analysts to go over third quarter results. The quarter ended Sept. 30.
In spite of the pandemic, MetLife's overall earnings were up, and even the U.S. group benefits division recorded a large profit.
Khalaf said events over the past two years show why a company like MetLife matters.
"Life insurance is not like other businesses where losses are just losses," Khalaf said. "Every underwriting claim represents a beneficiary who is receiving the financial help they were promised."
Paying COVID-19 claims is a way for life insurers to make a positive difference in the world, Khalaf said.
"The human toll of the pandemic on families is catastrophic, but, where life insurance is present, the financial burden is eased," he said. "This is our purpose: to help prepare the financial damage after life's most destabilizing moments."
MetLife has done well, in spite of the worst pandemic in more than 100 years, because of the strong performance of private equity and venture capital investments.
The Implications
MetLife accounts for about 6% of U.S. life insurance premium revenue, according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
The MetLife life claim payout total implies that U.S. life insurers as a whole may have paid about $32 billion in death benefits.
