MetLife
Founded in 1868, MetLife is dedicated to helping customers protect their property, finances, and families. The company provides auto, home, life, and dental insurance to individuals and employers and operates in more than 40 countries. Prior to the announcement discussed below, MetLife was also one of the largest long-term care insurance providers in the United States, with more than 600,000 active LTC policies.
Long-Term Care Insurance Policies
As of December 30th, 2010, MetLife is no longer accepting new applications for group or individual long-term care insurance policies. The primary reason cited for this decision was an inaccurate estimation of how many people would keep and use their policies, which left the company unprepared for the amount of claims they eventually needed to handle. This forced them to make sharp increases in prices and premiums before finally choosing to bow out of the market entirely. Many other long-term care insurance companies such as CNA, John Hancock, and MedAmerica have decided to stop issuing policies for similar reasons. Policies purchased prior to this announcement are still in effect and will work normally.
Reputation and Financial Strength
MetLife is a financially sound company and has received positive financial scores from all four leading independent ratings agencies: an A+ (superior) from A.M. Best, an AA- (very strong) from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, and an Aa3 (excellent) from Moody’s Investors Service. Ratings like these are important because they help to predict the company’s ability to pay out claims in the future. Customer reviews of MetLife are also pretty good overall, though there are some reports of difficulties with customer service and frustratingly long waits for claims to be approved. Data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows that MetLife has fewer complaints lodged against it with state regulators than most other insurance companies of its size.
Be sure to take a look at our other articles to learn more about the various insurance companies offering long-term care policies. Remember – these policies and the companies that issue them can differ greatly, so it really does pay to do your research and shop around.
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