2017 Annual & Corporate Responsibility Report
2017 Annual & Corporate Responsibility Report
We believe that the best way to help ensure that we’ll be there for policyowners and their loved ones is through the consistent application of a long-standing investment philosophy. Our goal is to generate competitive long-term results for policyowners, while preserving the ability to withstand downturns in financial markets. We extend this approach through the way we manage our General Investment Account (GIA), which comprises the assets we use to meet our obligations to our policyowners. Our focus on long-term, risk-adjusted returns and the consistent application of our investment strategy has resulted in a portfolio that has performed well in the past and is positioned to do so in the future.
Policy loans are loans taken by policyowners against the cash surrender value of their policies and, as such, are secured by the cash surrender value of those policies.
*Residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and asset-backed securities (ABS)
We diversify the composition of the GIA by investing in a variety of asset classes in order to reduce the impact of negative events on our portfolio. MassMutual further diversifies by investing in strategic operating businesses, such as OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; Barings; and MassMutual International LLC.
Our investment professionals conduct regular, thorough reviews of both current and potential holdings to ensure that they meet our criteria for inclusion in the GIA.
A relative value assessment of risk versus return informs ourdecision-making process as we consider various opportunities and their prospective impacts on GIA performance.
