Protecting our Policyowners’ Futures

Building Connections with More Americans

For MassMutual, doing business in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the value of having multiple channels to communicate and to distribute the products and solutions that people and businesses need to connect and get work done.

With the personal touch of financial professionals, augmented with digital capabilities that make interactions quick and convenient, we remain committed to taking every opportunity to build new connections with more Americans. Learn more about how we’re equipping our network with the latest digital capabilities.

The MassMutual Brand: Helping People Get Comfortable with Uncomfortable Truths

In 2021, we introduced the Uncomfortable Truths campaign, which aims to establish a new role for the MassMutual brand. MassMutual recognizes that talking to loved ones about money is an emotional experience, and people don’t always know what to say. By embracing uncomfortable conversations and with the expertise of MassMutual, people can confront the reality of their future and start to plan for it. After less than a year in market, we are seeing lifts in awareness, consideration, and affinity from this campaign while driving millions of qualified potential customers to learn more at MassMutual.com.

The MassMutual Difference: Our Financial Professionals

The nationwide network of over 7,500 financial professionals affiliated with our company is the backbone of MassMutual. In a time of great uncertainty, our financial professionals provide policyowners with invaluable personal guidance, support, and peace of mind. By aligning their practices with a company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyowners, these financial professionals help clients take meaningful steps toward their financial goals. Their ability to provide holistic advice and solutions empowers our customers to be confident in the financial decisions they’ll make throughout the changes in their lives. This aspect of our work is integral to both our history and our future. Since the moment we wrote our first policy, in 1851, MassMutual has offered our products through financial professionals.

Today, these solutions are supported by the latest technology such as the Advisor360˚ platform. No matter where or how we interact, we will continue to focus on personal attention and long-term relationships.

Enhancing Financial Well-being with Worksite Solutions

Economic uncertainty is a reality for many Americans and is closely tied to the rising cost of healthcare. According to recent research, 48 percent of employees worry about their current financial situation, and even more had skipped or had an alternative medical treatment because of the cost. In this environment, a growing number of employers report that voluntary benefits are becoming an increasingly important part of their employee value proposition.

We believe that financial well-being should be attainable for everyone. Through our Worksite portfolio of voluntary and executive insurance products, we are helping employers provide employees with new ways to meet their financial goals and feel confident about their financial well-being. We provide protection benefits such as life, critical illness, accident, and disability insurance through employers. Benefits like these give workers a game plan for managing the unexpected, which decreases stress about their financial futures. These offerings also benefit employers by making workers more productive and helping them recruit, attract, and retain a committed workforce. By partnering with benefits professionals and their employer customers, our growing Worksite business is helping MassMutual achieve our larger mission of enhancing the financial well-being of all Americans.

Expanding Partnerships Through MassMutual Strategic Distributors

Since announcing the launch of MassMutual Strategic Distributors (MMSD) in early 2021, this dedicated third-party distribution channel has been both building on strong relationships and forging new ones with experienced financial firms and professionals. With a diverse and relevant portfolio already in place, including whole life insurance, disability income insurance, fixed annuities, and hybrid life/long-term care insurance, MMSD is partnering with hundreds of financial firms to meet customers where they are with the financial solutions they need.

Trusted to Make Institutions Stronger

MassMutual Institutional Solutions (IS) is a portfolio of unique businesses that provide comprehensive solutions geared to help our institutional customers manage their financial well-being, as well as that of their employees and stakeholders. With $104.9 billion in assets under management spanning bank owned life insurance/corporate owned life insurance, funding agreement backed notes, pension risk transfer, and stable value and investment funds, Institutional Solutions is a trusted provider in the markets we serve. Through our scalable business growth and high earnings, Institutional Solutions delivers significant value to policyowners and MassMutual’s enterprise strategy.

Reducing Costs and Risks for Our Institutional Customers

Pension plans present significant administration and funding costs and are subject to a variety of risks such as interest rate risk, market risk, and longevity risk. Uncertain markets and other factors continue to increase the costs and risks of many pension plans, making them volatile for a growing number of institutions. MassMutual’s Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business serves pension plan sponsors who are looking to reduce costs and risks associated with their pension plan.

With our enduring financial strength and annuity solutions expertise, we offer plan sponsors and intermediaries confidence by helping ensure their fiduciary duties and pension obligations are satisfied through our PRT solutions. As evidenced by sales, MassMutual is a leader in the PRT market.

Strengthening Our Investment Management Offerings

MassMutual continues to strengthen and grow its investment and distribution capabilities under its MassMutual Investments brand. We remain a leader in the stable value solutions market based on in-force business and annual sales volume. These fixed income solutions represent an important part of a defined contribution offering, particularly in times of market volatility.

In the investment funds business, we transitioned the Barings mutual funds into the MassMutual Funds in December, and continue to enhance our mutual fund lineup and portfolio of sub-advisers. The consolidation with Barings Funds brings our total assets under management to approximately $69 billion across 115 funds. Moreover, it leverages MassMutual’s scaled fund business for improved operational efficiencies and reach that aim to benefit investors and distribution partners while positioning MassMutual Investments for continued growth.

Equipping Financial Professionals and Customers with Digital Tools

Forward-thinking financial institutions are moving beyond legacy technologies, whether they are outdated homegrown platforms or a patchwork of vendor solutions. MassMutual’s own digital improvements are yielding improved customer experience, faster time-to-issue of policies, an increased ease of doing business, and access to emerging and innovative investment solutions.

MassMutual is leveraging new technologies aimed at curating exceptional digital customer experiences and reducing strain on financial professionals. Digital innovations such as the Natural Language Bot, used in the Life Insurance Operations Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone system, enable us to send customers an SMS text message to their phone that links them to our payment experience. Digitally enabled disability insurance claims allow customers to submit a digital DI claim online, resulting in faster processing of claims when our customers need us most. Enhancements to the mobile experience allow customers to edit policy addresses (one of MassMutual’s largest volume of transactions) and enable the ability to check the status of transactions such as address change, loan requests, and dividend withdrawals.

Haven Life, our digital insurance agency subsidiary, allows MassMutual to digitize and enhance the experience customers have with life insurance. Revolutionizing a process that used to take four to six weeks and could not be accomplished online, Haven Life’s process enables consumers to apply for and, if approved, begin coverage on a fully medically underwritten term life insurance policy in about 20 minutes.

MassMutual’s game-changing Advisor360˚platform exemplifies our commitment to supporting the success of financial professionals and the clients they serve. Financial professionals can seamlessly access and view clients’ financial investments and protection portfolios in the fully consolidated and secure Advisor360˚ platform. The system allows MassMutual-affiliated financial professionals to provide personalized advice through a comprehensive, single-click view of an annual review along with access to accounts and policies, tax documents, wills, trusts, and other important items that are stored and accessed through a secured online client portal. The platform — built with input from experts in the field — allows financial professionals to manage their practices more effectively and efficiently while providing a streamlined experience for wealth management clients that’s secure and accessible from any device, anywhere, anytime.

Likewise, Spark, a digital tool that collects client demographic and goal-related data, allows financial professionals to better serve their clients and strategize priorities by combining the platform’s client-facing survey and financial professional-facing dashboard. On MassMutual.com, financial professionals can add a link to their specific page for clients to schedule appointments. Potential clients can set an appointment quickly and conveniently, providing a more streamlined process for generating leads. Whether on our website or through our digital tools, we continue to make enhancements that improve the experience for all users.

We recognize that cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming part of the financial landscape, both as an investment strategy and as technological innovation. Flourish Crypto, a new solution developed by Flourish, a FinTech startup acquired by MassMutual in 2021, was built to allow registered investment advisors (RIAs) secure and compliant access to cryptocurrency investing through a simple, easy-to-use platform. This turnkey solution is already in use by over 400 RIAs managing over $1 trillion in AUM. The success of the platform is helping to lay the groundwork for more cryptocurrency offerings and products to come.

Offering Solutions that
People Need

Introducing Greater Flexibility in Our Whole Life Portfolio

Consumers looking to protect against mortality risk for themselves and their families, while also looking for more holistic planning and solutions, led to record-breaking life insurance sales for MassMutual in 2021.

Changes to the tax code in 2021 allowed us much greater pricing flexibility in our whole life insurance portfolio and enabled us to tailor the newly repriced portfolio to meet a wider range of client needs. These products were designed with a balance of guaranteed and non-guaranteed benefits that better reflect the current interest rate environment. Historically, MassMutual whole life insurance products have enjoyed industry-leading dividend interest rates.¹

Furthermore, a new version of the Additional Life Insurance Rider (ALIR) is now available for use with MassMutual whole life insurance policies offered on our digital platform, to provide increased life insurance benefit and the potential for more cash value.

Reinvesting in Our Annuities Business

MassMutual made concentrated investments in our annuities business in 2021. Our acquisition of Great American Life Insurance Company is an excellent strategic fit that immediately broadened our annuity offerings with a portfolio of products that serve a growing market for lifetime income solutions from financially strong companies. This acquisition allows us to reach more people and further diversifies our third-party distribution relationships. It also provides another source of revenue, a key differentiator that contributes toward our ability to pay a competitive dividend.

Similarily, MassMutual’s acquisition of Blueprint Income provides us with a leading online marketplace where users can purchase simple annuities, offered directly to consumers and through affinity partners. Over 1.5 million users in 2020 visited Blueprint Income for educational content, quote information, and purchase fulfillment. This simplified, digital, customer-centric user experience will allow us to reach more people in new ways and furthers MassMutual’s strategy to transform our company in a digital world.

Enhancing Our Disability Income Offering

More than 51 million American workers lack employer-sponsored disability insurance, leaving them and their loved ones vulnerable in the event of an accident or illness. The ongoing pandemic has only heightened this need for financial protection. As part of MassMutual’s strategy to serve customers with the products they need, we reviewed all occupation classes and pricing for MassMutual’s flagship disability income product, Radius Choice, to be more consistent and competitive across ages and occupation classes. The updates offer greater flexibility for future coverage increases, additional underwriting enhancements, and more.

In addition, Haven Life introduced Haven Disability to provide easy and affordable access to short-term disability insurance. Haven Life has focused on expanding the products offered to help families achieve financial security in ways that are convenient for them. In addition to reaching more customers, Haven Disability furthers our goal to grow MassMutual’s digital distribution capabilities by providing customers an entirely online experience from application through claims payment.

According to a recent MassMutual Survey

over 25 percent of

near-retirees do

not know what full

retirement age is,

impacting their ability to secure their financial futures.²

One year into the pandemic, almost

50 percent of

Americans had

saved less than $500

over the past three months, and over 50 percent had to dip into their savings.

MassMutual’s

products and

services

can help them prepare for the unexpected.

The dividend and dividend interest rate (DIR) are determined annually, subject to change and are not guaranteed. Dividends for eligible participating life insurance policies primarily consist of investment, mortality, and expense components. The DIR is used to determine the investment component of the dividend. It is not the rate of return on the policy and should not be the sole basis for comparing insurers or policy performance.
https://www.massmutual.com/about-us/news-and-press-releases/press-releases/2021/04/massmutual-explores-near-retiree-knowldege-of-social-security-retirement-benefits-during-the-covid-19-pandemic