Guiding Our Clients to Financial Security

Personalized Advice to Help Secure Our Policyowners’ and Customers’ Financial Future

Since our founding in 1851, we have relied on our network of dedicated financial professionals associated with MassMutual to deliver the highest-quality service to our clients. These financial professionals are the heart of our business and bring their passion and extensive knowledge to bear in helping our policyowners and customers develop holistic plans for their future.

MassMutual financial professionals offer trusted advice to individuals and businesses and help make financial security a reality. This advice is grounded in deep research of trends and attitudes that inform our strategy as well as the deep insight we develop through personal relationships that we develop over time with each client. With a personalized and individual approach, we are able to connect more Americans with the financial tools they need to thrive.

Advisor360˚: Supporting the Success of Financial Professionals and the Clients They Serve

MassMutual’s game-changing Advisor360˚ (A360) platform is a key tool to build strong connections between financial professionals and their clients. The fully consolidated and secure platform gives financial professionals seamless, comprehensive access to clients’ financial investments and protection portfolios. This allows financial professionals to provide personalized advice 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 MassMutual Brand: Helping People Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable and Prepare for Their Future with Us

In 2022, we continued the Uncomfortable Truths campaign, differentiating the brand from the consumer competitive landscape and seeking to break consumer inertia around planning for their financial futures. The campaign has proven successful, growing marketing contributions to sales from 13.9 percent to 15.9 percent and marketing-driven profit by 21 percent.¹⁸

In 2022, we continued to enrich A360 by improving functionality and making it even easier to use for financial professionals and their clients, resulting in Advisor360˚ winning the 2022 Wealth Management Industry Award.

Expanding Reach Through MassMutual Strategic Distributors (MMSD)

A primary benefit of working with MassMutual is access to our financial professionals, who take the time to get to know their clients personally, so they can help customers chart the path to their financial goals. MMSD is a key channel through which that expertise is delivered.

Since announcing the launch of 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. MMSD represents the opportunity to expand to a large third-party audience and bring financial professionals and their clients the value of MassMutual’s diverse products and the dependability of over 170 years of financial strength and security.

Helping Our Policyowners Retire Their Way: Delivering Peace of Mind that Transforms the Future

Today, 54 million Americans are 65 or older, and according to recent MassMutual consumer research, only 17 percent of near-retirees have planned for inflation and market volatility in retirement, with 42 percent claiming that their retirement could sustain them for no longer than 10 years. In view of these challenges, it’s critical to understand the basic facts and secure more guarantees in retirement. Near-retirees, guided by financial professionals who know their individual situation and personal financial goals, are better able to prepare for the decades ahead.

MassMutual also continued to deliver strong whole life insurance offerings in 2022, which are foundational to meeting the goals of a long-term financial plan. With the assistance of a trusted financial professional, our policyowners are able to meet their unique financial needs while bringing peace of mind and stability to their future planning.

Our acquisition of Great American Life Insurance Company in 2021 was a key investment in this regard. A leading provider of annuities, this company was rebranded as MassMutual Ascend in 2022. MassMutual Ascend broadens our annuity offerings and makes them accessible to more people who are looking for guaranteed lifetime income, while also benefiting our policyowners through the development of another source of earnings.

Securing sources of guaranteed retirement income beyond Social Security can bring peace of mind to retirees. MassMutual seeks to play a vital role in providing security with our annuity products. In 2022, we launched MassMutual Envision, a new variable annuity with an optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit, into our suite of retirement income offerings. Envision can help individuals accumulate assets for retirement, with a wide variety of funds to choose from, including asset allocation, bond, traditional equity, and specialty funds. MassMutual RetirePay is an optional guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit that is designed for individuals seeking predictable retirement income that can be counted on for life, regardless of market conditions.

Trusted to Make Institutions Stronger: MassMutual Institutional Solutions (IS)

MassMutual IS helps our institutional customers manage their financial well-being, as well as that of their employees and stakeholders. With $105 billion in assets under management, spanning bank-owned life insurance, corporate-owned life insurance, pension risk transfer, funding agreements, and stable value investments, IS is a trusted provider for clients and their advisors in the markets we serve. Also, as an important contributor to MassMutual’s earnings, the group continues to deliver significant value to policyowners and company strategy through scalable, profitable business growth.

In 2022, IS generated record sales growth that expanded the number of customers we serve while delivering continued earnings growth for the company’s policyowners. We’ve expanded our institutional market presence through thought leadership programs in both national and trade media. IS developed new products that included new money rate solutions, expanded COLI offerings, and relevant stable value designs. We have expanded our offerings and increased digital engagement to help our customers engage on both new business and ongoing needs in the manner that works best for them.

Expanding Convenient Products that Help Families Achieve Financial Security

Haven Life, a leading digital direct-to-consumer life insurance agency backed and wholly owned by MassMutual, recorded a historic sales year with year-over-year growth exceeding 40 percent for both total annual premiums and policy count. Haven Life also repriced and expanded its instant-decision simplified issue term life insurance policy, Haven Simple, to be available up to face amounts of $1 million.

Facilitating Strong Connections Between Financial Professionals and the Clients They Serve

MassMutual has tremendous opportunity to reach even more people in alignment with our vision to provide financial well-being for all Americans. To execute this, our strategy is to transform to grow in a digital world, expanding the ways we reach people while improving their overall experience. MassMutual leverages new technologies to provide simple and seamless customer experiences that connect people with our trusted financial professionals safely and securely. These enhancements include increased security and more options for building deeper connections and impactful relationships with our clients.

Connecting Our Customers to Innovative Products

Enhancing the Ways We Engage and the Solutions We Offer

MassMutual continues to build a comprehensive, portfolio of core protection products to enable us to deliver on our commitments for the long term while finding innovative ways to address the financial gaps and the changing needs of all Americans.

Supporting the Financial Well-Being of Working Americans

Economic uncertainty is a reality for many Americans who are experiencing the effects of market volatility, the highest levels of inflation in decades, and the prospect of a recession. Research in 2022 revealed 56 percent of Americans are stressed about their finances,¹⁹ 87 percent are anxious or very anxious about inflation,²⁰ and only 42 percent said their compensation is keeping up with the rising cost of living expenses.¹⁹ This is having an impact on employees’ overall feeling of financial well-being. At MassMutual, we are driven to help transform workplace benefits to make financial well-being a reality for all working Americans and those who count on them. Through our Worksite business we offer life, critical illness, accident, and disability insurance products to help companies provide their employees with new ways to meet their financial goals and feel more confident about their ability to manage the unexpected. Group Whole Life, for example, offers both death benefits and guaranteed cash value that is not subject to market fluctuations, and employees can take the coverage with them when they leave their employer.

These offerings also benefit employers by helping them to recruit, attract, and retain top talent, as well as contributing to a more satisfied and productive workforce. Not surprisingly, in 2022, the majority (75 percent) of employers thought that employees at their company will likely expect more benefits options in the next five years.²¹ These employee benefits packages are seen as not only valuable, but can be indispensable, since so many working Americans have access to financial protection products only through their workplace.

To better understand working Americans’ ongoing needs and challenges, MassMutual conducts a monthly survey focused on their sentiments toward financial well-being. This includes a Workforce Financial Stability Score^SM that measures their financial outlook and examines the drivers of changing attitudes. What we observe can help us shape Worksite products and services that better serve working Americans and equip benefits professionals and employers, as well as financial advisors and their clients, with the insights and trends that can help them improve employee engagement, enrollment, and support.

Taking the Pulse of American Small Business

MassMutual has been committed to helping small business owners build their capacity for sustainable growth and connect with capital sources to create local jobs. Many of these businesses, still recovering from pandemic-induced challenges, are ill-prepared for another financial shock. According to our fourth MassMutual Business Owner Perspectives Study, of the small businesses that survived the pandemic, only 36 percent are experiencing growth, and 46 percent report lower-than-expected revenue.

Workforce issues were among the most prominent challenges facing small businesses. Many small businesses owners were forced to lay off staff, reduce hours, or hire new employees at increased wages. Of those surveyed, 69 percent indicated that keeping employees loyal to the business is important; however, many are missing the opportunity of seeking professional advice. Most, 80 percent, said they prefer to separate their business and financial planning. Yet, 86 percent value financial professionals who can address both personal and business planning, and 70 percent prefer to work with a single financial professional on their planning issues.

These findings revealed great opportunity for MassMutual to help small businesses rebuild and maintain their health by planning for their future and understanding how that relates to the owners’ personal financial goals. MassMutual is well-positioned to facilitate greater coordination between owners’ business and personal aspirations to help strengthen their financial foundations for future uncertainties.

Advancing the Industry Through Strategic Partnerships

At the beginning of 2022, MassMutual teamed up with Centerbridge Partners and Brown Brothers Harriman to launch a new reinsurer, Martello Re. The $1.65 billion equity investment positions this new company as one of the largest life and annuity reinsurers, with Barings and Centerbridge acting as asset managers. Through a commitment to long-term financial strength, creative solutions, and unique investment capabilities, Martello Re offers differentiated value to its counterparties. The company is initially focused on providing MassMutual and its subsidiaries with reinsurance capacity on current product offerings, after which it will offer its services selectively to other top insurers in the life and annuity space.

Last year, MassMutual began collaborating with Boston University’s newest academic unit, the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, in alignment with our efforts to help advance the field of data science in our home state and beyond. We further bolstered the partnership in 2022 with a gift of $3 million to support research into the responsible uses of data. The five-year commitment will also leverage MassMutual’s expertise and insights to develop data-driven ways to identify cyber threats and transfer learning, making the insurance and financial industry more efficient and secure for all.

86 percent of business owners value a professional who can address both personal and business planning.

Investing in a Connected Future

Connecting Our Legacy to the Promise of Tomorrow

As a leading mutual life insurance company, we take seriously our role in helping to build a future where challenges are met, ideas are supported, and each individual and community is linked to the support and resources they need to thrive.

Innovating Through MassMutual Ventures

MassMutual Ventures (MMV), our multistage, global venture capital firm, is an important vehicle by which MassMutual gains insights into new trends, technologies, and solutions that are being developed throughout the world. Encompassing a diverse team of investment professionals, former entrepreneurs, and operators with deep experience in starting and scaling companies, the team invests across the financial technology, enterprise software as a service, cybersecurity, digital health, and climate technology sectors.

2022 was a year of growth for the firm with the launch of three new funds — doubling assets under management to $1 billion, and the addition of seven new team members. MMV continues to back founders building category-defining companies that are fundamentally transforming their industries. In 2022 alone, MMV invested in 15 new companies and made follow-on investments in 11 portfolio companies. MassMutual also launched a new $100 million fund to invest in early- and growth-stage technology companies that address the sources of climate change and provide solutions for managing its impact on individuals, businesses, and communities.

Positioning Massachusetts as a Fintech Hub

Social, economic, and geopolitical impacts have catalyzed the need for innovation and the importance of working with talented entrepreneurs to address real challenges, such as ensuring financial inclusion and education for all, addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, and further enabling digitalization. MassMutual’s engagement with Fintech fosters innovation and thriving ecosystems that introduce new products and services to help consumers address their needs, on their terms.

This year, MassMutual deepened our engagement in the MassChallenge Fintech global startup accelerator program. We donated a floor of 10 Fan Pier, our campus in Boston’s thriving Seaport district, to MassChallenge to support our region’s innovation ecosystem. MassMutual also hosted several Boston FinTech Week events in the state-of-the-art space, where thousands of startups and individuals from across the world are visiting and bringing innovative ideas to Boston. The over 50 content and networking sessions attracted more than 1,000 registrants hailing from 28 countries and yielded some of the most engaging conversations at this annual event to date.

Throughout 2022, the Mass Fintech Hub,²² a public-private partnership focused on making Massachusetts the global Fintech Hub, hosted several impactful programming initiatives throughout the state which attracted over 1,000 participants from across the innovative ecosystem. This included career fairs, mentoring and bootcamps for students, classes on angel investing, and Fintech Forums where startup and corporate collaboration is promoted.

Mass Fintech Hub

500 students from 12 universities participated in two career fairs with several corporate partners hiring top talent

200 industry and startup leaders attended three Fintech Forums to promote startup and corporate collaboration

Launched Angel Education series focused on creating investment opportunities for early-stage startups

MassChallenge

Completed fourth year of Fintech and HealthTech Programs, yielding over 30 engagements with startups (13 in 2022)

Over $2 million of investments made in diverse startups

MassMutual Media Mix Model annual results: 2021-2022.
2022 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey, PwC, January-February, 2022.
Americans Anxious Over Inflation; Almost Twice More Likely to Lean on Family and Friends Than Speak Openly About Feelings After a Traumatic Event, American Psychiatric Association, July 7, 2022.
Employers Expect to Shift Workplace Benefits Strategies to Lure Top Talent, LIMRA, July 13, 2022.
Mass Fintech Hub