METLIFE ADVICE PROGRAM REACHES MILESTONES
NEW YORK, May 22, 2007
The MetLife Advice Program, the no-cost, add-on components available to employers looking to provide financial guidance to employees, in conjunction with their existing benefits package from MetLife, announced key milestones for its comprehensive program. To date, over 1,000 clients have signed up for MetLife Advice, serving 6.6 million employees.
In particular, MetLife Advice has introduced 262 dedicated Financial Services Representatives as Trusted Advisors to nearly 153 companies at 350 locations across the country. This value-added service provides an additional resource to human resources and benefits staff by providing a financial services professional who understands the client's benefit plans to help their employees better appreciate their group benefits offering.
According to the fifth annual MetLife Employee Benefits Trends Study, for the first time in its history, over 55% of employers cited employee retention as their most important objective in assembling a benefits program, edging out controlling costs. To help meet both objectives, many companies today have turned to voluntary benefits as a solution of providing employees with additional benefits while maintaining costs. Access to a financial planner can be a valued benefit as nearly one-third of employees participating in the MetLife study said they are highly interested in the idea of meeting with an employer-provided financial planner.*
"MetLife Advice is pleased to offer solutions that help employers retain employees," states Paul Michael, vice president, MetLife Advice. "Employers have been looking toward voluntary benefits as a way of not only providing employees with access to the professional assistance many desire, but also a way of recruiting and retaining talent while maintaining cost structures. MetLife Advice has become an intricate and successful part of building these employee benefits communication channels."
The MetLife Advice program, originally launched in 1999 and enhanced in 2006, offers MetLife Advice for Employees, Financial Educations Solutions, MetLife Advice for Employees, Transition Solutions and MetLife Advice for Beneficiaries, all targeted programs to help employees understand their benefits and what financial solutions are available to them to help achieve their financial goals through one-on-one guidance. The MetLife Advice Trusted Advisor component enables MetLife to leverage individual and group benefits competencies to provide individual financial solutions through the workplace.
MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers throughout the United States. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. offers life insurance, annuities, automobile and homeowner’s insurance and retail banking services to individuals, as well as group insurance, reinsurance and retirement and savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. Outside the U.S., the MetLife companies have direct insurance operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.metlife.com.
Investment advisory services are offered through Investment Advisor Representatives of MetLife Securities, Inc. (MSI), 200 Park Ave. New York, NY 10166 or New England Securities Corp. (NES), 501 Boylson Street, Boston, MA 02216, and financial planning services are offered through qualified Financial Planners of MSI or NES. MSI and NES are Registered Investment Advisers.
* The Fifth Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends
Jessica Ong