MetLife Helps Employers Prepare for Upcoming Group Life Benefits Enrollment; Best Practices for Life Tool Now Online

Business Wire, July 22, 2004

NEW YORK -- It's a fact that many working Americans don't have sufficient life insurance coverage to protect their families, yet numerous employees fail to take full advantage of life insurance benefits offered by their employer. A MetLife survey found that only 15% of employers had employee participation rates of over 50% in their supplemental life insurance programs. By taking steps now to implement best practices regarding group life insurance benefits, employers can dramatically improve employee participation rates during their next enrollment period. MetLife has introduced Best Practices For Life, a new online employer tool, that helps employers understand and implement best practices for group life benefits plan design, administration, enrollment and employee communications. The tool can be used at www.metlifeiseasier.com/life2004demo.> "Because the workplace is the primary channel for obtaining life insurance coverage, employers play a vital role in narrowing the underinsured gap," says Tony Trani, vice president, Life Products Management, MetLife. "MetLife has developed resources and tools - such as Best Practices for Life - that make it easy for employers to evaluate their group life plan's performance and improve upon current efforts for maximum results during this upcoming benefits enrollment period."

Through use of the new tool, Mr. Trani suggests that plan sponsors and benefit managers can encourage employee participation in their group supplemental life insurance benefit by:

--Offering a Supplemental Group Life plan with features and services employees can use immediately, such as will preparation or travel assistance services. These enrich the group life benefits offering and provide employees with more value. For example, MetLife provides a will preparation benefit at no additional fee to employers and their employees at companies with 1,000 or more employees, subject to state availability. The will preparation benefit is also extended to the employee's spouse.

--Utilizing a focused enrollment approach that takes into consideration both timing and logistics. Employers should provide employees with the capability to enroll online as well as by paper. Having a separate off-cycle re-enrollment period for life insurance benefits can boost participation rates by as much as 15% because employees can focus on this important benefit separately from their medical or dental coverage.

--Educating employees about the need for life insurance and why it is an important part of their overall benefits plan. September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, an additional opportunity to promote group life insurance benefits in the workplace. MetLife can assist employers in this effort by supplying ready to use educational resources, such as effective employee communication materials and interactive decision-making tools that can help in determining appropriate coverage amounts.

--Communicating with employees through multiple channels. These channels should include distributing personalized information at work as well as mailing information to employees' homes, utilizing the company intranet or internet, and holding group and individual benefits informational meetings so that employees better understand their group life benefits and the options and features available to them. Reminder e-mails, memos and posters should also be part of the integrated communications strategy.

The Best Practices for Life tool is the newest addition to MetLife's stable of resources developed to help employers maximize the value of their group life programs. The Best Practices for Life tool contains a link to MetLife's online Group Life Benchmarking Tool that enables employers to learn how their life insurance program compares to programs of other companies their size and to a MetLife informational guide entitled, Get More Value Out of Your Life Insurance Plan Through Technology and Effective Administration. The guide offers suggestions for delivering a well-run plan that will best serve employees' needs.

MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to individual and institutional customers. The MetLife companies serve individuals in approximately 13 million households in the U.S. and provide benefits to 37 million employees and family members through their plan sponsors. Outside the U.S., the MetLife companies serve approximately 8 million customers through direct insurance operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and Uruguay. For more information about MetLife, please visit the company's Web site at www.metlife.com.