Micruity and MetLife Expand Collaboration to Enhance Access to Retirement Income Solutions

Rhea-AI Summary

Micruity and MetLife have deepened their collaboration to enhance access to retirement income solutions.

The collaboration focuses on MetLife's Universal Digital Retirement Platform, which integrates education, planning, and annuity purchasing tools with existing employment benefit systems.

According to a MetLife poll, 91% of plan sponsors worry about retirees running out of money. The new platform aims to address this by offering educational resources and immediate income annuities within defined contribution plans.

This move is part of Micruity's mission to provide simple, accessible retirement income solutions, leveraging their flexible infrastructure.

MetLife, with over 40 years in the annuities market, aims to streamline and simplify lifetime income solutions for plan sponsors.

Positive

• Expanded collaboration enhances accessibility to retirement income solutions.
• Integration with existing systems streamlines the user experience.
• Addresses concerns of 91% of plan sponsors about retirees running out of money.
• Platform offers robust educational resources and immediate income annuities.
• Micruity's flexible infrastructure supports efficient product development.
• Leveraging over 40 years of MetLife's experience in institutional income annuities.

Negative

• None.

Insights

Financial Analyst

The expansion of collaboration between Micruity and MetLife indicates a significant strategic move to enhance retirement income solutions within defined contribution (DC) plans. From a financial perspective, this can be seen as a bid to attract more plan sponsors and participants by offering streamlined access to annuities. Given that 91% of plan sponsors are concerned about retirees outliving their savings, the inclusion of educational tools and accessible annuity products could lead to increased adoption of MetLife’s retirement solutions. This could result in higher revenues through greater market penetration and customer retention. Investors should watch for potential growth in MetLife’s institutional income annuities business as a result of this expanded digital platform.

Short-term: This collaboration is likely to enhance MetLife’s product offerings, potentially attracting new clients and increasing immediate revenues. Long-term: Sustained growth in the retirement income market and higher customer retention rates could significantly enhance MetLife’s financial stability and profitability.

Market Research Analyst

The collaboration between Micruity and MetLife to develop a universal digital retirement platform is a response to the evolving needs of the retirement income ecosystem. The focus here is on simplifying and streamlining how plan sponsors can offer lifetime income solutions. Market trends show a growing demand for guaranteed lifetime income products, driven by concerns over longevity risk. By making these products more accessible and enhancing educational resources, MetLife is positioning itself as a leader in this evolving market. This move could differentiate MetLife from competitors who may not offer as integrated or user-friendly solutions, potentially giving it a competitive edge.

Furthermore, the integration with existing benefit, TPA and recordkeeping systems means lower operational friction for plan sponsors, which could further drive adoption. This is particularly relevant in a market where ease of implementation is a key factor in decision-making for plan sponsors.

Tech Expert

Micruity’s platform employs a plug-and-play data infrastructure, a logic layer and connectivity that streamlines operational complexities for insurers, asset managers and recordkeepers. This technological aspect is important as it enables seamless integration with existing systems and facilitates faster deployment of new products. The mention of 'iterating on components configured for MetLife on Fidelity’s Guaranteed Income Direct and State Street Global Advisors IncomeWise platforms' highlights the platform’s adaptability and scalability.

From a tech standpoint, such an infrastructure not only reduces implementation time but also lowers costs and risks associated with software deployment. It positions Micruity as a versatile technology partner capable of evolving with market needs. This could potentially attract more insurers and asset managers to collaborate with Micruity, thus broadening its client base and revenue streams.

~ Digital Retirement Platform will deliver education and planning tools alongside increased accessibility to annuity products for defined contribution plans ~

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Micruity, a recognized leader in retirement technology solutions, announced today an expansion of its collaboration with MetLife, Inc. (MetLife), a leading provider of institutional income annuities.

The two firms will collaborate on the development of MetLife’s Universal Digital Retirement Platform, an education, planning, and annuity purchasing tool that seamlessly and securely connects to existing employment benefit, third party administrator (TPA) and recordkeeping systems.

This latest collaboration deepens the existing relationship between the two firms and will fill a critical gap in the American retirement income landscape by empowering defined contribution plan participants to make more informed choices as they approach retirement.

MetLife’s 2024 Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract Poll found that 91% of plan sponsors are concerned that future retirees will run out of money in their retirement. This new tool will help plan sponsors to address these concerns, by making it seamless to offer robust educational resources on a broad range of retirement income-related topics as well as expanding access to immediate income annuities, allowing plan sponsors to easily offer these solutions within their defined contribution (DC) plans.

Micruity CEO, Trevor Gary, expressed excitement about Micruity’s growing strategic relationship with the insurance leader, “the enhanced collaboration with MetLife is another milestone in our mission to deliver simple, accessible, retirement income solutions.”

“Our flexible infrastructure means that we can efficiently build out new products and enhancements for our clients, iterating on components we previously configured for MetLife on Fidelity’s Guaranteed Income Direct (‘GID’) and State Street Global Advisors IncomeWise platforms,” Gary added.

The rapidly evolving retirement income ecosystem requires adaptability and flexibility to meet the challenges of current and future retirees. Micruity’s innovative platform delivers plug-and-play data infrastructure, logic layer, and connectivity for insurers, asset managers and recordkeepers to streamline operational complexities and deliver a simple, seamless plan participant experience.

With over 40 years in the institutional income annuities market, MetLife works with plan sponsors to expand access to guaranteed lifetime income solutions, which empower plan participants to confidently transition into retirement. MetLife’s Institutional Income Annuities business is well known for its innovation, and this collaboration is another step forward in streamlining and simplifying how plan sponsors can offer lifetime income solutions in their DC plans.

Roberta Rafaloff, vice president and head of Institutional Income Annuities at MetLife emphasized the strategic value of this relationship, “by augmenting the retirement planning tools available to plan participants through Micruity’s integrations, we are making it easier for participants to learn about and access retirement income solutions like our MetLife Guaranteed Income Program® and MetLife Retirement Income Insurance® QLAC."

About Micruity

Micruity is a financial technology infrastructure company building the data rails for the pension plan of the future. The Micruity Advanced Routing System (MARS™) facilitates frictionless data sharing between Life Insurers, Asset Managers, and Recordkeepers through a single point of service that significantly lowers the administrative burden for plan sponsors and enables them to turn retirement savings plans into retirement income plans at scale.

To learn more about how Micruity is transforming retirement income visit www.micruity.com.

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help individual and institutional customers build a more confident future. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240619053283/en/

Micruity Contact

Kim Rosenberg

press@micruity.com



MetLife Contact:

Judi Mahaney

jmahaney@metlife.com

212-578-7977

Source: Micruity

FAQ

What is the expanded collaboration between Micruity and MetLife about?

The expanded collaboration aims to enhance access to retirement income solutions through MetLife's Universal Digital Retirement Platform, integrating education, planning, and annuity purchasing tools.

How does the new platform address plan sponsors' concerns?

The platform addresses concerns by offering educational resources and immediate income annuities, helping plan sponsors ensure retirees don't run out of money.

What benefits does Micruity's platform offer?

Micruity's platform offers plug-and-play data infrastructure, logic layer, and connectivity, streamlining operational complexities and enhancing the plan participant experience.

What is MetLife's role in the collaboration?

MetLife, with over 40 years of experience, provides guaranteed lifetime income solutions and aims to simplify how plan sponsors offer these solutions in defined contribution plans.

What did the MetLife 2024 Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract Poll reveal?

The poll revealed that 91% of plan sponsors are concerned about future retirees running out of money in their retirement.