Metlife (MET) risk factors, 2025 10-K

Metlife's 2025 10-K lists 37 risk factors in 4 groups. No earlier 10-K is on file to compare against, so the most company-specific risks are read out below.

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Risk factors listed
374 groups
Section length
11k wordsItem 1A

What dominates the section

  • MetLife is most exposed to interest-rate, credit-market and investment risks that affect spreads, guarantees, reserves and earnings.
  • Insurance-specific risks include claims assumptions, reinsurance availability, statutory reserve financing and closed-block funding obligations.
  • Operational, regulatory and distribution risks could increase costs, restrict products or impair service to policyholders.
  • Corporate structure risks include the Brighthouse separation and policyholder-trust influence over stockholder votes.

The risks most specific to Metlife

  • Some of our products and investments expose us to interest rate risks, including changes in the difference between short-term and long-term interest rates, which may reduce or eliminate our investment spread and net income

    Rapid interest-rate changes could shrink MetLife’s investment spread if asset yields cannot keep pace with required policyholder crediting rates.

  • We May Not Find Available, Affordable or Adequate Reinsurance to Protect Us Against Losses

    Reinsurance could become more expensive or unavailable, forcing MetLife to retain more policy risk and potentially limiting new business.

  • Our Statutory Life Insurance Reserve Financings Costs May Increase, and We May Find Limited Market Capacity for New Financings

    Higher ratings-related financing costs or limited market capacity could weaken insurance subsidiaries’ statutory capitalization when financing life-insurance reserves.

  • Business Risks

    If our actual claims experience is less favorable than the underlying underwriting, reserving, and other assumptions we used in establishing claim liabilities, we could be required to reduce value of business acquired (“VOBA”), increase our liabilities, or incur higher costs

    Worse-than-expected claims experience could increase liabilities, reduce the value of acquired business and raise settlement costs.

  • Business Risks

    We May Need to Fund Deficiencies in Our Closed Block, and May Not Re-Allocate Closed Block Assets

    The closed block may lack sufficient assets and cash flows to fund guaranteed benefits, requiring MetLife to cover shortfalls.

  • Business Risks

    We May Face Volatility, Higher Risk Management Costs, and Increased Counterparty Risk Due to Guarantees Within Certain of Our Products

    Market declines, volatility or lower interest rates could increase liabilities and risk-management costs for guaranteed benefits embedded in MetLife products.

  • Operational Risks

    If we are unable to obtain necessary and accurate information from our customers or their employees, we may be unable to provide or verify coverage and pay claims, or we may pay claims without sufficient documentation

    Inaccurate or delayed customer and vendor information could prevent proper coverage verification and claims payments or cause payments without adequate documentation.

  • Risks Related to Acquisitions, Dispositions or Other Structural Changes

    We May Face Risks Related to Our Separation from Brighthouse

    MetLife may lose expected tax or other benefits from separating Brighthouse, while Brighthouse’s failure could trigger litigation or regulatory claims.

  • Risks Related to Acquisitions, Dispositions or Other Structural Changes

    MetLife, Inc.’s Board of Directors May Influence the Outcome of Stockholder Votes on Matters Due to the MetLife Policyholder Trust

    The MetLife Policyholder Trust could give the board disproportionate influence over stockholder votes on major corporate actions.

All 37 risk factors

Headings as the filing states them, in filing order.

Other

  1. 01Many of these risks are interrelated and could occur under similar business and economic conditions, and the occurrence of any of them may cause others to emerge or worsen. Such combinations could materially increase the severity of the cumulative or separate impact of these risks
  2. 02We May Face Difficult Economic Conditions
  3. 03Some of our products and investments expose us to interest rate risks, including changes in the difference between short-term and long-term interest rates, which may reduce or eliminate our investment spread and net income
  4. 04Political, Obligor and Counterparty Risks
  5. 05Currency Exchange Rate Risks
  6. 06Terrorism and Security Risks
  7. 07We May Lose Business Due to a Downgrade or a Potential Downgrade in Our Financial Strength or Credit Ratings
  8. 08We May Not Find Available, Affordable or Adequate Reinsurance to Protect Us Against Losses
  9. 09Our Statutory Life Insurance Reserve Financings Costs May Increase, and We May Find Limited Market Capacity for New Financings

Regulatory and Legal Risks

  1. 10We may incur costs to comply with laws and regulations and changes to these laws and regulations may increase our expenses and regulatory capital charges. Our failure to comply with our own policies or with regulatory requirements may harm our reputation or result in sanctions or legal claims
  2. 11We May Face Increasing Litigation and Regulatory Investigations
  3. 12We May Not be Able to Pay Dividends or Repurchase Our Stock Due to Legal and Regulatory Restrictions or Cash Buffer Needs
  4. 13Our Subsidiaries May be Unable to Pay Dividends, a Major Component of Holding Company Free Cash Flow
  5. 14We May Face Defaults, Downgrades, Volatility or Other Events That Adversely Affect the Investments We Hold
  6. 15We May Have to Pledge Collateral or Make Payments in Derivatives Transactions

Business Risks

  1. 16Our Actual Claims or Other Results May Differ From Our Estimates, Assumptions, or Models
  2. 17If our actual claims experience is less favorable than the underlying underwriting, reserving, and other assumptions we used in establishing claim liabilities, we could be required to reduce value of business acquired (“VOBA”), increase our liabilities, or incur higher costs
  3. 18We May Face a Variety of Political, Legal, Operational, Economic and Other Risks Globally
  4. 19We May Face Competition for Business
  5. 20We Face Technological Changes That Present New and Intensified Challenges and May Fail to Foresee or Adapt to These Changes
  6. 21We May Face Catastrophes That Affect Liabilities for Policyholder Claims and Reinsurance Availability
  7. 22We May Face Direct or Indirect Effects of Climate Change or Responses to It
  8. 23We May Need to Fund Deficiencies in Our Closed Block, and May Not Re-Allocate Closed Block Assets
  9. 24We may write down long-lived assets if we conclude we will be unable to recover their carrying amount
  10. 25We May Be Required to Impair VOBA, VODA or VOCRA
  11. 26We May Face Volatility, Higher Risk Management Costs, and Increased Counterparty Risk Due to Guarantees Within Certain of Our Products

Operational Risks

  1. 27Our ERM and business continuity policies and procedures may not be sufficiently comprehensive and may not identify or adequately protect us from every risk to which we are exposed
  2. 28Our Policies and Procedures May Be Insufficient to Protect Us From Operational Risks
  3. 29If we are unable to obtain necessary and accurate information from our customers or their employees, we may be unable to provide or verify coverage and pay claims, or we may pay claims without sufficient documentation
  4. 30Our practices and procedures may, at times, limit our efforts to contact all our customers, which may result in delayed, untimely, or missed customer payments
  5. 31We may fail to attract, motivate and retain employees, develop talent, and plan for management succession. Additionally, attrition could cause a lapse in implementation of policies and procedures
  6. 32We May Face Changes in Accounting Standards
  7. 33Our Associates May Take Excessive Risks
  8. 34We May Have Difficulty in or Complications from Marketing and Distributing Our Products
  9. 35We may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing on or misappropriating our intellectual property. We may incur litigation costs to enforce and protect it or to determine its scope or validity, and we may not be successful

Risks Related to Acquisitions, Dispositions or Other Structural Changes

  1. 36We May Face Risks Related to Our Separation from Brighthouse
  2. 37MetLife, Inc.’s Board of Directors May Influence the Outcome of Stockholder Votes on Matters Due to the MetLife Policyholder Trust

Other Metlife 10-Ks

  • 2026 10-K risk factors

    38 risks, 2 new, 1 dropped, 8 reworded since the prior year. Institutional asset-management revenue is newly tied explicitly to falling asset values and transaction volumes through AUM-based fees.

    Filed Feb 19, 2026

About this page

Item 1A of the 10-K on EDGAR was split into its risk factors and, where the company's previous 10-K is on file, each heading was matched to last year's and the text compared word for word. The headings are the filing's own. The one-line readings and the overview were written by a language model from the text of the new, dropped, and rewritten risks; they refer to risks by position and cannot misquote a heading.

Metlife (MET) Risk Factors: 2025 10-K, What Changed | Gloomberb