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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

MetLife, known for life insurance, may part with its agents

FILE - In this April 16, 2009, file photo, the MetLife skyscraper overlooks an older building in New York. MetLife is in talks to part with a business that at one time defined one of the world’s biggest life insurance companies: Its life insurance agents. The unit, known as MetLife Premier Client Group, has 4,000 workers who sell insurance products to individuals and small business owners, according to paperwork filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this April 16, 2009, file photo, the MetLife skyscraper overlooks an older building in New York. MetLife is in talks to part with a business that at one time defined one of the world’s biggest life insurance companies: Its life insurance agents. The unit, known as MetLife Premier Client Group, has 4,000 workers who sell insurance products to individuals and small business owners, according to paperwork filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) FILE - In this April 16, 2009, file photo, the MetLife skyscraper overlooks an older building in New York. MetLife is in talks to part with a business that at one time defined one of the world’s biggest life insurance companies: Its life insurance agents. The unit, known as MetLife Premier Client Group, has 4,000 workers who sell insurance products to individuals and small business owners, according to paperwork filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

NEW YORK (AP) – MetLife is in talks to part ways with the life insurance agents who long defined one of the world’s biggest life insurance companies.

The unit that the company is in talk to sell, known as MetLife Premier Client Group, has 4,000 agents who sell a number of policies, including life insurance, to individuals and small businesses, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company confirmed Thursday that was negotiating a possible sale with MassMutual, another insurance company, after talks were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The nation’s largest insurance companies began to restructure their businesses following the financial crisis, from which the term “too big to fail” arose. New regulations intended to head off economic calamities have pushed companies like MetLife into major overhauls.