METLIFE INC
For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Feb 21, 2025.
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FY2024 · Filed Feb 21, 2025
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the stockholders and the Board of Directors of MetLife, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of MetLife, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes and the schedules listed in the Index to Consolidated Financial Statements, Notes and Schedules (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control— Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 20, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Fixed Maturity Securities Available-for-Sale — Fair Value of Level 3 Fixed Maturity Securities — Refer to Notes 1, 11, and 13 to the financial statements
The Company has investments in certain fixed maturity securities classified as available-for-sale whose fair values are based on unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and are significant to the determination of estimated fair value. When a price is not available in the active market or from an independent pricing service, management values the security using internal matrix pricing or discounted cash flow techniques. These investments are categorized as Level 3.
Management applies considerable judgment in selecting unobservable inputs to value fixed maturity securities using internal matrix or discounted cash flow techniques. Unobservable assumptions reflect the Company’s own assumptions about assumptions that a market participant would use in pricing the investment.
We have determined the fair value of fixed maturity securities valued using internal matrix pricing or discounted cash flow techniques is a critical audit matter due to the significant judgments made by management when determining the unobservable inputs. This required complex auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the use of fair value specialists and credit specialists, in performing audit procedures to evaluate the estimate of fair value of these securities.
Our audit procedures related to the valuation of fixed maturity securities determined using internal matrix pricing or discounted cash flow techniques as a result of unobservable inputs included, among others, the following:
We tested the effectiveness of controls over the determination of fair value.
We tested the accuracy and completeness of relevant security attributes, such as maturity dates and coupon rates, used in the determination of fair values for the identified fixed maturity securities.
With the involvement of our fair value specialists, we developed independent fair value estimates for a sample of securities and compared our estimates to the Company’s estimates and evaluated differences. We developed our estimate by evaluating the observable and unobservable inputs used by management or developing independent inputs.
With the involvement of our credit specialists, we developed an independent expectation of the credit rating for a sample of securities where an external rating was not available and compared our estimates to the Company’s estimates and evaluated differences, including the impact on the fair value of the security.
Insurance Liabilities — Certain Assumptions Related to the Valuation of Future Policy Benefits for Long-Term Care Insurance — Refer to Notes 1 and 4 to the financial statements
Critical Audit Matter Description
The Company’s products include long-term care insurance. Liabilities for amounts payable under long-term care insurance are recorded in future policy benefits in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. Such liabilities are established based on actuarial assumptions.
Management applies considerable judgment in evaluating actual experience and other information to determine current best estimate assumptions. Principal assumptions used in the valuation of future policy benefits for long-term care insurance include lapse, incidence, claim utilization, premium rate increases and mortality.
We have determined that future policy benefits for long-term care insurance is a critical audit matter because of the significant judgments made by management in setting assumptions used to estimate the future policy benefits liability. This required subjective auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the involvement of actuarial specialists, when performing audit procedures to evaluate the judgments made and the reasonableness of the principal assumptions used in the valuation.
Our audit procedures related to the assumptions used to determine the estimate of future policy benefits for long-term care insurance, included, among others, the following:
We tested the effectiveness of controls over the assumptions used in the valuation of future policy benefits and the effectiveness of controls over the underlying data.
With the involvement of our actuarial specialists, we:
evaluated judgments applied by management in setting principal assumptions, including evaluating the results of experience studies used as the basis for setting those assumptions.
evaluated the intended application of principal assumptions in the valuation model on a sample basis.
Market Risk Benefits — Certain Assumptions related to the Valuation of Market Risk Benefits for MetLife Holdings — Refer to Notes 1, 6 and 13 to the financial statements
Critical Audit Matter Description
Market risk benefits are contracts or contract features that guarantee benefits, such as guaranteed minimum benefits, in addition to an account balance, which expose insurance companies to other than nominal capital market risk and protect the contractholder from the same risk. Market risk benefits are required to be measured at fair value.
Management applies considerable judgment in determining the actuarial and capital market assumptions to be used in the valuation models to estimate the fair value of market risk benefits. Principal assumptions include mortality, withdrawal, utilization, lapse, volatility, and nonperformance risk spread.
We have identified certain assumptions related to the valuation of market risk benefits, more specifically certain guaranteed minimum benefits associated with variable annuity contracts, as a critical audit matter due to the high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the use of specialists, when performing audit procedures to evaluate the judgments made by management to estimate the fair value of market risk benefits.
Our audit procedures related to the valuation of market risk benefits included, among others, the following:
We tested the effectiveness of controls over the assumptions used in the valuation of market risk benefits, including the related methodologies and assumptions used for determining fair value.
With the involvement of our valuation and actuarial specialists, we:
evaluated the results of underlying experience studies, capital market projections, and judgments applied by management in setting the principal assumptions.
evaluated the intended application of principal assumptions in the valuation model on a sample basis.
evaluated the reasonableness of the Company’s assumption by comparing those selected by management to those independently developed by our actuarial specialist.
/s/DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
New York, New York
We have served as the Company’s auditor since at least 1968; however, an earlier year could not be reliably determined.
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