MassMutual CEO Aims for Bigger Role in Annuities

Roger Crandall, the chief executive officer of MassMutual, said Wednesday that he wants the company to expand its annuity business the way it’s expanded its cash-value life business.

“We think scale matters,” Crandall said in New York at S&P Global Ratings’ 40th insurance conference. “It’s just harder if you don’t have scale.”

LIMRA survey figures show that MassMutual ranked 20th in the United States in individual variable annuity sales in the first quarter and sixth in individual fixed annuity sales.

Crandall said that MassMutual wants to have both a large-scale annuity manufacturing business and a large-scale annuity distribution operation.

The company has formed relationships with distributors that handle about 80% of annuity sales, he said.

MassMutual also wants to continue to focus on providing retirement advice, he said.

He reported that his own 80-year-old mother has faced four changes in IRA distribution rules in the past four years.

For retirees without financial advisors trying to cope with all of the change, “it’s tough,” he said. “Financial advisors are critical to this. That’s a huge opportunity for our industry.”

He also talked about the importance of having a long-term outlook: One MassMutual customer has been with the company for 92 years. About 150,000 have been with it for more than 50 years.