Chairman’s Letter
To my fellow shareholders:

In December, I started our annual investor day meeting with a very powerful message about MetLife: we are big, we are strong and we are trusted. While this has been true for many years, it is even more important and relevant today given the many challenges facing our economy.

MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States, has financial strength ratings that are among the highest in the industry and has built its businesses and reputation on fulfilling guarantees to our customers. These attributes differentiate us in the marketplace and, combined with our focus on delivering long-term value, enabled us to achieve a number of strong results in 2008.

Strong Growth
Last year, MetLife grew premiums, fees and other revenues 11% to reach $32.9 billion and generated $3.2 billion in net income. These are solid accomplishments, and they are even more significant when you consider the impact that the poor equity and credit market conditions have had on earnings in our industry.

Our largest business — Institutional — continued to generate significant top line growth across all of its segments as premiums, fees and other revenues grew 19% to reach $16.6 billion. The largest growth, by far, was in retirement & savings, which almost doubled to $2.9 billion on a significant increase in U.S. and U.K. pension closeout sales. MetLife has a long history of developing innovative pension risk transfer solutions for U.S. institutions.

We are increasingly exporting that expertise to U.K. companies and their trustees by providing bulk annuity solutions to secure pensioners’ benefits. In addition to retirement & savings, many of our other industryleading Institutional product lines, including group life, group dental and group disability, generated solid top line growth. Year after year, we continue to leverage our scale in the Institutional marketplace to achieve further revenue growth and bolster our position as a leading employee benefits provider.

In our Individual business, total premiums and deposits grew 10% to reach $26.7 billion. This growth was driven by a significant increase in fixed annuity deposits as well as strong variable annuity deposits. Our annuity product portfolio remains competitive and, just as important, we are maintaining our pricing discipline. It is at times like these that consumers increasingly seek out the guarantees that only the insurance industry can provide, and we remain committed to delivering on the promises we make.

In International, we once again saw strong growth as premiums, fees and other revenues grew 11%. We have leading market positions in Mexico, South Korea, Chile and Japan, and our efforts to create a foundation for future international growth are serving us well. Much like in the U.S., we are leveraging our financial strength and risk management expertise to deliver quality protection and retirement & savings products through both proprietary channels and third party distributors.

On the product side, we acquired Odonto A Saúde Empresarial to add dental insurance in Brazil and we are expanding our major medical business in Mexico by launching an individual major medical offering. On the distribution side, we continued to strengthen our variable annuity reach: in Japan, we doubled our Japan Post locations to more than 300 outlets; in South Korea, we launched fixed annuities in 7 of the largest banks in the country while also expanding our sales force; and, in India, we increased the size of our agency sales channel from 40,000 to over 50,000 professionals.

Our Auto & Home business also continued to perform well in 2008, generating solid results and a year-end combined ratio of 91.2% in what remains a very competitive property and casualty insurance market. We are able to distinguish ourselves in this business with services and features that set us apart, such as identity theft resolution services at no extra cost and guaranteed replacement cost homeowner coverage.

In all of our businesses, our goal is to ensure that MetLife is well positioned for the future. We are focused on our core businesses which is why, last year, we divested our majority stake in Reinsurance Group of America, Inc. (RGA), the global life reinsurance company. While RGA had performed extremely well since MetLife acquired its majority stake in the company in 2000, the reinsurance business was clearly not a core one for us..

Financial Strength
We generated $16.3 billion in net investment income in 2008 — a solid result, given the poor credit and equity markets — and we continue to differentiate ourselves through our asset-liability management expertise.

In October, we announced we were maintaining our 2008 annual common stock dividend at $0.74 a share — a step that further represents our confidence in our long-term outlook and also demonstrates the value we bring to our shareholders. That same month, we bolstered an already strong excess capital position by raising $2.3 billion in additional capital through the offering of 86.25 million shares of common stock.

We specifically decided to conduct the offering as a means for demonstrating our financial strength — a strength that now differentiates us in the industry and positions us well for the future. It is also worth noting that about 40% of those that participated in the offering were existing MetLife shareholders. To me, this is a further demonstration that investors who know us and have been with us for the long run saw this as an opportunity to increase their stake in our strong company.

Positioned for the Future
Looking ahead, we are identifying the opportunities that will enable MetLife to extend its leadership position in the financial services industry. This is why, in 2008, we announced that MetLife was undertaking an Operational Excellence initiative that will help serve as the foundation for future growth.

This initiative came as a result of a strategic review that concentrated on our strengths, opportunities and areas for improvement. Our ongoing Operational Excellence initiative will enable us to reduce complexities, leverage our scale, improve efficiencies and increase productivity. We expect that it will yield at least $400 million of expense savings by 2010 and also provide us with opportunities to enhance revenue.

Our Operational Excellence initiative is just one more example of our commitment to delivering shareholder value. With our tremendous history, talented associates, strong financial position and diverse mix of businesses, we are well positioned to not just maintain, but extend our leadership position in the industry. These attributes, combined with our long-term approach, will continue to serve all of MetLife’s stakeholders well.

Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
C. Robert Henrikson
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
MetLife, Inc.
March 2, 2009

Download MetLife Annual Report 2008

PDF format, 2.3MB, 240Pages.

MetLife, Inc.
200 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10166-0188
www.metlife.com

MetLife, Inc. is a leading provider of insurance, employee benefits and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States (based on life insurance in-force).

The MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance and retirement & savings products and services to corporations and other institutions.

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