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MetLife, Barnum Collaborate to Offer Financial Education

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MetLife, Inc. (MET - Free Report) recently teamed up with Connecticut-based Barnum Financial Group. Being a financial planning and wealth management firm, Barnum offers a diverse range of investment and risk management products and services to clients.

The tie-up entails Barnum to organize financial wellness workshops based on MetLife’s renowned PlanSmart financial education programs, Transition Solutions and Retirewise. Barnum, through its in-house financial experts and advisors, will conduct these workshops for educating workforces across the United States.

These workshops at the same time will provide advice to MetLife’s clients regarding decisions related to group life conversion options.

PlanSmart, the financial wellness solution launched by MetLife in 2018, helps employees in identifying their financial needs and goals, and devises a financial wellness plan accordingly.

Moreover, the abovementioned tie up showcases MetLife’s commitment toward financial wellness. The company also highlights the rising demand for products and services intended to provide financial literacy among workforces.

Case in point, MetLife’s 17th annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study stated that 80% of employees are keen on attending financial planning workshops or getting access to tools. However, only 20% of employers provide such programs. This shortcoming needs to be addressed by devising appropriate ways for workforces, so that they can effectively deal with stress and uncertainty.

Capitalizing on this situation, MetLife has been successfully offering financial education to workforces for more than two decades. Barnum, with its advisor infrastructure and market reach, aptly fits into MetLife’s purpose of expanding its financial product offerings.

Other Initiatives to Promote Employee Satisfaction

Two months back, MetLife extended alliance with PlanSource, which is renowned for offering cloud-based solutions aimed at enhancing the process of benefits administration for HR personnel and employees. Following this extended collaboration, MetLife will become part of PlanSource Boost program that will not only lead to simplification of MetLife’s benefits administration process but also enable the company to offer customized benefits packages.

Such initiatives bode well because we believe that for any organization, a comprehensive benefits program forms integral part of their employees’ well-being and satisfaction.

Price Performance

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) multiline insurer have lost 17.8% in a year compared with the industry’s decline of 15.7%. Nevertheless, we believe that the company’s strong fundamentals are likely to drive its shares, going forward.

 

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked companies in the same space are Assurant, Inc. (AIZ - Free Report) , Old Republic International Corporation (ORI - Free Report) and James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (JRVR - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Assurant has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 6%.

Old Republic has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 36.72%.

James River Group has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 14.86%.

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