MetLife agrees to pay $10 mn fine over how it decided clients were dead

MetLife Inc agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the insurer violated accounting rules in setting reserves for its annuities business. The settlement follows a probe by the SEC into the company’s failure to pay some workers’ pensions, which MetLife disclosed in December 2017. For over 25 years, MetLife followed a policy of assuming customers had died or couldn’t be found if they didn’t respond to two mailings made five and a half years apart, the SEC said in a Wednesday statement. The practice boosted MetLife’s profits because it allowed the