Office address: 1295 State Street, Springfield, MA 01111-0001
Website: massmutual.com
Year established: 1851
Company type: financial services
Employees: 11,500+ (global)
Expertise: life insurance, disability income insurance, long-term care solutions, annuities, retirement planning, wealth management, investment management, worksite benefits, institutional solutions, college savings and education planning
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Roger Crandall (CEO), Mary Jane Fortin (CFO), Eric Partlan (chief investment officer), Geoffrey Craddock (chief risk officer), Susan Cicco (CoS to the chair), Michael O’Connor (general counsel), John Rugel (head of operations)
Financing status: corporation
MassMutual is a mutual life insurance and financial services company based in Springfield. It helps people secure their future through planning, protection, and personalized financial guidance. It manages over $285 billion in assets and has helped people for over 170 years.
Originally known as Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, the firm was founded in 1851 in Springfield after George Rice raised $100,000 from 31 investors. It quickly became profitable and eventually repaid those investors to become a mutual company owned by policyowners. It also:
During crises, the company took visible action for customers and communities. It paid over $100 million in death claims during the Spanish flu, supporting affected families. It later approved more than 60,000 loans during the Great Depression to help keep customers solvent.
Later, the company introduced major annuity, investment, and insurance platforms such as MML Investors Services and MassMutual.com. It also formed employee and business resource groups and created the MassMutual Foundation.
During COVID-19, the firm offered HealthBridge term life insurance to frontline healthcare workers. It acquired Great American Life, a US annuity and life insurance carrier, and became the leading US whole life insurance provider.
In the company’s recent wealth management developments, MassMutual widened its alternatives shelf for clients in 2024. Under head of wealth management Vaughn Bowman, it doubled alternative options, including select bitcoin exposures in model portfolios. This gives advisors more ways to customize portfolios and deepens the firm’s push into private markets.
On the advisor technology front, the company has also teamed up with Orion on a unified platform in 2025. The new system combines planning, portfolio management, and risk tools in one interface for thousands of advisors. It aims to reduce complexity and help position MassMutual’s wealth business around integrated, advisor-ready tech.
MassMutual offers planning-led investment, retirement, and protection solutions tied closely to client goals:
MassMutual also stresses regular reviews, so portfolios track changing goals and conditions. Its collaborative model aims to simplify decisions and keep investing aligned with a clear plan.
According to MassMutual, its culture centers on mutuality and doing what’s right. Below are its core values:
To support its employees, the company says it takes a holistic and flexible benefits approach. Below are some of its staff benefits:
Beyond benefits, the firm states that community responsibility is central to how it operates. Through the MassMutual Foundation and local partners, it backs financial well-being, education, and neighborhood economic opportunity.
Roger Crandall serves as the chair, president, and CEO of MassMutual. He also served as deputy chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s board. He is a CFA charterholder with an economics degree from the University of Vermont and an MBA, with honors, from Wharton.
Supporting Crandall is MassMutual’s executive and subsidiary leadership team:
MassMutual notes that its leaders bring varied backgrounds and perspectives. This mix helps the firm understand, and respond to, changing customer needs.
MassMutual is reshaping its advisor business by appointing Joe Mallee, a longtime field leader, to lead its 6,500-strong financial network. This move builds on MML Investors Services’ $274 billion platform and growing alternatives shelf. It supports the company’s future focus on advice-led growth, wider client reach, and stronger distribution.
The firm also released its 2025 Health & Wealth Habits Report, showing how money stress affects Americans’ physical and mental health. With Vaughn Bowman turning the findings into practical guidance for advisors, the company is using the data to promote simple, habit-based planning and protection. This work supports MassMutual’s strategy to connect wealth management with overall well-being and long-term retirement security.
Fixed indexed annuities lost a favorable exemption they enjoyed under the proposed rule, and the impact on variable annuities likely won't be much changed from original forecasts.
Gamification may be a path for firms looking to engage with their clients on financial planning.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. agreed to buy a distribution network from MetLife Inc., adding 4,000 financial advisers.
The deal is part of a broader deal announced Feb. 29 between the two insurers, which includes the purchase of MetLife's Premier Client Group.
The life insurer eyes a possible sale of the company's U.S. adviser force as it reshapes its business mix to limit government oversight.
Insurance firm is debuting its first IOVA as the products are helping prop up overall VA sales.
Schwab Retirement Plan Services is trying to get advisers more involved in 401(k) managed accounts through a new service for customized fund selection and portfolio construction for participants.
Insurer is trying to capitalize on big growth seen among asset-allocation products in the DC market and betting managed accounts become more widely used.
When was the last time you checked what your employer is offering you?
New study finds auto enrollment plans help a lot of workers as fears surrounding the financial crisis fade.
BofA study finds auto enrollment plans helping a lot but workers, particularly younger ones, are more confident as the financial crisis continues to fade.
Index giant enjoys 7.9% increase in assets over last year while Boston behemoth suffers 3.4% drop.
Just 28% of more than 1,500 adults received a passing grade on a series of basic questions about benefits, and that could have serious implications for their retirement income.
This could be the perfect opportunity for plan advisers to connect with employers to review the effectiveness of their retirement plans.
Insurer faces uphill battle as competition in defined contribution investment-only space is tough.
