Office address: 700 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660-6397
Website: pacificlife.com
Year established: 1868
Company type: financial services
Employees: 4,300+
Expertise: life insurance, indexed universal life, variable universal life, term life insurance, annuities, registered index-linked annuities, fixed indexed annuities, pension risk transfer solutions, employee benefits, insurance-linked investment strategies
Parent company: Pacific Mutual Holding Company
Key people: Darryl Button (CEO); Vibhu Sharma (CFO); Tod Nasser (CIO); Dawn Behnke, Laura Cushing, Mary Beth Eckert, and Jay Orlandi (EVPs)
Financing status: shareholder-owned company
Pacific Life is a Newport Beach-based life insurer and retirement company with a history of over 150 years. It offers life insurance, annuities, workplace benefits, and investment-linked options through its Omaha and Newport Beach hubs. As of 2024, it manages $239 billion in assets and $1.5 trillion of life insurance in force.
Founded in 1868 in Sacramento as The Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California, Pacific Life quickly moved to larger markets. By 1881, the home office had shifted to San Francisco to support wider growth.
By 1905, it held $61 million of life insurance in force across 40 states and territories. Those early decades set a pattern of steady expansion in both footprint and product offerings.
The firm embraced early technology and installed a UNIVAC computer in 1955 to modernize processing. The home office moved to Newport Beach in 1972 and established the company's long‑term headquarters there.
In 1983, Pacific Life worked with the M Group and shifted toward an independent brokerage distribution model. The 1980s and 1990s also brought the Pacific Mutual Foundation, First Capital Life rehabilitation, and PIMCO's spin‑off.
From 1997 onward, Pacific Life reshaped its structure, investments, and footprint to support long‑term growth. Key steps included:
In 2022, New York regulators found that Pacific Life had handled pension risk transfer business without a state license. The company agreed to pay a $3 million penalty and move those transactions to Pacific Life & Annuity Company.
Two years later, Pacific Life teamed up with T. Rowe Price to launch Managed Lifetime Income for retirees. The solution combines T. Rowe Price's managed payout strategy with a Pacific Life longevity annuity to provide predictable lifetime income.
Pacific Life is primarily a life insurer, but it also offers structured investment platforms inside its variable products:
Pacific Life presents itself as a product provider rather than an investment fiduciary. It supplies broad fund platforms and insurance guarantees that advisors use to build investment and retirement strategies.
The company describes its culture as inclusive, engaging, and empowering, with room for open dialogue. Pacific Life's values are:
The company says that its workforce is part of a global group that works with integrity, respect, honesty, and fairness. Employee benefits include:
Pacific Life also states that local D&I committees promote inclusion by hosting training, awareness sessions, and personal story sharing. The company also notes that every employee is given equal opportunity to grow and contribute.
Darryl Button is president and CEO of Pacific Life and has been with the company since 2017. Button previously worked at Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Canada, gaining deep experience in corporate and financial management. He is an FSA, FCIA, and MAAA, and holds a BS in mathematics, actuarial science, and statistics from the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Pacific Life's key people include:
Pacific Life states that its executive team is focused on high ethical standards and long-term corporate strength.
The company is one of the insurers offering fee-based annuities on Osaic's direct-billing platform, alongside Allianz, Brighthouse, Prudential, and others. This access lets fee-based advisors, especially RIAs, include Pacific Life annuities in financial plans without extra billing steps. As annuity demand and RIA-channel growth continue, Pacific Life's role on these platforms supports broader distribution and future client reach.
The firm also features in coverage of record-breaking US annuity sales in 2025 since 2020. Tate McMillin from Pacific Life Retirement Solutions notes that fee pressure is steering advisors toward fixed indexed annuities and RILAs without visible fees. This shift helps the firm align future annuity designs with advisor demand for growth, protection, and simpler pricing.
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