A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of MassMutual and Its Subsidiaries.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR (Free System Resource) In Windows 3.x, the amount of unused memory in various 64K blocks reserved for managing current applications. Every open window takes some space in this area. See Windows memory limitation. ) of A++ (Superior) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition or Image Character Recognition) The machine recognition of hand-printed characters as well as machine printing that is difficult to recognize. ) of "aaa" of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company MassMutual Financial Group is the fleet name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliates, with more than 13 million clients and over $455 billion in assets under management at year-end 2006. (MassMutual) (Springfield, MA) and its life/health subsidiaries, part of the MassMutual Financial Group. Concurrently, A.M. Best has affirmed the debt ratings of "aa" on the existing surplus notes and "aaa" on notes issued under MassMutual's funding agreement-backed securities (FABS) programs. A.M. Best also has affirmed the AMB-1+ commercial paper rating. The outlook for all ratings is stable. (See below for a detailed listing of the companies and ratings.) The ratings reflect MassMutual's solid growth in operating performance, strong capitalization, high quality balance sheet, diversified operating profile, positively trending domestic and international insurance sales, moderate financial and operating leverage Operating Leverage A measurement of the degree to which a firm or project relies on fixed rather than variable costs. Notes: The higher the degree of operating leverage, the greater the potential danger from forecasting risk. and superior franchise. MassMutual offers a highly diversified portfolio of insurance products and asset management services to affluent individuals and the corporate marketplace. The company benefits from a sizable siz·a·ble also size·a·ble adj. Of considerable size; fairly large. siz  a·ble·ness n. participating whole life block, supplemented by term and
universal life policies that are sold primarily through a highly skilled
career agency force. As a result, MassMutual possesses a stable
liability structure and steady earnings, facilitating long-term
financial strength.
The ratings also consider MassMutual's well-established niche in the 401(k) market and the benefits the group derives from its ownership of OppenheimerFunds (Oppenheimer). A.M. Best notes that Oppenheimer, a leading retail equity and fixed income manager, continues to garner market share within asset management and has demonstrated above-average performance as well as solid growth in operating profitability and assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. . This has been complemented by strong growth within MassMutual's international insurance operations (a tripling of sales over the last four years), which are principally in the developed Asian economies of Taiwan, Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. and Japan. As a result, its asset management and international operations Internal Operations (I.O., IO or I/O) is a fictional American Intelligence Agency in Wildstorm comics. It was originally called International Operations. I.O. first appeared in WildC.A.T.S. volume 1 #1 (August, 1992) and was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee. have become larger contributors to the group's operating profile. These strengths are tempered by flat account value trends within individual annuities, moderate scale within retirement services, increased levels of competition within core lines and recent invested asset impairments, which may accelerate should the housing market and overall economy continue to decline. Like its peers, MassMutual is subject to the highly competitive individual life insurance and asset accumulation markets. A.M. Best believes MassMutual will need to continue investing in product development, technology and distribution to sustain profitability and market share within the U.S. retirement sector, particularly as consumers shift from asset accumulation to asset distribution. Additionally, A.M. Best notes the potential for investment risks with MassMutual's equity investment in its credit derivatives Credit Derivative Privately held negotiable bilateral contracts that allow users to manage their exposure to credit risk. Credit derivatives are financial assets like forward contracts, swaps, and options for which the price is driven by the credit risk of economic agents (private affiliate, as well as reputational risk associated with its investment in Scottish Re Group Limited (George Town, Cayman Islands George Town, Grand Cayman, is the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies. The town has a population of 20,626 (1999 estimates). George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial industry, with over 600 banks located there. ). The FSR of A++ (Superior) and ICRs of "aaa" have been affirmed for the following companies of MassMutual Financial Group: * Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company * C.M. Life Insurance Company * MML MML - Human-Machine Language. A language from ITU-T for telecommunications applications. It has a complex natural-language syntax. [CCITT Recommendations Z.311-Z.318, Z-341, Nov 1984]. Bay State Life Insurance Company The following debt ratings have been affirmed: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company -- -- "aa" on $250 million 7.625% surplus notes, due 2023 -- "aa" on $100 million 7.50% surplus notes, due 2024 -- "aa" on $250 million 5.625% surplus notes, due 2033 -- AMB-1+ commercial paper rating MassMutual Global Funding, LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control -- "aaa" program rating -- "aaa" on all outstanding notes issued under the program MassMutual Global Funding II -- "aaa" program rating -- "aaa" on all outstanding notes issued under the program Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
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