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November 8, 2025 • 3 min read
MetLife, one of the world's leading financial services companies, provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management to individuals and institutional customers. In its latest quarterly report filed with the SEC, the company offers a detailed look into its financial performance for the third quarter of 2025. While the headline numbers show a significant drop in net income, a deeper dive reveals a more nuanced story about the company's operational strength versus the impact of volatile financial markets.
For the quarter ending September 30, 2025, MetLife reported a total revenue of $17.4 billion, which generated a net income of $902 million. This represents a noticeable decline from the $1.3 billion in net income reported in the same quarter of the previous year.
The following flow diagram illustrates how the company's revenue was converted into profit during the third quarter.
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You might notice the "Unallocated" items in the diagram. These are not a separate business line but rather accounting adjustments necessary to reconcile the performance of individual business segments with the company's consolidated results. The negative unallocated revenue of -$337 million primarily reflects net losses from investments and derivatives that are managed at the corporate level. Similarly, the unallocated cost of revenue represents other corporate-level reconciling items.
The primary driver behind the year-over-year drop in net income wasn't a decline in the core insurance business but rather significant swings in financial markets. The company reported an unfavorable change of nearly $1.7 billion in net derivative gains (losses) compared to the prior year.
Derivatives are financial contracts MetLife uses to hedge risks, such as changes in interest rates and currency values. The filing notes that rising long-term interest rates in both the U.S. and Japan during the quarter negatively impacted the value of these instruments. This highlights a key challenge for global insurers: their financial results are often subject to the volatility of the very markets they operate in, sometimes obscuring the underlying performance of their main business lines.
Despite the market headwinds, MetLife's core business divisions showed resilience and, in some cases, strong growth. Here’s a quick breakdown of operating income by segment for the quarter:
The Asia segment was a standout performer, with operating income showing significant growth. This was fueled by higher returns on private equity investments and solid business growth across the region. The Group Benefits segment, MetLife's largest by revenue at $6.6 billion, also delivered strong results, benefiting from favorable morbidity trends, meaning fewer disability and dental claims than anticipated.
MetLife's third-quarter results paint a dual picture. On one hand, the company's profitability was significantly dampened by the turbulent nature of global financial markets impacting its derivative and investment portfolios. On the other hand, its core insurance operations, particularly in Asia and U.S. Group Benefits, demonstrated solid underlying strength and growth. For a financial giant like MetLife, this balancing act is a constant. The results underscore the importance of looking beyond the headline numbers to understand the distinct performance of a company's day-to-day business versus its exposure to market fluctuations.
Last updated: November 8, 2025