Public Policy
We work with regulators, elected officials, and community representatives at all levels of governmental institutions to seek sound solutions to public problems. As a mutual company, we first and foremost seek public policies that are in the best interest of our policyholders. We work to ensure that our policyholders' interests and the public interest are carefully balanced.
In all of our dealings, we take an integrity-based approach to lobbying. While we do engage lobbyists, we prefer to bring our employees and associates who are experts on an issue directly to Washington, D.C. and the States to speak face-to-face with officials on matters of importance to the company. We absolutely do not solicit favors or favorable treatment in exchange for campaign contributions.
Our political action committee, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company Political Action Committee (MMPAC), supports our lobbying efforts in full compliance with applicable law and all MMPAC contributions to candidates are fully disclosed on the Federal Election Committee website (www.fec.gov). With a bipartisan strategy, MMPAC is solely focused on supporting members of Congress who are champions of our issues. MMPAC utilizes employees and agents from throughout the company to serve on an advisory board that regularly reviews candidate contributions to ensure they meet strict giving criteria.
We firmly believe that a financially knowledgeable public is critical to the nation's well-being. To that end, we have:
- sponsored congressional educational symposiums on our industry
and its products - including the unique needs of women in retirement;
- worked with Congress and various regulatory agencies on the
implementation of Dodd-Frank regulations;
- worked with Congress, the Department of Labor, and the Securities
and Exchange Commission on simplified, easy-to-read disclosures
for mutual funds, pension, and 401(k) products, and a definition of
fiduciary that would allow plan participants and IRA holders to continue
to receive the education they need to have a secure retirement; and
- worked with State Legislators and Regulators to promote and enact
state laws providing for state guaranty association insurance coverage
protection if a life insurer or annuity carrier goes insolvent.
MassMutual is a strong proponent of the Interstate Insurance Compact, which was developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, to create a facility for insurers to receive product approvals in multiple states. MassMutual is the first company in the industry to have products approved in all major product categories based upon the strong uniform product standard developed by the Compact and insurance regulators.
We also support Congress' and the Administration's goal of enhancing American workers' retirement security by providing relevant and meaningful disclosure of retirement plan fees. As a leading 401(k) provider, we have publicly advocated in favor of the appropriate disclosure of fees to plan sponsors and participants for a number of years and worked with industry groups, Congress, and the Department of Labor to improve fee disclosure.
