Policyholders Push for MassMutual Demutualization

Some Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. policyholders want to force the Springfield firm to follow in John Hancock’s footsteps and go public the Boston Herald reported today.

“We just think it’s time the owners reclaim their rightful role as owners and direct the enterprise,” James V. Baker, a policyholder who lives in Florida told the paper. He and others want MassMutual to convert to a stockholder form of ownership, with publicly traded shares.

Baker also said the company’s increasingly global and diversified business strategy has strayed so far from its roots that it no longer makes sense to be a mutual insurer, owned by its policyholders. As Baker sees it, he and other policyholders should receive compensation in the form of cash or stock if the company demutualizes.

MassMutual has examined demutualization, but the company maintains that remaining a mutual company is in its best interest.

Meanwhile, Baker and a friend – who is not a MassMutual policyholder – have set up a web site and created the MassMutual Owners Association, focused on pushing for a policyholder vote on demutualization at the April 11 annual meeting. They claim to have hundreds of policyholders on their side.