MORE THAN 170 YEARS AND COUNTING.
Becoming a trusted financial institution doesn’t happen overnight. Since we issued our very first policy, we’ve been protecting clients through good times and bad—through wars, pandemics, and financial crises—even paying out dividends consistently every year since 1854.
WE HAVE NURTURED RELATIONSHIPS THAT TRANSCEND GENERATIONS, BUILDING A TRACK RECORD OF FINANCIAL STABILITY UPON FOUR BASIC CORNERSTONES:
- The necessity of financial strength to underpin all promises
- The role of mutuality in protecting policy owners’ interests
- The social and financial imperative of life insurance
- The value of our agents to provide expert guidance for complex financial decisions
Learn more about how New York Life is built for all times.
OUR VISION STRETCHES FAR INTO THE FUTURE.
We take a long-term view. We have to. We invest for the long term because we make long-term commitments to our policy owners. Our diversified business strategy and long-term investment approach are both specifically designed to protect your money from the ups and downs of the economy—and that will never change.
Why? As a mutual insurance company our clients don't just own their policies—they own the company.*** So simply put, in everything we do, our interests are aligned with the long-term goals of our policy owners, not the short-term gains of outside investors.
Our business is focused on stability, handling whatever economic challenges and opportunities arise, in order to ensure that we meet our long-term commitments.
Because we keep our promises—and have done so for more than 170 years.
*Total surplus, which includes the Asset Valuation Reserve (AVR), is one of the key indicators of the company’s long-term financial strength and stability and is presented on a consolidated basis of the company. NYLIC’s statutory surplus was $20.36 billion and $20.11 billion at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Included in NYLIC’s statutory surplus is NYLIAC’s statutory surplus totaling $9.19 billion and $8.72 billion at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. AVR for NYLIC was $2.65 billion and $2.18 billion at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. AVR for NYLIAC was $1.19 billion and $1.05 billion at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. See Report to Policyholders.
**Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 7/30/2018: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).
***New York Life Insurance Company is a mutual insurance company, which means it is not publicly traded and has no shareholders. Instead, its policy owners are the ones who share in ownership rights of the company. With a mutual company, clients who purchase participating products are entitled to vote in the board of directors elections, and are eligible to share in annual dividends that are declared. The company's priority is to safeguard their interests and policies issued by our subsidiary companies are not participating and do not share in these rights.
Dividends are based on the policy's applicable dividend scale, which is neither guaranteed nor an estimate of future performance results. Some policies are participating, but are not expected to receive dividends.