MetLife Board Let Firm Withhold $500M in Annuities: Suit (1)

MetLife Inc.‘s board of directors are facing a shareholder lawsuit that says they didn’t stop the company from improperly withholding $500 million from annuity customers.

MetLife board members didn’t do enough to make sure the company paid out all owed annuities, the Jan. 18 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York said.

One MetLife product is a pension risk transfer, which allows pension plan administrators to purchase annuity contracts, according to the complaint. The transfer entitles pension beneficiaries to annuity benefits once they reach retirement age.

But MetLife didn’t make payments to around ...