MassMutual Stripped of AAA Grade at S&P on Fund Units

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., the 158-year-old policyholder-owned carrier, was stripped of its AAA rating by Standard & Poor’s on the drop in the value of asset management units.

The credit and financial-strength ratings were cut to AA+ “because of its lower quality of capital and reduced financial flexibility,” the ratings firm said today in a statement on the Springfield, Massachusetts-based insurer.

MassMutual, which lost $1.1 billion last year amid investment declines, slips one credit grade below rivals New York Life Insurance Co. and TIAA-CREF at S&P. Customer returns tumbled at the MassMutual’s OppenheimerFunds Inc. money- management unit as bond funds lost an average of 29 percent in 2008, prompting investor defections...

Bloomberg: MassMutual Stripped of AAA Grade at S&P on Fund Units (Update3)