Massachusetts securities regulators have begun aninvestigation into MetLife's failure to pay thousands of workers'pensions.

In a filing made Dec. 15 Friday, MetLife disclosed that itfailed to pay monthly pension benefits to workers within itsretirement business unit. MetLife reported that it is in theprocess of trying to locate pensioners to whom it has failed to paymonthly pensions. MetLife states in its filing those pensioners“have moved jobs, relocated, or otherwise can no longer bereached.”

The disclosure by MetLife does not state the exact number ofretirees who are impacted, what efforts MetLife has made to findcorrect addresses, how long the problem has been going on, or whenand how MetLife learned of the problem.

“MetLife acquired the pension payment obligation from theretirees' former employer and now bears the responsibility ofmaking sure that retirees receive their pension checks,”Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, said in astatement. “Retirees cannot afford to have glitches with theirpension checks. I want to uncover why this occurred and how MetLifeis going to rectify the problem for the retirees.”

The Massachusetts Securities Division sent out an inquiry letteron Monday seeking, among other things, how and when the glitch wasdiscovered, information on the plans involved, the number ofindividual accounts affected by the agreement, and each accountholder's name and address.

According to Reuters reports, MetLife believes the group missing out on thepayments represented less than 5 percent of about 600,000 peoplewho receive benefits from the company via its retirement business.Those affected generally have average benefits of less than $150 amonth, according to MetLife.

From: ThinkAdvisor