Report: MassMutual considers selling Enfield-based retirement division

Photo | Contributed MassMutual's corporate campus in Enfield.

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By Zachary F. Vasile, Journal Inquirer

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is reportedly considering selling off its Enfield-based retirement services division.

Citing unnamed sources it says are familiar with the matter, news agency Reuters reported Friday that MassMutual could offload the retirement services business in the near future for about $2 billion.

The segment administers savings programs, including 401(k) plans, for private and public sector employees. By Reuters’s estimates, it currently has about $175 billion in assets under management.

MassMutual, which offers financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, and annuities, no longer considers the costly servicing of retirement plans central to its business, according to the Reuters report.

It is not clear if the Springfield-based insurer has a prospective buyer lined up.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on the situation.

If true, the eventual sale of the retirement services unit would dovetail with MassMutual’s plan to close its campus in Enfield and relocate workers to offices in Springfield by 2021.

In February 2018, company officials announced they would shutter their base at 100 Bright Meadow Blvd. off Interstate 91 and move operations about six miles north with the assistance of $46 million in incentives approved by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.

At the time, about 1,500 employees worked at the Enfield office complex.

MassMutual Chairman, President, and CEO Roger Crandall described the move as an effort to consolidate the insurer’s operations around its two main campuses, in Springfield and Boston. The company also expects to retain its offices in New York City and Phoenix.

Just six years ago, MassMutual undertook renovations totaling $38 million at its three-building Enfield site. The project included infrastructure and technology upgrades, improvements to common areas such as lobbies and conference rooms, and a new, state-of-the-art data center that would also deliver standby emergency power to the rest of the Enfield campus.

The firm received a 10-year tax abatement worth about $13 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to facilitate the work.

In light of the decision to ultimately pull the plug on the Enfield offices, a DECD spokesman said MassMutual would not be able to access any of those tax credits.

The company opened its Enfield operations in 2004 after buying the property from the Phoenix Home Life Insurance Co. for $74 million.