Prudential Financial Inc. will buy the individual life insurance business of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. for $615 million in cash, Reuters reports.
Prudential said the deal would add scale to its own individual life business, while for The Hartford the sale lets it complete an asset disposal program months ahead of schedule.
The agreement is structured as a reinsurance transaction, with Prudential taking on the obligations for The Hartford’s roughly 700,000 policies. It is expected to close early next year. Prudential also said the head of its individual life unit would retire and be replaced by the chief actuary.
With the sale, The Hartford will close out a restructuring unveiled earlier this year that was designed to tighten the company’s focus on its property and casualty insurance business.
Under pressure to improve returns from its largest shareholder, hedge fund manager John Paulson, The Hartford said in March it would shut down its annuity business and pursue sales for its broker-dealer, retirement plan and individual life operations.
Chief Executive Liam McGee had forecast a sale process of 12 months to 18 months, but managed to sign all the requisite deals in just six months.
The insurer sold the broker-dealer business to American International Group Inc. in July and the retirement plan business to MassMutual earlier this month.
