Prudential Financial, Inc. is one of the largest financial services institutions
in the U.S. Through our subsidiaries and affiliates, we provide a wide range of
insurance, investment management and other financial products and services to
individual and institutional customers in the U.S. and over 30 other countries
through one of the largest distribution networks in the financial services industry.
Our principal executive offices are located in Newark, New Jersey.
On the date of demutualization, Prudential Insurance converted from a mutual
life insurance company owned by its policyholders to a stock life insurance
company and became an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential Financial.
On that date, eligible policyholders, as defined in the Plan of Reorganization,
received shares of Prudential Financial's Common Stock or the right to receive
cash or policy credits, which are increases in policy values or increases in
other policy benefits, upon the extinguishment of all membership interests in
Prudential Insurance.
The businesses of Prudential Financial are separated into the Financial Services
Businesses and the Closed Block Business.
The Financial Services Businesses is comprised of three divisions, containing
eight segments, and our Corporate and Other operations.
The Insurance division conducts its business through the Individual Life and
Annuities and Group Insurance segments.
Our Individual Life and Annuities segment manufactures and distributes individual
variable life, term life, universal life and non-participating whole life insurance,
and variable and fixed annuity products, primarily to the U.S. mass affluent
market and mass market.
Prudential Agents
Our Prudential Agents distribute variable, term, universal and non-participating
whole life insurance, variable and fixed annuities, and investment and protection
products with proprietary and non-proprietary investment options as well as
selected insurance products manufactured by others.
Group Insurance has its own dedicated sales force that is organized around
products and market segments and distributes primarily through employee benefits
brokers and consultants. Group Insurance also distributes individual long-term
care products through Prudential Agents as well as third party brokers and agents.
Defined contribution plans are sold through the financial advisors associated
with our joint venture with Wachovia under a distribution agreement, as well
as other third party financial advisors, brokers, consultants, and, to a lesser
extent, Prudential Agents. A high concentration of these plans have been in
the core and small plan markets, with less than $50 million in plan assets.
Our distribution network includes over 100 third party distributors including
brokers, regional broker-dealers and others. In addition, we have a small direct
sales force to develop sales among plans with greater than $50 million in plan
assets.
Competition
In each of our businesses we face intense competition from domestic and foreign
insurance companies, asset managers and diversified financial institutions.
Many of our competitors are large and well-capitalized and some have higher
claims-paying or credit ratings than we do. We compete in our businesses generally
on the basis of price, quality of service, scope of distribution, quality of
products and brand recognition. The relative importance of these factors varies
across our products and the markets we serve.