Word: tobacco
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...Prudential spokesperson acknowledged that this figure is "reasonably accurate." But other insurers named in the study strongly dispute its claims. The NEJM letter states that, for instance, Canadian firm Sun Life Financial, which offers life, health and disability insurance, holds just over $1 billion in tobacco investments. In an e-mail to TIME, however, Sun Life spokesman Michel Leduc called this number "categorically incorrect." Although he would not disclose specific holdings, Leduc said that of the company's $100 billion investment portfolio, less than 0.005% was exposure to tobacco stocks. "Sun Life's investments in renewable-energy projects are over...
...other U.S.-based insurers, Northwestern Mutual and MassMutual, also question the study's data. The NEJM letter places Milwaukee-based Northwestern's tobacco-stock holdings at $235 million in Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard, which produces Newport cigarettes. But spokeswoman Jean Towell says the insurer's investments are actually one-tenth that figure, less than $24 million...
...MassMutual, the gap is even bigger. The study claims the firm's tobacco holdings to be $585 million. That is "absolutely incorrect," says Mark Cybulski, a MassMutual spokesman. "Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company has virtually no equity holdings in companies whose offerings include tobacco-related products. As of December 31, 2008, MassMutual's holdings of tobacco-related equities are approximately $548,000, representing less than 0.001% of consolidated statutory cash and invested assets of $86.2 billion...
...researchers' data, gathered from the Osiris database, was reviewed by both NEJM and TIME and found to be accurate as of March 26, 2009. Osiris, for its part, collects financial information from yet another financial database, FactSet Research Systems, which sources its records directly from public filings by the tobacco firms and the insurers to the Security and Exchange Commission. "I think the numbers in the Osiris database are aggregate numbers from every division of a company like Northwestern, whereas Northwestern might be looking at a subset of their total holdings," Boyd says. Similar questions arose from his 1995 findings...
...insurers in question also sell mutual funds and other retirement products alongside their insurance businesses. That means at least some of their exposure to tobacco stocks stems from client assets in index funds, such as those pegged to the S&P 500, which, of course, includes firms like Philip Morris and Lorillard. Many of the insurers contacted by TIME declined to outline the specifics of their investment portfolios, but a Prudential spokesman, Darrell Oliver, noted that as a policy, Prudential does not invest in tobacco stocks for its own portfolios: "Some Prudential entities hold tobacco stocks. Those stocks are primarily...