Who Profits From Springfield, MA's Western New England U.?-Conclusion

MassMutual may not be eager to pay very much in either federal, state or local taxes to end poverty in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2022. But on May 28, 2021, through Glidepath Holdings Inc., MassMutual was eager to spend over $3.5 billion to buy the Great American Life Insurance Company and its subsidiaries.

And, besides the Great American Life Insurance Company, MassMutual's U.S. and International affiliates or subsidiaries in recent years have included MML Investors Service LLC (which is one of the largest distributors of investment products in the USA), MassMutual Asset Finance, CM Life Insurance Company, MML Bay State Life Insurance Company, Haven Life and Barings LLC (which also manages billions of dollars worth of assets).

Coincidentally, the former Vice Chancellor for Investment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee--Diversified Trust Company Director, principal and co-founder William T. Spitz--has also, in recent years, been the lead director of the MassMutual Life Insurance financial group which has, historically, employed Western New England University [WNE] Trustees Rickser and Benson.

And the MassMutual board of directors has also included in recent years a former Aetna, Inc. Chair and CEO, a former Vertex Pharmaceutical Inc. president and CEO, a Carlyle Group managing director, a former WGL Holdings Inc. Chair and CEO, a former CEO of the UK's Cadbury PLC and the Cross Ridge Capital LLC founder/principal who used to be the president of Standard & Poor's.

Besides having included MassMutual Financial and Travelers Insurance Company corporate executives on its board of trustees in recent years, the Springfield-based and federal tax-exempted WNE's board of trustees has also included folks like the president and CEO of the Texas-based Summit Company, the president of The Wealth Technology Group, a managing director of Moody's, an ex-regional director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Corporation and a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice named Barbara A. Lenk.

WNE claims to be a "non-profit" institution. Yet between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, WNE's total revenue of $161,359, 898 exceeded its total expensess of $160,251,614 by over $1.1. million. And on June 30, 2020, WNE's investments in publicly-traded securities exceeded $44.3 million, its hedge funds investments in Central America and the Caribbean exceeded $11.5 million, the university's net assets exceeded $127 million and the value of WNE's endowment funds was over $55 million.

In addition, between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, "non-profit" WNE collected an income from its investments of nearly $2.5 million.

Yet although WNE pays no federal income taxes to the U.S. government, between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, the U.S. government "awarded" $1,342,302 from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund" to WNE "to assist students in transmission to remote learning," according to its Form 990 financial filing--despite the fact that less than 5 percent of institutionally racist Western New England University students are Black, while 25 percent of Springfield's residents are Black. (end of article)