(Bloomberg) -- Breaking up is hard, especially when long-timepartners have to decide who gets financial assets, property or evena pet. The split could be trickier, still, when one of the world’smost beloved dogs is involved.

MetLife Inc. Chief Executive Officer SteveKandarian has to decide whether he keeps Snoopy and his Peanutsfriends, or if the comic-strip crew will depart with a U.S. retailbusiness that the company plans to sell, spin off or divest toinvestors in a public offering.

Snoopy has been associated with the insurer for more than threedecades, and enhances the “warm, approachable quality that isimportant to the MetLife brand,” according to the company’sguidelines. The beagle appears in the insurer’s ads, employees’business cards, Wall Street presentations and even blimps that flyabove golf tournaments.

“There aren’t many animated or cartoon characters that have thatlevel of recognition and that level of appeal, which is what makesit so valuable,” said James O’Rourke, a management professor atUniversity of Notre Dame, who expects the Peanuts characters willgo to the retail business. “People think Snoopy is totally cool,and it’s a pretty broad range of people.”

Gecko, duck

Aflac Inc.’s wacky duck and the chatty gecko pitching Geico auto policies areamong creatures used by rivals to put a friendly face on insurancecontracts. MetLife’s Snoopy doesn’t speak, however. That meansKandarian doesn’t have to worry about a public-relations headachelike the one Aflac had in 2011 when it fired comedian GilbertGottfried, then the voice of the duck in the U.S., after he madecomments about tsunami victims in Japan, the firm’s biggestmarket.

MetLife has plenty on its plate with the split, beyond justcomic-strip characters. The company has been designated byregulators as a systemically important financial institutionbecause of its size, and the separation plan was designed partly tolimit capital restrictions on retirement products such asannuities. The remaining company will still be one of the world’slargest insurers, selling group policies and property-casualtycoverage in the U.S. and operating in Asia, Latin America andEurope.

Yet, even after Kandarian announced on Jan. 12 how he wouldallocate assets to the two businesses and assign leadership, thecompany acknowledged the dilemma of whether the U.S. retailbusiness would retain the MetLife name and the Snoopy branding.

Unanswered questions

“We are in the early stages of planning,” the company said in astatement discussing the split. “Many questions remain to beanswered.”

It is “highly unlikely the company would spin off its retailbusiness without the dog,” Al Ries, chairman of market-strategyfirm Ries & Ries, said in an e-mail. “Would anyone buy theCorona brand without the lime? Or the cola business from Coca-Colawithout the contour bottle?”

MetLife has long sought to appeal to both individuals and tohuge corporate clients. The National Football League’s New YorkGiants and New York Jets play at MetLife Stadium, and the insurer’sname is featured on a Park Avenue tower in New York.

Gambling, drinking

Iconix Brand Group Inc., which in 2010 acquired a majority stakein the characters, listed the insurer first in a Novemberregulatory filing that named some key Peanuts partners. Peanuts hasmore than 700 licensing agreements, including relationships withretailer Target Corp., and food company Nestle SA, according to thedocument. MetLife said in its most recent annual report that it hasthe exclusive global license in the financial-services industry upto the end of 2019.

The Peanuts brand “adds good value” by making a complicatedproduct seem more accessible to consumers, Randy Binner, an analystat FBR Capital Markets, said in a phone interview. “Insurance isdifficult for a lot of people to understand.”

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The Peanuts comic strips were written and illustrated by CharlesSchulz, who realized his dream of becoming a professionalcartoonist after returning from war in 1945, according to hisbiography on the Charles M. Schulz Museum’s website. By the time heannounced his retirement in 1999, the cartoon was syndicated inmore than 2,600 newspapers worldwide.

Jaime Sheinheit, a spokeswoman for Iconix, didn’t immediatelyreturn a message seeking comment. MetLife’s Randy Clerihue referredto the company document.

The insurer’s brand guidelines outline, often in great detail,how to deploy — and how not to use — the characters. Forexample, Snoopy is not to be depicted gambling or drinking alcohol.After all, MetLife said, “Snoopy likes root beer.”

--With assistance from Katherine Chiglinsky.

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