Accounting Changes (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Disclosue of Accounting Changes [Abstract]

Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted

Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted

On April 1, 2022, we elected to early adopt new accounting guidance related to troubled debt restructurings and the vintage disclosures included within the accounting guidance for credit losses on financial instruments. The guidance eliminates the recognition and measurement requirements for troubled debt restructurings and requires creditors to instead apply existing guidance related to loan refinancing and restructuring to determine whether a modification results in a new loan or a continuation of an existing loan. The guidance also expands disclosures for certain loan refinancings and restructurings by creditors when a borrower is experiencing financial difficulty and requires the presentation of gross write-offs by year of origination. We were permitted to early adopt this new accounting guidance as we adopted the accounting guidance related to credit losses on financial instruments on January 1, 2020. In accordance with the new accounting guidance, we adopted this guidance prospectively as of January 1, 2022; therefore, the guidance did not have any impact at adoption.

Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

In June 2022, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) issued new accounting guidance related to the fair value measurement of equity securities subject to contractual sale restrictions. The guidance clarifies existing fair value guidance on measuring the fair value of an equity security subject to contractual sale restrictions and adds new disclosures related to these securities. This guidance is currently effective for us on January 1, 2024 using the prospective method, with early adoption permitted. We do not expect a significant impact from this guidance on our condensed consolidated financial statements and disclosures.

In August 2018, the FASB issued new accounting guidance that significantly changes the recognition and measurement of long-duration insurance contracts and expands disclosure requirements, which impacts deferred

acquisition costs (“DAC”) and liabilities in our U.S. life insurance companies. In accordance with the guidance, the more significant changes include:

• assumptions will no longer be locked-in at contract inception and all cash flow assumptions used to estimate the liability for future policy benefits (except the discount rate) will be reviewed at least annually in the same period each year or more frequently if actual experience indicates a change is required. Changes will be recorded in net income (loss) using a retrospective approach with a cumulative catch-up adjustment by recalculating the net premium ratio (which will be capped at 100%) using actual historical and updated future cash flow assumptions;

• the discount rate used to determine the liability for future policy benefits will be a current upper-medium grade (low credit risk) fixed-income instrument yield, which is generally interpreted to mean a single-A rated bond rate for the same duration, and is required to be updated quarterly, with the impact of changes in the discount rate recorded in other comprehensive income (loss); 

• the provision for adverse deviation and the premium deficiency test will be eliminated;

• market risk benefits associated with deposit-type contracts will be measured at fair value with changes related to instrument-specific credit risk recorded in other comprehensive income (loss) and remaining changes recorded in net income (loss);

• the amortization method for DAC will generally be on a straight-line basis over the expected contract term; and

• disclosures will be greatly expanded to include significant assumptions and product liability rollforwards.

This guidance is effective for us on January 1, 2023 using the modified retrospective method (with transition adjustments as of January 1, 2021) for all topics except for market risk benefits, which is required to be applied using the retrospective method, with early adoption permitted, which we do not intend to elect. Our implementation efforts continue to progress and corporate governance has been established to support the implementation of this new standard. We remain focused on obtaining necessary data, modifying systems, identifying and developing key inputs and assumptions and establishing policies, systems and internal controls necessary to implement this new accounting guidance. Given the nature and extent of the changes, this guidance is expected to have a significant impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements and disclosures. The requirement to remeasure the liability for future policy benefits using an updated single-A rated bond rate is expected to result in a significant reduction to our equity at transition. However, with the recent rise in interest rates and the associated impact on single-A rated bond rates, we expect the initial reduction in our equity to partially reverse in periods subsequent to the transition date.