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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2023
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
The Company adopted accounting standard, Financial Services – Insurance – Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts, on January 1, 2023. The significant accounting policies for market risk benefits (“MRB”); deferred acquisition costs (“DAC”); deferred sales inducement costs (“DSIC”); reinsurance; policyholder account balances, future policy benefits and claims; and unearned revenue liability were added or updated as a result of adopting the new accounting standard. See Note 3 for additional information related to the transition approach and adoption impact.
Amounts Based on Estimates and Assumptions
Accounting estimates are an integral part of the Consolidated Financial Statements. In part, they are based upon assumptions concerning future events. Among the more significant are those that relate to investment securities valuation and the recognition of credit losses or impairments, valuation of derivative instruments, litigation reserves, future policy benefits, market risk benefits, and income taxes and the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities. These accounting estimates reflect the best judgment of management and actual results could differ.
Market Risk Benefits
Market risk benefits are contracts or contract features that both provide protection to the contractholder from other-than-nominal capital market risk and expose the Company to other-than-nominal capital market risk. Market risk benefits include certain contract features on variable annuity products that provide minimum guarantees to contractholders. Guarantees accounted for as market risk benefits include guaranteed minimum death benefits (“GMDB”), guaranteed minimum income benefits (“GMIB”), guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits (“GMWB”) and guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits (“GMAB”). If a contract contains multiple market risk benefits, those market risk benefits are bundled together as a single compound market risk benefit.
Market risk benefits are measured at fair value, at the individual contract level, using a non-option-based valuation approach or an option-based valuation approach dependent upon the fee structure of the contract. Changes in fair value are recognized in net income each period with the exception of the portion of the change in fair value due to a change in the instrument-specific credit risk, which is recognized in other comprehensive income (“OCI”).
Deferred Acquisition Costs
The Company incurs costs in connection with acquiring new and renewal insurance and annuity businesses. The portion of these costs which are incremental and direct to the acquisition of a new or renewal insurance policy or annuity contract are deferred. Significant costs capitalized include sales based compensation related to the acquisition of new and renewal insurance policies and annuity contracts, medical inspection costs for successful sales, and a portion of employee compensation and benefit costs based upon the
amount of time spent on successful sales. Sales based compensation paid to advisors and employees and third-party distributors is capitalized. Employee compensation and benefits costs which are capitalized relate primarily to sales efforts, underwriting and processing. All other costs which are not incremental direct costs of acquiring an insurance policy or annuity contract are expensed as incurred. The DAC associated with insurance policies or annuity contracts that are significantly modified or internally replaced with another contract are accounted for as write-offs. These transactions are anticipated in establishing amortization periods and other valuation assumptions.
The Company monitors other DAC amortization assumptions, such as persistency, mortality, morbidity, and variable annuity benefit utilization each quarter and, when assessed independently, each could impact the Company’s DAC balances. Unamortized DAC is reduced for actual experience in excess of expected experience.
The analysis of DAC balances and the corresponding amortization considers all relevant factors and assumptions described previously. Unless the Company’s management identifies a significant deviation over the course of the quarterly monitoring, management reviews and updates these DAC amortization assumptions annually in the third quarter of each year.
DAC is amortized on a constant-level basis for the grouped contracts over the expected contract term to approximate straight-line amortization. Contracts are grouped by contract type and issue year into cohorts consistent with the grouping used in estimating the associated liability for future policy benefits. DAC related to all long-duration product types (except for life contingent payout annuities) is grouped on a calendar-year annual basis for each legal entity. Further disaggregation is reported for any contracts that include an additional liability for death or other insurance benefit. DAC related to life contingent payout annuities is grouped on a calendar-year annual basis for each legal entity for policies issued prior to 2021 and on a quarterly basis for each legal entity thereafter.
DAC related to annuity products (including variable deferred annuities, structured variable annuities, fixed deferred annuities, and life contingent payout annuities) is amortized based on initial premium. DAC related to life insurance products (including universal life (“UL”) insurance, variable universal life (“VUL”) insurance, indexed universal life (“IUL”) insurance, term life insurance, and whole life insurance) is amortized based on original specified amount (i.e., face amount). DAC related to disability income (“DI”) insurance is amortized based on original monthly benefit.
The accounting contract term for annuity products (except for life contingent payout annuities) is over the projected accumulation period. Life contingent payout annuities are amortized over the period which annuity payments are expected to be paid. The accounting contract term for life insurance products is over the projected life of the contract. DI insurance is amortized over the projected life of the contract, including the claim paying period.
Deferred Sales Inducement Costs
Deferred sales inducements are contract features that are intended to attract new customers or to persuade existing customers to keep their current policy. Sales inducement costs consist of bonus interest credits and premium credits added to certain annuity contract and insurance policy values. These benefits are capitalized to the extent they are incremental to amounts that would be credited on similar contracts without the applicable feature. The amounts capitalized are amortized using the same methodology and assumptions used to amortize DAC. DSIC is recorded in Other assets and amortization of DSIC is recorded in Benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses.
Reinsurance
The Company cedes insurance risk to other insurers under reinsurance agreements.
Reinsurance premiums paid and benefits received are accounted for consistently with the basis used in accounting for the policies from which risk is reinsured and consistently with the terms of the reinsurance contracts. Reinsurance premiums paid for traditional life, long term care (“LTC”), DI and life contingent payout annuities, net of the change in any prepaid reinsurance asset, are reported as a reduction of Premiums, policy and contract charges. Reinsurance recoveries are reported as components of Benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses.
UL and VUL reinsurance premiums are reported as a reduction of Premiums, policy and contract charges. In addition, for UL and VUL insurance policies, the net cost of reinsurance ceded, which represents the discounted amount of the expected cash flows between the reinsurer and the Company, is classified as an asset and amortized based on estimated gross profits over the period the reinsured policies are in force. Changes in the net cost of reinsurance are reflected as a component of Premiums, policy and contract charges.
Insurance liabilities are reported before the effects of reinsurance. Policyholder account balances, future policy benefits and claims recoverable under reinsurance contracts are recorded within Receivables, net of the allowance for credit losses. The Company evaluates the financial condition of its reinsurers prior to entering into new reinsurance contracts and on a periodic basis during the contract term. The allowance for credit losses related to reinsurance recoverable is based on applying observable industry data including insurer ratings, default and loss severity data to the Company’s reinsurance recoverable balances. Management evaluates the results of the calculation and considers differences between the industry data and the Company’s data. Such differences include that
the Company has no actual history of losses and that industry data may contain non-life insurers. This evaluation is inherently subjective as it requires estimates, which may be susceptible to significant change given the long-term nature of these receivables. In addition, the Company has a reinsurance protection agreement that provides credit protections for its reinsured long term care business. The allowance for credit losses on reinsurance recoverable is recorded through provisions charged to Benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses.
The Company also assumes life insurance and fixed annuity risk from other insurers in limited circumstances. Reinsurance premiums received and benefits paid are accounted for consistently with the basis used in accounting for the policies from which risk is reinsured and consistently with the terms of the reinsurance contracts. Liabilities for assumed business are recorded within Policyholder account balances, future policy benefits and claims.
Policyholder Account Balances, Future Policy Benefits and Claims
The Company establishes reserves to cover the benefits associated with non-traditional and traditional long-duration products and short-duration products. Non-traditional long-duration products include variable and structured variable annuity contracts, fixed annuity contracts and UL and VUL policies. Traditional long-duration products include term life, whole life, DI and LTC insurance products.
Non-Traditional Long-Duration Products
The liabilities for non-traditional long-duration products include fixed account values on variable and fixed annuities and UL and VUL policies, non-life contingent payout annuities, liabilities for guaranteed benefits associated with variable annuities (including structured variable annuities) and embedded derivatives for structured variable annuities, indexed annuities, and IUL products.
Liabilities for fixed account values on variable annuities, structured variable annuities, fixed deferred annuities, and UL and VUL policies are equal to accumulation values, which are the cumulative gross deposits and credited interest less withdrawals and various charges. The liability for non-life contingent payout annuities is recognized as the present value of future payments using the effective yield at inception of the contract.
A portion of the Company’s UL and VUL policies have product features that result in profits followed by losses from the insurance component of the contract. These profits followed by losses can be generated by the cost structure of the product or secondary guarantees in the contract. The secondary guarantee ensures that, subject to specified conditions, the policy will not terminate and will continue to provide a death benefit even if there is insufficient policy value to cover the monthly deductions and charges. The liability for these future losses is determined at the reporting date by estimating the death benefits in excess of account value and recognizing the excess over the estimated life based on expected assessments (e.g. cost of insurance charges, contractual administrative charges, similar fees and investment margin). See Note 9 for information regarding the liability for contracts with secondary guarantees.
Liabilities for fixed deferred indexed annuity, structured variable annuity and IUL products are equal to the accumulation of host contract values, guaranteed benefits, and the fair value of embedded derivatives.
See Note 11 for information regarding variable annuity guarantees.
Embedded Derivatives
The fair value of embedded derivatives related to structured variable annuities, indexed annuities and IUL fluctuate based on equity markets and interest rates and the estimate of the Company’s nonperformance risk and is recorded in Policyholder account balances, future policy benefits and claims. See Note 13 for information regarding the fair value measurement of embedded derivatives.
Traditional Long-Duration Products
The liabilities for traditional long-duration products include cash flows related to unpaid amounts on reported claims, estimates of benefits payable on claims incurred but not yet reported and estimates of benefits that will become payable on term life, whole life, DI, LTC, and life contingent payout annuity policies as claims are incurred in the future. The claim liability (also referred to as disabled life reserves) is presented together as one liability for future policy benefits.
A liability for future policy benefits, which is the present value of estimated future policy benefits to be paid to or on behalf of policyholders and certain related expenses less the present value of estimated future net premiums to be collected from policyholders, is accrued as premium revenue is recognized. Expected insurance benefits are accrued over the life of the contract in proportion to premium revenue recognized (referred to as the net premium approach). The net premium ratio reflects cash flows from contract inception to contract termination (i.e., through the claim paying period) and cannot exceed 100%.
Assumptions utilized in the net premium approach, including mortality, morbidity, and terminations, are reviewed as part of experience studies at least annually or more frequently if suggested by evidence. Expense assumptions and actual expenses are updated within the net premium calculation consistent with other policyholder assumptions.
The updated cash flows used in the calculation are discounted using a forward rate curve. The discount rate represents an upper-medium-grade (i.e., low credit risk) fixed-income instrument yield (i.e., an A rating) that reflects the duration characteristics of the
liability. Discount rates will be locked in annually, at the end of each year for all products, except life contingent payout annuities, and calculated as the monthly average discount rate curves for the year. For life contingent payout annuities, the discount rates will be locked in quarterly at the end of each quarter based on the average of the three months for the quarter. 
The liability for future policy benefits will be updated for actual experience at least on an annual basis and concurrent with changes to cash flow assumptions. When net premiums are updated for cash flow changes, the estimated cash flows over the entire life of a group of contracts are updated using historical experience and updated future cash flow assumptions.
The revised net premiums are used to calculate an updated liability for future policy benefits as of the beginning of the reporting period, discounted at the original locked in rate (i.e., contract issuance rate). The updated liability for future policy benefits as of the beginning of the reporting period is then compared with the carrying amount of the liability as of that date prior to updating cash flow assumptions to determine the current period remeasurement gain or loss reflected in current period earnings. The revised net premiums are then applied as of the beginning of the quarter to calculate the benefit expense for the current reporting period.
The difference between the updated carrying amount of the liability for future policy benefits measured using the current discount rate assumption and the original discount rate assumption is recognized in OCI. The interest accretion rate remains the original discount rate used at contract issue date.
If the updating of cash flow assumptions results in the present value of future benefits and expenses exceeding the present value of future gross premiums, a charge to net income is recorded for the current reporting period such that net premiums are set equal to gross premiums. In subsequent periods, the liability for future policy benefits is accrued with net premiums set equal to gross premiums.
Contracts (except for life contingent payout annuities sold subsequent to December 31, 2020) are grouped into cohorts by contract type and issue year, as well as by legal entity and reportable segment. Life contingent payout annuities sold in periods beginning in 2021 are grouped into quarterly cohorts.
See Note 9 for information regarding the liabilities for traditional long-duration products.
Deferred Profit Liability
For limited-payment products, gross premiums received in excess of net premiums are deferred at initial recognition as a deferred profit liability (“DPL”). Gross premiums are measured using assumptions consistent with those used in the measurement of the liability for future policy benefits, including discount rate, mortality, lapses and expenses.
The DPL is amortized and recognized as premium revenue in proportion to expected future benefit payments from annuity contracts. Interest is accreted on the balance of the DPL using the discount rate determined at contract issuance. The Company reviews and updates its estimate of cash flows from the DPL at the same time as the estimates of cash flows for the liability for future policy benefits. When cash flows are updated, the updated estimates are used to recalculate the DPL at contract issuance. The recalculated DPL as of the beginning of the current reporting period is compared to the carrying amount of the DPL as of the beginning of the current reporting period, and any difference is recognized as either a charge or credit to premium revenue.
DPL is recorded in Policyholder account balances, future policy benefits and claims and included as a reconciling item within the disaggregated rollforwards.
Unearned Revenue Liability
The Company’s UL and VUL policies require payment of fees or other policyholder assessments in advance for services to be provided in future periods. These charges are deferred as unearned revenue and amortized consistent with DAC amortization factors. The unearned revenue liability is recorded in Other liabilities and the amortization is recorded in Premiums, policy and contract charges.
For clients who pay financial planning fees prior to the advisor’s delivery of the financial plan, the financial planning fees received in advance are deferred until the plan is delivered to the client.