Derivative Instruments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

The Company offers FIA products, which are deferred fixed annuities that guarantee the return of principal to the contractholder and credit interest based on a percentage of the gain in a specified market index, and IUL products, which also credit interest based on a percentage of the gain in a specified market index. When deposits are received for FIA and IUL contracts, a portion is used to purchase derivatives consisting of OTC call options on the applicable market indices to fund the index credits due to FIA and IUL policyholders. For the Company, substantially all of such call options are one-year options purchased to match the funding requirements of the underlying contracts. The call options are carried at fair value with changes in fair value included in Net realized investment gains and losses, a component of Revenues, in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

The change in fair value of the derivatives includes the gains or losses recognized at the expiration of the option term or early termination and the changes in fair value for open positions. Call options are not purchased to fund the index liabilities which may arise after the next deposit anniversary date. On the respective anniversary dates of the indexed deposits, the index used to compute the annual index credit is reset and new one-year call options are purchased to fund the next annual index credit. The cost of these purchases is managed through the terms of the FIA and IUL contracts, which permit changes to index return caps, participation rates and/or asset fees, subject to guaranteed minimums on each contract’s anniversary date. By adjusting the index return caps, participation rates or asset fees, crediting rates generally can be managed except in cases where the contractual features would prevent further modifications.

The future annual index credits on FIA contracts are treated as a “series of embedded derivatives” over the expected life of the applicable contract with a corresponding reserve recorded. For the IUL contracts, the embedded derivative represents a single year liability for the index return.

The Company carries all derivative instruments as assets or liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheets at fair value. The Company elected to not use hedge accounting for derivative transactions related to the FIA and IUL products. As a result, the Company records the purchased call options and the embedded derivatives related to the provision of a contingent return at fair value, with changes in the fair value of the derivatives recognized immediately as Net realized investment gains (losses) in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. The fair values of derivative instruments, including derivative instruments embedded in FIA and IUL contracts, presented in the Consolidated Balance Sheets were as follows:



($ in thousands)	September 30, 2017		December 31, 2016
Assets
Derivative instruments, included in Short-term and other investments	$	10,431	$	8,694

Liabilities
FIA - embedded derivatives, included in Other policyholder funds	$	72,986	$	59,393
IUL - embedded derivatives, included in Investment contract and life policy reserves	390		158

In general, the change in the fair value of the embedded derivatives related to FIA contracts will not correspond to the change in fair value of the purchased call options because the purchased call options are one-year options while the options valued in those embedded derivatives represent the rights of the policyholder to receive index credits over the entire period the FIA contracts are expected to be in force, which typically exceeds 10 years. The changes in fair value of derivatives included in the Consolidated Statements of Operations were as follows:



($ in thousands)	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
Change in fair value of derivatives (1):
Revenues
Net realized investment gains	$	2,943		$	562		$	7,109		$	422

Change in fair value of embedded derivatives:
Revenues
Net realized investment losses	$	(2,702	)	$	(76	)	$	(6,363	)	$	(2,077	)


(1)	Includes the gains or losses recognized at the expiration of the option term or early termination and the changes in fair value for open options.

The Company’s strategy attempts to mitigate potential risk of loss under these agreements through a regular monitoring process, which evaluates the program’s effectiveness. The Company is exposed to risk of loss in the event of nonperformance by the counterparties and, accordingly, option contracts are purchased from multiple counterparties, which are evaluated for creditworthiness prior to purchase of the contracts. All of these options have been purchased from nationally recognized financial institutions with a Standard and Poor’s Financial Services LLC ("S&P") long-term credit rating of “BBB+” or higher at the time of purchase and the maximum credit exposure to any single counterparty is subject to concentration limits. The Company also obtains credit support agreements that allow it to request the counterparty to provide collateral when the fair value of the exposure to the counterparty exceeds specified amounts.

The notional amount and fair value of call options by counterparty and each counterparty’s long-term credit ratings were as follows:



($ in thousands)	September 30, 2017					December 31, 2016
	Credit Rating	Notional		Fair		Notional		Fair
Counterparty	S&P	Amount		Value		Amount		Value

Bank of America, N.A.	A+	$	74,400	$	2,466	$	38,500	$	1,934
Barclays Bank PLC	A	68,900		3,017		66,800		1,543
Citigroup Inc.	BBB+	—		—		—		—
Credit Suisse International	A	29,100		2,041		65,200		4,281
Societe Generale	A	68,900		2,907		15,600		936

Total		$	241,300	$	10,431	$	186,100	$	8,694

As of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the Company held $10,954 thousand and $8,824 thousand, respectively, of cash received from counterparties for derivative collateral, which is included in Other liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. This derivative collateral limits the Company’s maximum amount of economic loss due to credit risk that would be incurred if parties to the call options failed completely to perform according to the terms of the contracts to $250 thousand per counterparty.