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Reinsurance | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2019
Reinsurance [Abstract] |
Reinsurance | 9. Reinsurance The following summarizes reinsurance amounts (in millions) recorded on our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss), excluding amounts attributable to the indemnity reinsurance agreements with Protective and Swiss Re Life & Health America, Inc. (“Swiss Re”):
| For the Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 |  | 2018 |  | 2017 |
Direct insurance premiums and fee income | $ | 13,498 |  | $ | 12,041 |  | $ | 10,269 |
Reinsurance assumed |  | 91 |  |  | 89 |  |  | 91 |
Reinsurance ceded |  | (1,579 | ) |  | (1,543 | ) |  | (1,485 | )
Total insurance premiums and fee income | $ | 12,010 |  | $ | 10,587 |  | $ | 8,875 |
Direct insurance benefits | $ | 9,574 |  | $ | 8,592 |  | $ | 6,770 |
Reinsurance recoveries netted against benefits |  | (1,694 | ) |  | (1,806 | ) |  | (1,610 | )
Total benefits | $ | 7,880 |  | $ | 6,786 |  | $ | 5,160 |
Our insurance companies cede insurance to other companies. The portion of our life insurance and annuity risks exceeding each of our insurance companies’ retention limit is reinsured with other insurers. We seek reinsurance coverage to limit our exposure to mortality losses and to enhance our capital management. As of December 31, 2019, the policy for our reinsurance program was to retain up to $20 million on a single insured life. As the amount we retain varies by policy, we reinsured approximately 25% of the mortality risk on newly issued life insurance contracts in 2019. We focus on obtaining reinsurance from a diverse group of reinsurers, and we monitor concentration as well as financial strength ratings of our reinsurers. Our amounts recoverable from reinsurers represent receivables from and reserves ceded to reinsurers. The amounts recoverable from reinsurers were $17.1 billion and $17.7 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Protective represents our largest reinsurance exposure following the sale of the Liberty Life Business as discussed in Note 3, which resulted in amounts recoverable from Protective of $11.8 billion and $12.1 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Protective has funded trusts, of which the balance in the trusts changes as a result of ongoing reinsurance activity, to support the business ceded, which totaled $14.7 billion and $13.7 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Our reinsurance operations were acquired by Swiss Re in December 2001 through a series of indemnity reinsurance transactions. As such, Swiss Re reinsured certain liabilities and obligations under the indemnity reinsurance agreements. As we are not relieved of our liability to the ceding companies for this business, the liabilities and obligations associated with the reinsured policies remain on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding reinsurance receivable from Swiss Re, which totaled $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Swiss Re has funded a trust, with a balance of $2.7 billion as of December 31, 2019, to support this business. In addition to various remedies that we would have in the event of a default by Swiss Re, we continue to hold assets in support of certain of the transferred reserves. These assets consist of those reported as trading securities and certain mortgage loans. Our liabilities for funds withheld and embedded derivatives as of December 31, 2019, included $164 million and $31 million, respectively, related to the business sold to Swiss Re. Some portions of our annuity business have been reinsured on a Modco basis with other companies. In a Modco agreement, we as the ceding company retain the reserves, as well as the assets backing those reserves, and the reinsurer shares proportionally in all financial terms of the reinsured policies based on their respective percentage of the risk. Effective October 1, 2018, we entered into one such Modco agreement with Athene Holding Ltd. (“Athene”) to reinsure fixed and fixed indexed annuity products, which resulted in a deposit asset of $6.6 billion and $7.5 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively, within other assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We held investments of $6.9 billion as of December 31, 2019, in support of reserves associated with the transaction in a Modco investment portfolio. As of December 31, 2019, the portfolio included trading securities, fixed maturity AFS securities, commercial mortgage loans, derivative investments, other investments, cash, accrued investment income and equity securities that had carrying values of $3.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $698 million, $130 million, $94 million, $62 million, $57 million and $14 million, respectively. In addition, the portfolio was supported by $201 million of over-collateralization and a $200 million letter of credit as of December 31, 2019. As described in Note 1, we recorded a deferred gain on business sold through reinsurance related to the transaction with Athene and amortized $30 million and $8 million of the gain during 2019 and 2018, respectively. In repositioning the Modco investment portfolio, purchases of securities classified as trading during 2019 primarily resulted in negative cash flows from operating activities that were largely offset by sales of securities classified as fixed maturity AFS within investing activities in our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. See “Realized Gain (Loss)” in Note 5 for information on reinsurance related embedded derivatives.

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- Definition The entire disclosure pertaining to the existence, magnitude and information about insurance that has been ceded to or assumed from another insurance company, including the methodologies and assumptions used in determining recorded amounts. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 944 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2303980 + Details
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