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:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2020			2019			2018
Direct insurance premiums and fee income	$	13,304		$	13,498		$	12,041
Reinsurance assumed		95			91			89
Reinsurance ceded		(1,656	)		(1,579	)		(1,543	)
Total insurance premiums and fee income	$	11,743		$	12,010		$	10,587

Direct insurance benefits	$	10,630		$	9,574		$	8,592
Reinsurance recoveries netted against benefits		(1,953	)		(1,694	)		(1,806	)
Total benefits	$	8,677		$	7,880		$	6,786

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. Reinsurance does not discharge us from our primary obligation to contract holders for losses incurred under the policies we issue. We evaluate each reinsurance agreement to determine whether the agreement provides indemnification against loss or liability.

As of December 31, 2020, 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 17% of the mortality risk on newly issued life insurance contracts in 2020.

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 $16.5 billion and $17.1 billion as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, 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 $11.3 billion and $11.8 billion as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, 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 $15.2 billion and $14.7 billion as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, 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 $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Swiss Re has funded a trust, with a balance of $1.2 billion as of December 31, 2020, 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, 2020, included $151 million and $35 million, respectively, related to the business sold to Swiss Re.

In 2020, we adopted ASU 2016-13, which resulted in a new recognition and measurement of credit losses on most financial assets. We established a credit loss allowance of $192 million as of January 1, 2020, for reinsurance-related assets for the risk of credit losses inherent in reinsurance transactions. During 2020, there have not been any changes to the credit loss allowance that would be material to our financial statements. See Note 2 for additional information. See Note 1 for a detailed discussion regarding our accounting policy relating to the allowance for credit losses on our reinsurance-related assets.

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 to reinsure fixed and fixed indexed annuity products, which resulted in a deposit asset of $5.8 billion and $6.6 billion as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, within other assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We held assets in support of reserves associated with the transaction in a Modco investment portfolio, which consisted of the following (in millions):


	As of			As of
	December 31,			December 31,
	2020			2019
Fixed maturity AFS securities		$	1,531		$	2,308
Trading securities			3,357			3,534
Equity securities			17			14
Mortgage loans on real estate			832			698
Derivative investments			103			130
Other investments			167			94
Cash and invested cash			92			62
Accrued investment income			42			57
Other assets			3			-
Total		$	6,144		$	6,897

In addition, the portfolio was supported by $185 million of over-collateralization and a $170 million letter of credit as of December 31, 2020. As described in Note 1, we recorded a deferred gain on business sold through reinsurance related to the transaction with Athene and amortized $29 million, $30 million and $8 million of the gain during 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.