INSURANCE STATUTORY FINANCIAL INFORMATION

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Insurance [Abstract]

INSURANCE STATUTORY FINANCIAL INFORMATION

INSURANCE STATUTORY FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Prescribed and Permitted Accounting Practices

As of March 31, 2024, the following five prescribed and permitted practices resulted in net income (loss) and capital and surplus that is different from the statutory surplus that would have been reported had NAIC statutory accounting practices been applied.

Equitable Financial was granted a permitted practice by the NYDFS to apply SSAP 108, Derivatives Hedging Variable Annuity Guarantees on a retroactive basis from January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021, after reflecting the impacts of our reinsurance transaction with Venerable. The permitted practice was amended to also permit Equitable Financial to adopt SSAP 108 prospectively as of July 1, 2021 and to consider the impact of both the interest rate derivatives and the

General Account assets used to fully hedge the interest rate risk inherent in its variable annuity guarantees when determining the amount of the deferred asset or liability under SSAP 108. Application of the permitted practice partially mitigates the New York Insurance Regulation 213 (“Reg 213”) impact of the Venerable Transaction on Equitable Financial’s statutory capital and surplus and enables Equitable Financial to more effectively neutralize the impact of interest rates on its statutory surplus and to better align with our economic hedging program. The impact of applying this permitted practice relative to SSAP 108 as written was a decrease of approximately $32 million in statutory special surplus funds as of March 31, 2024. The Reinsurance Treaty reduced the amount of interest rate hedging needed at Equitable Financial going forward, affecting future deferrals, but leaves our historical SSAP 108 deferred amounts unchanged. The permitted practice also reset Equitable Financial’s unassigned surplus to zero as of June 30, 2021 to reflect the transformative nature of the Venerable Transaction.

The NAIC Accounting Practices and Procedures manual (“NAIC SAP”) has been adopted as a component of prescribed or permitted practices by the State of New York. However, Reg 213 adopted in May of 2019 and as amended in February 2020 and March 2021, differs from the NAIC variable annuity reserve and capital framework. Reg 213 requires Equitable Financial to carry statutory basis reserves for its variable annuity contract obligations equal to the greater of those required under (i) the NAIC standard or (ii) a revised version of the NYDFS requirement in effect prior to the adoption of the first amendment for contracts issued prior to January 1, 2020, and for policies issued after that date a new standard that in current market conditions imposes more conservative reserving requirements for variable annuity contracts than the NAIC standard.

The impact of the application of Reg 213 was a decrease of approximately $182 million in statutory surplus as of March 31, 2024 compared to statutory surplus under the NAIC variable annuity framework. Our hedging program is designed to hedge the economics of our insurance liabilities and largely offsets Reg 213 and NAIC framework reserve movements due to interest rates and equities. The NYDFS allows domestic insurance companies a five year phase-in provision for Reg 213 reserves. As of September 30, 2022, Equitable Financial’s Reg 213 reserves were 100% phased-in. As of March 31, 2024, given the prevailing market conditions and business mix, there are $173 million Reg 213 redundant reserves over the US RBC CTE 98 total asset requirement (“TAR”).

During the fourth quarter 2020, Equitable Financial received approval from NYDFS for its proposed amended Plan of Operation for Separate Account No. 68 (“SA 68”) for our Structured Capital Strategies product and Separate Account No. 69 (“SA 69”) for our EQUI-VEST product Structured Investment Option, to change the accounting basis of these two non-insulated Separate Accounts from fair value to book value in accordance with Section 1414 of the Insurance Law to align with how we manage and measure our overall General Account asset portfolio. In order to facilitate this change and comply with Section 4240(a)(10), the Company also sought approval to amend the Plans to remove the requirement to comply with Section 4240(a)(5)(iii) and substitute it with a commitment to comply with Section 4240(a)(5)(i). Similarly, the Company updated the reserves section of each Plan to reflect the fact that Regulation 128 would no longer be applicable upon the change in accounting basis. We applied this change effective January 1, 2021. The impact of the application is an increase of approximately $1.8 billion in statutory surplus as of March 31, 2024.

During 2022, Equitable America received approval from the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions pursuant to A.R.S. 20-515 for Separate Account No. 68A (“SA 68A”) for our Structured Capital Strategies product, Separate Account No. 69A (“SA 69A”) for our EQUI-VEST product Structured Investment Option and Separate Account No. 71A (“SA 71A”) for our Investment Edge Structured Investment Option, to permit us to use book value as the accounting basis of these three non-insulated Separate Accounts instead of fair value in accordance with the NAIC Accounting and Practices and Procedures Manual to align with how we manage and measure our overall General Account asset portfolio. The impact of the application is a decrease of approximately $72 million in statutory surplus as of March 31, 2024.

The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions granted to Equitable America a permitted practice to deviate from SSAP No. 108 by applying special accounting treatment for specific derivatives hedging variable annuity benefits subject to fluctuations as a result of interest rate sensitivities. The permitted practice expands on SSAP No. 108 hedge accounting to include equity risks for the full scope of Variable Annuity (VA) contracts (i.e., not just the rider guarantees but for the VA total contract). The permitted practice allows Equitable America to adopt SSAP 108 retroactively from October 1, 2023 and applies to both directly held VA hedges as well as VA hedges in the Equitable America funds withheld asset that resulted from the Reinsurance Treaty. In the calculation of the amount of excess VA equity and interest rate derivative hedging gains gains/losses to defer (including Net investment income on our Equity Total Return Swaps), the permitted practice allows us to compare our total equity and interest derivatives gains and losses to 100% of our target liability change. Any hedge gain or loss deferrals will follow SSAP No. 108 amortization rules (i.e. 10-year straight line).

The impact of applying this revised permitted practice relative to SSAP 108 was an increase of approximately $942 million in statutory special surplus funds as of March 31, 2024.