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Nature of Operations

Nationwide Life Insurance Company (“NLIC,” or collectively with its subsidiaries, “the Company”) was incorporated in 1929 and is an Ohio-domiciled stock life insurance company. The Company is a member of the Nationwide group of companies (“Nationwide”), which is comprised of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (“NMIC”) and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates.

All of the outstanding shares of NLIC’s common stock are owned by Nationwide Financial Services, Inc. (“NFS”), a holding company formed by Nationwide Corporation, a majority-owned subsidiary of NMIC.

The Company is a leading provider of long-term savings and retirement products in the United States of America (“U.S.”). The Company develops and sells a wide range of products and services, which include fixed and variable individual annuities, private and public sector group retirement plans, life insurance, investment advisory services and other investment products.

The Company sells its products through a diverse distribution network. Unaffiliated entities that sell the Company’s products to their own customer bases include independent broker-dealers, financial institutions, wirehouse and regional firms, pension plan administrators, life insurance agencies, specialists and registered investment advisors. Representatives of affiliates who market products directly to a customer base include Nationwide Retirement Solutions, Inc. and Nationwide Financial Network producers, which includes the agency distribution force of the Company’s ultimate parent company, NMIC. The Company has announced it will transition away from utilizing the exclusive agent model by 2020. The Company believes its broad range of competitive products, strong distributor relationships and diverse distribution network position it to compete effectively under various economic conditions.

Wholly-owned subsidiaries of NLIC as of December 31, 2018 include Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company (“NLAIC”) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Olentangy Reinsurance, LLC (“Olentangy”) and Nationwide SBL, LLC (“NWSBL”), Nationwide Investment Services Corporation (“NISC”), Nationwide Investment Advisor (“NIA”), Eagle Captive Reinsurance, LLC (“Eagle”) and Jefferson National Financial Corp (“JNF”) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Jefferson National Life Insurance Company (“JNL”), Jefferson National Life Insurance Company of New York (“JNLNY”), and Jefferson National Securities Corporation (“JNSC”). NLAIC primarily offers universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance, term life insurance, corporate-owned life insurance (“COLI”) and individual annuity contracts on a non-participating basis. Olentangy is a Vermont-domiciled special purpose financial captive insurance company. NWSBL is an Ohio limited liability company. NISC is a registered broker-dealer. NIA is a registered investment advisor. Eagle is an Ohio-domiciled special purpose financial captive insurance company. JNF is a distributor of tax-advantaged investing solutions for registered investment advisors, fee-based advisors and the clients they serve. JNL and JNLNY are licensed to underwrite both fixed and variable annuity products. JNSC is a registered broker-dealer.

The Company completed its acquisition of JNF and its wholly-owned subsidiaries on March 1, 2017. Refer to Note 2 for detailed information related to the acquisition of JNF.

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company did not have a significant concentration of financial instruments in a single investee, industry or geographic region. Also, the Company did not have a concentration of business transactions with a particular customer, lender, distribution source, market or geographic region in which a single event could cause a severe impact on the Company’s financial position, after considering insurance risk that has been transferred to external reinsurers.