10.

Insurance-related accounts

Sony’s Financial Services segment subsidiaries in Japan maintain their accounting records as described in Note 2 in accordance with the accounting principles and practices generally accepted in Japan, which vary in some respects from U.S. GAAP.

Those differences are mainly that insurance acquisition costs for life and non-life insurance are charged to income when incurred in Japan whereas in the U.S. those costs are deferred and amortized generally over the premium-paying period of the related insurance policies, and that future policy benefits for life insurance calculated locally under the authorization of the supervisory administrative agencies are comprehensively adjusted to a net level premium method with certain adjustments of actuarial assumptions for U.S. GAAP purposes. For purposes of preparing the consolidated financial statements, appropriate adjustments have been made to reflect the accounting for these items in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The combined amounts of statutory net equity of the insurance subsidiaries, which is not measured in accordance with U.S. GAAP, as of March 31, 2011 and 2012 were 232,160 million yen and 282,846 million yen, respectively.

(1)

Insurance policies:

Life insurance policies that a subsidiary in the Financial Services segment underwrites, most of which are categorized as long-duration contracts, mainly consist of whole life, term life and accident and health insurance contracts. The life insurance revenues for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 were 554,650 million yen, 600,291 million yen and 654,986 million yen, respectively. Property and casualty insurance policies that a subsidiary in the Financial Services segment underwrites are primarily automotive insurance contracts, which are categorized as short-duration contracts. The non-life insurance revenues for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 were 64,987 million yen, 71,037 million yen and 76,958 million yen, respectively.

(2)

Deferred insurance acquisition costs:

Costs that vary with and are primarily related to acquiring new insurance policies are deferred as long as they are recoverable. The deferred insurance acquisition costs include such items as commissions, medical examination costs and inspection report fees, and are subject to recoverability testing at least annually to ensure that the capitalized amounts do not exceed the present value of anticipated gross profits or premiums less benefits and maintenance expenses, as applicable. The deferred insurance acquisition costs for traditional life insurance contracts are amortized over the premium-paying period of the related insurance policies using assumptions consistent with those used in computing policy reserves. The deferred insurance acquisition costs for non-traditional life insurance contracts are amortized over the expected life in proportion to the estimated gross profits. Amortization charged to income for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 amounted to 53,767 million yen, 59,249 million yen and 55,427 million yen, respectively.

(3)

Future insurance policy benefits:

Liabilities for future policy benefits, which mainly related to individual life insurance policies, are established in amounts adequate to meet the estimated future obligations of policies in force. These liabilities, which require significant management judgment and estimates, are computed by the net level premium method based upon the assumptions as to future investment yield, morbidity, mortality, withdrawals and other factors. Future policy benefits are computed using interest rates ranging from 1.4% to 4.5% and are based on factors such as market conditions and expected investment returns. Morbidity, mortality and withdrawal assumptions for all policies are based on either the subsidiary’s own experience or various actuarial tables. Generally these assumptions are locked-in throughout the life of the contract upon the issuance of new insurance, although significant changes in experience or assumptions may require Sony to provide for expected future losses. At March 31, 2011 and 2012, future insurance policy benefits amounted to 2,918,960 million yen and 3,202,066 million yen, respectively.

(4)

Policyholders’ account in the life insurance business:

Policyholders’ account in the life insurance business represents an accumulation of account deposits plus credited interest less withdrawals, expenses and mortality charges. Policyholders’ account includes universal life insurance and investment contracts. Universal life insurance includes interest sensitive whole life contracts and variable contracts. The credited rate associated with interest sensitive whole life contracts is 2.0%. For variable contracts, policy values are expressed in terms of investment units. Each unit is linked to an asset portfolio. The value of a unit increases or decreases based on the value of the linked assets portfolio. Investment contracts mainly include single payment juvenile contracts and policies after the start of annuity payments. The credited rates associated with investment contracts ranges from 0.1% to 6.3%.

Policyholders’ account in the life insurance business is comprised of the following:


	Yen in millions
	March 31
	2011		2012
Universal life insurance		896,539		1,010,277
Investment contracts		322,580		340,600
Other		82,133		98,767

Total		1,301,252		1,449,644