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Statutory Financial Information and Dividend Limitations
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Statutory Financial Information and Dividend Limitations  
Statutory Financial Information and Dividend Limitations
Statutory Financial Information and Dividend Limitations
ALIC and its insurance subsidiaries prepare their statutory-basis financial statements in conformity with accounting practices prescribed or permitted by the insurance department of the applicable state of domicile. Prescribed statutory accounting practices include a variety of publications of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”), as well as state laws, regulations and general administrative rules. Permitted statutory accounting practices encompass all accounting practices not so prescribed.
All states require domiciled insurance companies to prepare statutory-basis financial statements in conformity with the NAIC Accounting Practices and Procedures Manual, subject to any deviations prescribed or permitted by the applicable insurance commissioner and/or director. Statutory accounting practices differ from GAAP primarily since they require charging policy acquisition and certain sales inducement costs to expense as incurred, establishing life insurance reserves based on different actuarial assumptions, and valuing certain investments and establishing deferred taxes on a different basis.
Statutory net income (loss) of ALIC and its insurance subsidiaries was $279 million, $192 million and $(67) million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Statutory capital and surplus was $3.41 billion and $3.05 billion as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
Dividend Limitations
The ability of ALIC to pay dividends is dependent on business conditions, income, cash requirements and other relevant factors. The payment of shareholder dividends by ALIC to AIC without the prior approval of the Illinois Department of Insurance (“IL DOI”) is limited to formula amounts based on net income and capital and surplus, determined in conformity with statutory accounting practices, as well as the timing and amount of dividends paid in the preceding twelve months. The Company paid dividends of $600 million in 2017. The maximum amount of dividends ALIC will be able to pay without prior IL DOI approval at a given point in time during 2018 is $847 million, less dividends paid during the preceding twelve months measured at that point in time.  The payment of a dividend in excess of this amount requires 30 days advance written notice to the IL DOI. The dividend is deemed approved, unless the IL DOI disapproves it within the 30 day notice period. Additionally, any dividend must be paid out of unassigned surplus excluding unrealized appreciation from investments, which for ALIC totaled $308 million as of December 31, 2017, and cannot result in capital and surplus being less than the minimum amount required by law.
Under state insurance laws, insurance companies are required to maintain paid up capital of not less than the minimum capital requirement applicable to the types of insurance they are authorized to write. Insurance companies are also subject to risk-based capital (“RBC”) requirements adopted by state insurance regulators. A company’s “authorized control level RBC” is calculated using various factors applied to certain financial balances and activity. Companies that do not maintain adjusted statutory capital and surplus at a level in excess of the company action level RBC, which is two times authorized control level RBC, are required to take specified actions. Company action level RBC is significantly in excess of the minimum capital requirements. Total adjusted statutory capital and surplus and authorized control level RBC of ALIC were $3.78 billion and $568 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2017. ALIC’s insurance subsidiaries are included as a component of ALIC’s total statutory capital and surplus.
Intercompany transactions
Notification and approval of intercompany lending activities is also required by the IL DOI when ALIC does not have unassigned surplus and for transactions that exceed a level that is based on a formula using statutory admitted assets and statutory surplus.