General

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

General

General

1.  General

Basis of presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Allstate Life Insurance Company (“ALIC”) and its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively referred to as the “Company”).  ALIC is wholly owned by Allstate Insurance Company (“AIC”), which is wholly owned by Allstate Insurance Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Allstate Corporation (the “Corporation”).  These consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”).  All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes.  Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Nature of operations

The Company sells life insurance, retirement and investment products and voluntary accident and health insurance.  The principal individual products are interest-sensitive, traditional and variable life insurance, and fixed annuities including deferred and immediate.  The institutional product line, which the Company most recently offered in 2008, consists primarily of funding agreements sold to unaffiliated trusts that use them to back medium-term notes issued to institutional and individual investors.  The following table summarizes premiums and contract charges by product.

($ in millions)		2011		2010		2009
Premiums
Traditional life insurance	$	420	$	399	$	387
Immediate annuities with life contingencies		106		97		102
Accident and health insurance		98		96		92
Total premiums		624		592		581
Contract charges
Interest-sensitive life insurance		975		952		907
Fixed annuities		33		39		45
Total contract charges		1,008		991		952
Total premiums and contract charges	$	1,632	$	1,583	$	1,533

The Company, through several subsidiaries, is authorized to sell life insurance and retirement products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.  For 2011, the top geographic locations for statutory premiums and annuity considerations were California, Nebraska, Texas, Florida and New York.  No other jurisdiction accounted for more than 5% of statutory premiums and annuity considerations.  The Company distributes its products to individuals through multiple distribution channels, including Allstate exclusive agencies and exclusive financial specialists, independent agents (including master brokerage agencies), specialized structured settlement brokers and directly through call centers and the internet.

The Company has exposure to market risk as a result of its investment portfolio.  Market risk is the risk that the Company will incur realized and unrealized net capital losses due to adverse changes in interest rates, credit spreads, equity prices or currency exchange rates.  The Company’s primary market risk exposures are to changes in interest rates, credit spreads and equity prices.  Interest rate risk is the risk that the Company will incur a loss due to adverse changes in interest rates relative to the interest rate characteristics of its interest bearing assets and liabilities.  This risk arises from many of the Company’s primary activities, as it invests substantial funds in interest-sensitive assets and issues interest-sensitive liabilities.  Interest rate risk includes risks related to changes in U.S. Treasury yields and other key risk-free reference yields.  Credit spread risk is the risk that the Company will incur a loss due to adverse changes in credit spreads.  This risk arises from many of the Company’s primary activities, as the Company invests substantial funds in spread-sensitive fixed income assets.  Equity price risk is the risk that the Company will incur losses due to adverse changes in the general levels of the equity markets.

The Company monitors economic and regulatory developments that have the potential to impact its business.  Federal and state laws and regulations affect the taxation of insurance companies and life insurance and annuity products.  Congress and various state legislatures from time to time consider legislation that would reduce or eliminate the favorable policyholder tax treatment currently applicable to life insurance and annuities.  Congress and various state legislatures also consider proposals to reduce the taxation of certain products or investments that may compete with life insurance or annuities.  Legislation that increases the taxation on insurance products or reduces the taxation on competing products could lessen the advantage or create a disadvantage for certain of the Company’s products making them less competitive.  Such proposals, if adopted, could have an adverse effect on the Company’s financial position or ability to sell such products and could result in the surrender of some existing contracts and policies.  In addition, changes in the federal estate tax laws could negatively affect the demand for the types of life insurance used in estate planning.