Statutory Financial Information

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Statutory Financial Information [Abstract]

Statutory Net Income, Capital and Surplus, and Dividends

Statutory net income for U.S. life insurance companies is reported in conformity with statutory accounting principles prescribed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and adopted by applicable domiciliary state laws. The commissioners of the states of domicile have the right to permit other specific practices that may deviate from prescribed practices. In connection with a financial examination of Unum America, which closed at the end of the second quarter of 2020, the Maine Bureau of Insurance (MBOI) concluded that Unum America’s long-term care statutory reserves are deficient by $2.1 billion as of December 31, 2018, the financial statement date of the examination period. The MBOI granted permission to Unum America on May 1, 2020, to phase in the additional statutory reserves over seven years beginning with year-end 2020 and ending with year-end 2026. This strengthening will be incorporated using explicitly agreed upon margins into our existing assumptions for annual statutory reserve adequacy testing. These actions will add margin to Unum America's best estimate assumptions. Our long-term care reserves and financial results reported under generally accepted accounting principles are not affected by the MBOI’s examination conclusion. We plan to fund the additional statutory reserves with expected cash flows. If the permitted practice was not granted by the MBOI to phase in these additional statutory reserves, the impact to the risk-based capital ratio would have triggered a regulatory event. The 2020 phase-in amount was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020 and was approximately $229 million. Our other traditional U.S. life insurance subsidiaries have no prescribed or permitted statutory accounting practices that differ materially from statutory accounting principles prescribed by the NAIC.

Unum America cedes certain blocks of business to Fairwind Insurance Company (Fairwind), which is an affiliated captive reinsurance subsidiary (captive reinsurer) domiciled in the United States, with Unum Group as the ultimate parent. This captive reinsurer was established for the limited purpose of reinsuring risks attributable to specified policies issued or reinsured by Unum America.

Fairwind, which is domiciled in the state of Vermont, is required to follow GAAP in accordance with Vermont reporting requirements for pure captive insurance companies, unless the commissioner permits the use of some other basis of accounting. Fairwind has permission from Vermont to follow accounting practices that are generally consistent with current NAIC statutory accounting principles for its insurance reserves and invested assets supporting reserves. All other assets and liabilities are accounted for in accordance with GAAP, as prescribed by Vermont, which includes the full recognition of deferred tax assets which are more likely than not to be realized. Statutory accounting principles have a stricter limitation for the recognition of deferred tax assets. The impact of following the prescribed and permitted practices of Vermont rather than statutory accounting principles prescribed by the NAIC resulted in higher capital and surplus for Fairwind of approximately $287 million and $194 million as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 respectively. Included in the 2020 results for Fairwind was the $229 million increase to long-term care statutory reserves assumed from Unum America. Included in the 2018 results for Fairwind was the assumed portion of the statutory impact of the 2018 long-term care reserve increase.

In December 2020, prior to entering into the reinsurance transaction with Commonwealth, Provident, Paul Revere Life, and Unum America recaptured their respective reinsurance agreements with Northwind Reinsurance Company, a wholly-owned domestic special purpose reinsurance subsidiary (Northwind Re). Northwind Re was established for the limited purpose of reinsuring risks attributable to specified policies issued or reinsured by the aforementioned companies, and has no material state prescribed accounting practices that differ from statutory accounting principles prescribed by the NAIC. See Note 12 for further discussion regarding the reinsurance transaction with Commonwealth.

The operating results and capital and surplus of our traditional U.S. life insurance subsidiaries and our captive reinsurers, prepared in accordance with prescribed or permitted accounting practices of the NAIC or states of domicile, are presented separately below.


	Year Ended December 31
	2020		2019		2018
	(in millions of dollars)
Combined Net Income (Loss)
Traditional U.S. Life Insurance Subsidiaries	$	646.8	$	982.1	$	953.0
Captive Reinsurers	$	(201.0)	$	(122.5)	$	(109.6)

Combined Net Gain (Loss) from Operations
Traditional U.S. Life Insurance Subsidiaries	$	726.2	$	1,027.2	$	959.8
Captive Reinsurers	$	(149.4)	$	(108.4)	$	(110.9)


	December 31
	2020		2019
	(in millions of dollars)
Combined Capital and Surplus
Traditional U.S. Life Insurance Subsidiaries	$	3,875.0	$	3,644.4
Captive Reinsurers	$	2,088.0	$	1,908.3

Solvency II, a European Union directive prescribes capital requirements and risk management standards for the European insurance industry. As derived from the most recent annual financial statements for December 31, 2019, based on Solvency II requirements, regulatory net income and own funds available of our United Kingdom insurance subsidiary, Unum Limited, were £91.0 million and £656.1 million, respectively.

Risk-based capital (RBC) standards for U.S. life insurance companies are prescribed by the NAIC. The domiciliary states of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries have all adopted a version of the RBC model formula of the NAIC, which prescribes a system for assessing the adequacy of statutory capital and surplus for all life and health insurers. The basis of the system is a risk-based formula that applies prescribed factors to the various risk elements in a life and health insurer's business to report a minimum capital requirement proportional to the amount of risk assumed by the insurer. The life and health RBC formula is designed to measure annually (i) the risk of loss from asset defaults and asset value fluctuations, (ii) the risk of loss from adverse mortality and morbidity experience, (iii) the risk of loss from mismatching of asset and liability cash flow due to changing interest rates, and (iv) business risks. The formula is used as an early warning tool to identify companies that are potentially inadequately capitalized. State insurance laws grant insurance regulators the authority to require various actions by, or take various actions against, insurers whose total adjusted capital does not meet or exceed certain RBC levels. The total adjusted capital of each of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries at December 31, 2020 is in excess of those RBC levels.

Restrictions under applicable state insurance laws limit the amount of dividends that can be paid to a parent company from its insurance subsidiaries in any 12-month period without prior approval by regulatory authorities. For life insurance companies domiciled in the U.S., that limitation generally equals, depending on the state of domicile, either ten percent of an insurer's statutory surplus with respect to policyholders as of the preceding year end or the statutory net gain from operations, excluding realized investment gains and losses, of the preceding year. The payment of dividends to a parent company from a life insurance subsidiary is generally further limited to the amount of unassigned funds.

Based on the restrictions under current law, approximately $974 million is available, without prior approval by regulatory authorities, during 2021 for the payment of dividends to Unum Group from its traditional U.S. life insurance subsidiaries. The ability of our captive insurers to pay dividends to their respective parent companies will depend on their satisfaction of applicable regulatory requirements and on the performance of the business reinsured.

We also have the ability to receive dividends from our foreign subsidiaries, primarily in the U.K., for which the payment may be subject to applicable insurance company regulations and capital guidance. Approximately £170.0 million is considered distributable from Unum Limited during 2021, subject to local solvency standards and regulatory approval.

Deposits

At December 31, 2020 and 2019, our U.S. insurance subsidiaries had on deposit with U.S. regulatory authorities securities with a book value of $135.5 million and $135.2 million, respectively, held for the protection of policyholders.