21. Segment Information

We provide products and services and report results through our Annuities, Retirement Plan Services, Life Insurance and Group Protection segments. We also have Other Operations, which includes the financial data for operations that are not directly related to the business segments. Our reporting segments reflect the manner by which our chief operating decision makers view and manage the business. The following is a brief description of these segments and Other Operations.

The Annuities segment provides tax-deferred investment growth and lifetime income opportunities for its clients by offering fixed (including indexed) and variable annuities.

The Retirement Plan Services segment provides employer-sponsored defined benefit and individual retirement accounts, as well as individual and group variable annuities, group fixed annuities and mutual-fund based programs in the retirement plan marketplace.

The Life Insurance segment focuses in the creation and protection of wealth through life insurance products, including term insurance, a linked-benefit product (which is a UL policy linked with riders that provide for long-term care costs), IUL and both single and survivorship versions of UL and VUL, including corporate-owned UL and VUL insurance and bank-owned UL and VUL insurance products.

The Group Protection segment offers principally group non-medical insurance products, including term life, universal life, disability, dental, vision, accident and critical illness insurance to the employer market place through various forms of contributory and non-contributory plans. Its products are marketed primarily through a national distribution system of regional group offices. These offices develop business through employee benefit brokers, third-party administrators and other employee benefit firms.

Other Operations includes investments related to the excess capital in our insurance subsidiaries; investments in media properties (see Note 3 for more information) and other corporate investments; benefit plan net liability; the unamortized deferred gain on indemnity reinsurance related to the sale of reinsurance; the results of certain disability income business; our run-off institutional pension business, the majority of which was sold on a group annuity basis; debt costs; and strategic digitization expense.

Segment operating revenues and income (loss) from operations are internal measures used by our management and Board of Directors to evaluate and assess the results of our segments. Income (loss) from operations is GAAP net income excluding the after-tax effects of the following items, as applicable:

Realized gains and losses associated with the following (“excluded realized gain (loss)”):

Sales or disposals and impairments of securities;

Changes in the fair value of derivatives, embedded derivatives within certain reinsurance arrangements and trading securities;

Changes in the fair value of the derivatives we own to hedge our GDB riders within our variable annuities;

Changes in the fair value of the embedded derivatives of our GLB riders reflected within variable annuity net derivative results accounted for at fair value;

Changes in the fair value of the derivatives we own to hedge our GLB riders reflected within variable annuity net derivative results; and

Changes in the fair value of the embedded derivative liabilities related to index call options we may purchase in the future to hedge contract holder index allocations applicable to future reset periods for our indexed annuity products accounted for at fair value;

Changes in reserves resulting from benefit ratio unlocking on our GDB and GLB riders;

Income (loss) from reserve changes, net of related amortization, on business sold through reinsurance;

Gains (losses) on early extinguishment of debt;

Losses from the impairment of intangible assets;

Income (loss) from discontinued operations;

Acquisition and integration costs related to mergers and acquisitions; and

Income (loss) from the initial adoption of new accounting standards, regulations, and policy changes including the net impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Operating revenues represent GAAP revenues excluding the pre-tax effects of the following items, as applicable:

Excluded realized gain (loss);

Revenue adjustments from the initial adoption of new accounting standards;

Amortization of DFEL arising from changes in GDB and GLB benefit ratio unlocking; and

Amortization of deferred gains arising from reserve changes on business sold through reinsurance.

We use our prevailing corporate federal income tax rate of 35%, where applicable, while taking into account any permanent differences for events recognized differently in our financial statements and federal income tax returns when reconciling our non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure. Operating revenues and income (loss) from operations do not replace revenues and net income as the GAAP measures of our consolidated results of operations.

Segment information (in millions) was as follows:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Revenues
Operating revenues:
Annuities	$	4,378		$	4,033		$	4,120
Retirement Plan Services		1,165			1,103			1,101
Life Insurance		6,558			6,246			5,948
Group Protection		2,201			2,130			2,357
Other Operations		287			332			374
Excluded realized gain (loss), pre-tax		(336	)		(518	)		(329	)
Amortization of deferred gain arising from reserve changes on business
sold through reinsurance, pre-tax		1			3			3
Amortization of DFEL associated with benefit ratio unlocking, pre-tax		3			1			(2	)
Total revenues	$	14,257		$	13,330		$	13,572



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Net Income (Loss)
Income (loss) from operations:
Annuities	$	1,074		$	935		$	996
Retirement Plan Services		149			127			140
Life Insurance		536			515			370
Group Protection		103			65			43
Other Operations		(108	)		(102	)		(154	)
Excluded realized gain (loss), after-tax		(218	)		(337	)		(214	)
Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt, after-tax		(3	)		(41	)		-
Income (loss) from reserve changes (net of related amortization)
on business sold through reinsurance, after-tax		-			2			2
Benefit ratio unlocking, after-tax		129			28			(29	)
Net impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act		1,322			-			-
Impairment of intangibles, after-tax		(905	)		-			-
Net income (loss)	$	2,079		$	1,192		$	1,154



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
Net Investment Income
Annuities	$	1,038	$	1,033	$	1,004
Retirement Plan Services		899		859		846
Life Insurance		2,643		2,562		2,541
Group Protection		168		176		184
Other Operations		242		244		252
Total net investment income	$	4,990	$	4,874	$	4,827



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
Amortization of DAC and VOBA, Net of Interest
Annuities	$	401	$	383	$	342
Retirement Plan Services		27		28		30
Life Insurance		469		734		831
Group Protection		79		126		80
Total amortization of DAC and VOBA, net of interest	$	976	$	1,271	$	1,283



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Federal Income Tax Expense (Benefit)
Annuities	$	199		$	242		$	262
Retirement Plan Services		55			47			49
Life Insurance		244			238			159
Group Protection		55			35			23
Other Operations		(130	)		(109	)		(86	)
Excluded realized gain (loss)		(118	)		(181	)		(116	)
Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt		(2	)		(22	)		-
Reserve changes (net of related amortization)
on business sold through reinsurance		-			1			1
Benefit ratio unlocking		70			15			(16	)
Net impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act		(1,322	)		-			-
Total federal income tax expense (benefit)	$	(949	)	$	266		$	276



	As of December 31,
	2017		2016
Assets
Annuities	$	144,721	$	133,817
Retirement Plan Services		37,072		34,344
Life Insurance		81,381		76,083
Group Protection		4,033		4,007
Other Operations		14,556		13,376
Total assets	$	281,763	$	261,627