9. Reinsurance

The following summarizes reinsurance amounts (in millions) recorded on our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss), excluding amounts attributable to the indemnity reinsurance transaction with Swiss Re Life & Health America, Inc. (“Swiss Re”):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
Direct insurance premiums and fee income	$	12,041		$	10,269		$	9,551
Reinsurance assumed		89			91			93
Reinsurance ceded		(1,543	)		(1,485	)		(1,413	)
Total insurance premiums and fee income	$	10,587		$	8,875		$	8,231

Direct insurance benefits	$	8,592		$	6,770		$	6,195
Reinsurance recoveries netted against benefits		(1,806	)		(1,610	)		(1,503	)
Total benefits	$	6,786		$	5,160		$	4,692

Our insurance companies cede insurance to other companies. The portion of our life insurance and annuity risks exceeding each of our insurance companies’ retention limit is reinsured with other insurers. We seek reinsurance coverage to limit our exposure to mortality losses and to enhance our capital management.

As of December 31, 2018, the policy for our reinsurance program was to retain up to $20 million on a single insured life. As the amount we retain varies by policy, we reinsured approximately 25% of the mortality risk on newly issued life insurance contracts in 2018. Approximately 46% and 38% of our total individual life in-force amount was reinsured as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

We focus on obtaining reinsurance from a diverse group of reinsurers, and we monitor concentration as well as financial strength ratings of our reinsurers. Our amounts recoverable from reinsurers represent receivables from and reserves ceded to reinsurers. The amounts recoverable from reinsurers were $17.7 billion and $4.9 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

As disclosed in Note 3, Protective represents our largest reinsurance exposure following the sale of the Liberty Life Business that resulted in amounts recoverable from Protective of $12.1 billion as of December 31, 2018. Protective has funded trusts, of which the balance in the trusts changes as a result of ongoing reinsurance activity, to support the business ceded, which totaled $13.7 billion as of December 31, 2018.

Our reinsurance operations were acquired by Swiss Re in December 2001 through a series of indemnity reinsurance transactions. As such, Swiss Re reinsured certain liabilities and obligations under the indemnity reinsurance agreements. As we are not relieved of our liability to the ceding companies for this business, the liabilities and obligations associated with the reinsured policies remain on our Consolidated Balance Sheets with a corresponding reinsurance receivable from Swiss Re, which totaled $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Swiss Re has funded a trust, with a balance of $2.4 billion as of December 31, 2018, to support this business. In addition to various remedies that we would have in the event of a default by Swiss Re, we continue to hold assets in support of certain of the transferred reserves. These assets consist of those reported as trading securities and certain mortgage loans. Our liabilities for funds withheld and embedded derivatives as of December 31, 2018, included $177 million and $24 million, respectively, related to the business sold to Swiss Re.

Portions of our deferred annuity business have been reinsured on either a coinsurance or a Modco basis with other companies to limit our exposure to interest rate risks. As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the reserves associated with these reinsurance arrangements totaled $433 million and $530 million, respectively. In addition, effective October 1, 2018, we entered into a Modco agreement with Athene to reinsure fixed and fixed indexed annuity products, which resulted in a $7.5 billion deposit asset reflected within other assets on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2018. The Modco account includes fixed maturity AFS securities, trading securities, commercial mortgage loans, derivative investments and cash that had carrying values of $6.5 billion, $559 million, $72 million, $60 million and $265 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2018. As described in Note 1, we recorded a deferred gain on business sold through reinsurance related to the transaction with Athene and amortized $8 million of the gain during 2018.