21. Segment Information

We provide products and services and report results through our Annuities, Retirement Plan Services, Life Insurance and Group Protection segments. As discussed in Note 3, we completed the acquisition of Liberty Life during the second quarter of 2018. Related results are included within the Group Protection segment. 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 group non-medical insurance products, including short and long-disability, absence management services, term life, dental, vision and accident and critical illness benefits and services to the employer marketplace through various forms of employee-paid and employer-paid plans.

Other Operations includes investments related to the excess capital in our insurance subsidiaries; 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; strategic digitization expense; and other corporate investments.

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;

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; and

Changes in the fair value of equity securities;

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 rates of 21% and 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 segment measures of performance to the GAAP measures presented in our consolidated results of operations. 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,
	2018			2017			2016
Revenues
Operating revenues:
Annuities	$	4,383		$	4,378		$	4,033
Retirement Plan Services		1,178			1,165			1,103
Life Insurance		6,922			6,558			6,246
Group Protection		3,757			2,201			2,130
Other Operations		235			287			332
Excluded realized gain (loss), pre-tax		(46	)		(336	)		(518	)
Amortization of deferred gain arising from reserve changes
on business sold through reinsurance, pre-tax		-			1			3
Amortization of DFEL associated with benefit ratio unlocking, pre-tax		(5	)		3			1
Total revenues	$	16,424		$	14,257		$	13,330



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
Net Income (Loss)
Income (loss) from operations:
Annuities	$	1,102		$	1,074		$	935
Retirement Plan Services		171			149			127
Life Insurance		645			536			515
Group Protection		187			103			65
Other Operations		(225	)		(108	)		(102	)
Excluded realized gain (loss), after-tax		(37	)		(218	)		(337	)
Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt, after-tax		(18	)		(3	)		(41	)
Income (loss) from reserve changes (net of related amortization)
on business sold through reinsurance, after-tax		-			-			2
Benefit ratio unlocking, after-tax		(136	)		129			28
Net impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act		19			1,322			-
Impairment of intangibles, after-tax		-			(905	)		-
Acquisition and integration costs related to mergers and acquisitions, after-tax		(67	)		-			-
Net income (loss)	$	1,641		$	2,079		$	1,192



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Net Investment Income
Annuities	$	1,005	$	1,038	$	1,033
Retirement Plan Services		899		899		859
Life Insurance		2,697		2,643		2,562
Group Protection		260		168		176
Other Operations		224		242		244
Total net investment income	$	5,085	$	4,990	$	4,874



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Amortization of DAC and VOBA, Net of Interest
Annuities	$	410	$	401	$	383
Retirement Plan Services		28		27		28
Life Insurance		711		469		734
Group Protection		92		79		126
Total amortization of DAC and VOBA, net of interest	$	1,241	$	976	$	1,271



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
Federal Income Tax Expense (Benefit)
Annuities	$	183		$	199		$	242
Retirement Plan Services		29			55			47
Life Insurance		147			244			238
Group Protection		50			55			35
Other Operations		(77	)		(130	)		(109	)
Excluded realized gain (loss)		(9	)		(118	)		(181	)
Gain (loss) on early extinguishment of debt		(5	)		(2	)		(22	)
Reserve changes (net of related amortization)
on business sold through reinsurance		-			-			1
Benefit ratio unlocking		(36	)		70			15
Net impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act		(19	)		(1,322	)		-
Acquisition and integration costs related to
mergers and acquisitions		(19	)		-			-
Total federal income tax expense (benefit)	$	244		$	(949	)	$	266



	As of December 31,
	2018		2017
Assets
Annuities	$	145,458	$	144,721
Retirement Plan Services		35,736		37,072
Life Insurance		81,533		81,381
Group Protection		8,495		4,033
Other Operations		26,925		14,556
Total assets	$	298,147	$	281,763

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

As discussed in Note 2, we adopted ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, as of January 1, 2018, that applies primarily to commissions and advisory fees earned by our broker dealer operation. The following table illustrates the revenue recognized from contracts with customers reported within fee income and other revenues on our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) and timing of revenue recognition by segment (in millions):


	For the Year Ended December 31, 2018
			Retirement
			Plan		Life		Group		Other
	Annuities		Services		Insurance		Protection		Operations		Total
Revenue from Contracts with Customers
Fee income	$	534	$	167	$	22	$	-	$	-	$	723
Other revenues		479		17		10		114		-		620
Total revenue from contracts
with customers	$	1,013	$	184	$	32	$	114	$	-	$	1,343

Timing of Revenue Recognition
Satisfaction of performance obligation:
Transferred at a point in time	$	90	$	5	$	7	$	-	$	-	$	102
Transferred over time		923		179		25		114		-		1,241
Total revenue from contracts
with customers	$	1,013	$	184	$	32	$	114	$	-	$	1,343

Revenue recognized from contracts with customers included in fee income consists primarily of wholesaling-related 12b-1 fees and net investment advisory fees. The 12b-1 fees are received from separate account fund sponsors as compensation for servicing the underlying mutual funds. The net investment advisory fees are related to asset management of certain separate account funds. Such revenues are recorded based on a contractual percentage of the market value of mutual fund assets over the period shares are owned by customers, and on a contractual percentage of the customer’s managed assets over the period advisory services are provided, respectively.

Revenue recognized from contracts with customers included in other revenues primarily relates to our retail sales network and consists of commission revenue for the sale of non-affiliated securities recorded on a trade-date basis and advisory fee income. Advisory fee income is asset-based revenues recorded as earned based on a contractual percentage of customer account values. Other revenues earned by our Group Protection segment consist of fees from administrative services performed, which are recognized as performance obligations are met over the terms of the underlying agreements.