Policy Claims and Benefits (Notes)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Liability for Unpaid Claims and Claims Adjustment Expense [Roll Forward]

Liability for Future Policy Benefits and Unpaid Claims Disclosure [Text Block]

Policy Claims and Benefits

The liability for unpaid claims is reported in future policy benefits and other policy-related balances within the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. Activity associated with unpaid claims is summarized below (dollars in thousands):

	Six months ended June 30,
	2019			2018
Balance at beginning of year	$	6,584,668		$	5,896,469
Less: reinsurance recoverable	(432,582		)	(455,547		)
Net balance at beginning of year	6,152,086			5,440,922
Incurred:
Current year	5,457,193			5,046,146
Prior years	58,249			66,022
Total incurred	5,515,442			5,112,168
Payments:
Current year	(1,063,092		)	(1,097,105		)
Prior years	(3,978,853		)	(3,518,791		)
Total payments	(5,041,945		)	(4,615,896		)
Other changes:
Interest accretion	13,185			12,299
Foreign exchange adjustments	2,663			(117,352		)
Total other changes	15,848			(105,053		)
Net balance at end the period	6,641,431			5,832,141
Plus: reinsurance recoverable	524,808			439,568
Balance at end of the period	$	7,166,239		$	6,271,709

Incurred claims related to prior years reflected in the table above, resulted in part from developed claims for prior years being different than were anticipated when the liabilities for unpaid claims were originally estimated.  These trends have been considered in establishing the current year liability for unpaid claims.