Policy Claims and Benefits

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Insurance [Abstract]

Short-Duration Insurance and Deposit Contracts [Text Block]

Liabilities for Unpaid Claims and Claim Expense

The Company uses several actuarial methods to compute incurred-but-not reported liabilities. These methods use historical claim reporting patterns to develop a triangle of reported claim amounts. The claim triangle is then used to develop the ultimate claims amount and the incurred-but-not reported liabilities. Expected claim methods use exposure data such as premiums to develop the ultimate claim amount. The final method blends the estimates from the development and the expected claim methods. There were no significant changes in methodologies during 2020.

The following tables provide information on incurred and paid claims development, net of retrocession, for short-duration reinsurance contracts for the Company’s U.S. and Latin America and Asia Pacific Traditional segments, which primarily relate to group life and health (including disability) business. The short-duration business for the Company’s other segments is immaterial. Liabilities for claims and claims adjustment expenses, net of reinsurance equals total incurred claims less cumulative paid claims plus outstanding liabilities prior to 2012.

The Company provides reinsurance on large quota share transactions. It is common industry practice for cedants to provide loss information on a bulk basis without comprehensive claim details.  Additionally, a claim under aggregate stop loss coverage may be the result of thousands of claims, but the Company only pays the excess amount. Therefore, it is impractical to provide meaningful claim count detail by accident year in the tables shown below.

U.S. and Latin America																			As of
(dollars in millions)																			December 31, 2020
Incurred Claims and Allocated Claim Adjustments, Net of Reinsurance (1)																			Total of Incurred-but-Not-Reported Liabilities Plus Expected Development on Reported Claims
Accident Year	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2012		2013		2014		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
2012	$	323	$	309	$	297	$	298	$	299	$	298	$	297	$	297	$	296	$	—
2013			349		333		339		337		336		336		337		335		—
2014					408		411		396		397		396		399		399		—
2015							460		461		465		462		462		463		—
2016									501		500		501		497		497		—
2017											485		514		509		504		3
2018													538		538		524		8
2019															491		473		30
2020																	469		197
															Total		$	3,960

Cumulative Paid Claims and Allocated Claim Adjustment Expense, Net of Reinsurance (1)
Accident Year	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2012		2013		2014		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
2012	$	109	$	222	$	244	$	252	$	258	$	264	$	268	$	272	$	275
2013			114		249		277		286		292		297		302		305
2014					129		305		337		349		356		364		368
2015							146		361		407		422		431		437
2016									185		393		437		451		460
2017											190		403		448		462
2018													183		415		465
2019															180		372
2020																	159
													Total				$	3,303
					All outstanding claims prior to 2012, net of reinsurance												131
			Liabilities for claims and claim adjustment expense, net of reinsurance														$	788

(1)2012-2019 Unaudited.

Asia Pacific																			As of
(dollars in millions)																			December 31, 2020
Incurred Claims and Allocated Claim Adjustments, Net of Reinsurance (1)																			Total of Incurred-but-Not-Reported Liabilities Plus Expected Development on Reported Claims
Accident Year	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2012		2013		2014		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
2012	$	227	$	305	$	309	$	313	$	321	$	332	$	338	$	343	$	345	$	5
2013			320		342		332		329		343		358		361		359		7
2014					302		328		290		296		310		312		313		9
2015							304		281		273		292		291		292		14
2016									248		225		232		240		240		15
2017											232		234		234		237		21
2018													277		295		290		50
2019															277		286		82
2020																	163		84
															Total		$	2,525

Cumulative Paid Claims and Allocated Claim Adjustment Expense, Net of Reinsurance (1)
Accident Year	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2012		2013		2014		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		2020
2012	$	54	$	148	$	202	$	243	$	266	$	284	$	300	$	310	$	318
2013			54		157		229		258		285		309		322		332
2014					38		148		194		225		250		265		276
2015							53		129		183		221		242		255
2016									42		107		145		167		182
2017											39		95		126		149
2018													35		116		160
2019															42		111
2020																	26
															Total		$	1,809
					All outstanding claims prior to 2012, net of reinsurance												90
					Liabilities for claims and claim adjustment expense, net of reinsurance												$	806

(1)2012-2019 Unaudited.

The following is unaudited supplementary information about average historical claims duration as of December 31, 2020:

Average Annual Payout of Incurred Claims by Age, Net of Reinsurance
Years	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9
U.S. and Latin America	35.2	%	42.2	%	8.8	%	2.9	%	1.9	%	1.6	%	1.3	%	1.2	%	1.2	%
Asia Pacific	15.2	%	27.6	%	16.1	%	10.3	%	7.2	%	5.3	%	4.0	%	2.8	%	2.4	%

Reconciliation of the Disclosure of Incurred and Paid Claims Development to the Liability for Unpaid Claims and Claims Adjustment Expenses

The reconciliation of the net incurred and paid claims development tables to the liability for claims and claim adjustment expense in the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2020, is as follows (dollars in millions):

	2020
Liabilities for claims and claim adjustment expense, net of reinsurance:
U.S. and Latin America	$	788
Asia Pacific	806
Liabilities for claims and claim adjustment expense, net of reinsurance	1,594
Adjustments to reconcile to total policy claims and future policy benefits:
Reinsurance recoverable	12
Effect of discounting	(120)
Unallocated claims adjustment expense	7
Total adjustments	(101)
Other short-duration contracts:
Canada	90
Europe, Middle East and Africa	587
Other	277
Liability for unpaid claims and claim adjustment expense – short-duration	2,447
Liability for unpaid claims and claim adjustment expense – long-duration	5,109
Total liability for unpaid claims and claim adjustment expense (included in future policy benefits and other policy-related balances)	$	7,556

Rollforward of Claims and Claim Adjustment Expenses

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

	2020		2019		2018
Balance at beginning of year	$	6,786	$	6,585	$	5,896
Less: reinsurance recoverable	(564)		(433)		(456)
Net balance at beginning of year	6,222		6,152		5,440
Incurred:
Current year	11,195		10,307		10,049
Prior years	123		154		131
Total incurred	11,318		10,461		10,180
Payments:
Current year	(5,617)		(5,140)		(4,602)
Prior years	(5,204)		(5,305)		(4,692)
Total payments	(10,821)		(10,445)		(9,294)
Other changes:
Interest accretion	36		33		25
Foreign exchange adjustments	160		21		(199)
Total other changes	196		54		(174)
Net balance at end of year	6,915		6,222		6,152
Plus: reinsurance recoverable	641		564		433
Balance at end of year	$	7,556	$	6,786	$	6,585

Incurred claims associated with prior periods are primarily due to events, related to long-duration business, which were incurred in prior periods but were reported in the current period, and to a lesser extent, the development of short-duration business 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.