The Company will continue to rely upon debt and capital markets for the majority of any necessary long-term funding not provided by operating cash flows.
Funding decisions will be guided by our capital structure planning objectives.
The primary goals of the Company’s capital structure planning are to maximize financial flexibility and preserve liquidity while reducing interest expense.
The majority of International Paper’s debt is accessed through global public capital markets where we have a wide base of investors.
Maintaining an investment grade credit rating is an important element of International Paper’s financing strategy.
At December 31, 2015, the Company held long-term credit ratings of BBB (stable outlook) and Baa2 (stable outlook) by S&P and Moody’s, respectively.
Contractual obligations for future payments under existing debt and lease commitments and purchase obligations at December 31, 2015, were as follows:
## Table 0 ##
(a) Total debt includes scheduled principal payments only.
(b) Includes $2.1 billion relating to fiber supply agreements entered into at the time of the 2006 Transformation Plan forestland sales and in conjunction with the 2008 acquisition of Weyerhaeuser Company’s Containerboard, Packaging and Recycling business.
(c) Not included in the above table due to the uncertainty as to the amount and timing of the payment are unrecognized tax benefits of approximately $101 million.
We consider the undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries as of December 31, 2015, to be indefinitely reinvested and, accordingly, no U. S.  income taxes have been provided thereon.
As of December 31, 2015, the amount of cash associated with indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings was approximately $600 million.
We do not anticipate the need to repatriate funds to the United States to satisfy domestic liquidity needs arising in the ordinary course of business, including liquidity needs associated with our domestic debt service requirements.
Pension Obligations and Funding At December 31, 2015, the projected benefit obligation for the Company’s U. S.  defined benefit plans determined under U. S.  GAAP was approximately $3.5 billion higher than the fair value of plan assets.
Approximately $3.2 billion of this amount relates to plans that are subject to minimum funding requirements.
Under current IRS funding rules, the calculation of minimum funding requirements differs from the calculation of the present value of plan benefits (the projected benefit obligation) for accounting purposes.
In December 2008, the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WERA) was passed by the U. S.  Congress which provided for pension funding relief and technical corrections.
Funding contributions depend on the funding method selected by the Company, and the timing of its implementation, as well as on actual demographic data and the targeted funding level.
The Company continually reassesses the amount and timing of any discretionary contributions and elected to make contributions totaling $750 million and $353 million for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
At this time, we do not expect to have any required contributions to our plans in 2016, although the Company may elect to make future voluntary contributions.
The timing and amount of future contributions, which could be material, will depend on a number of factors, including the actual earnings and changes in values of plan assets and changes in interest rates.
International Paper has announced a voluntary, limited-time opportunity for former employees who are participants in the Retirement Plan of International Paper Company (the Pension Plan) to request early payment of their entire Pension Plan benefit in the form of a single lump sum payment.
Eligible participants who wish to receive the lump sum payment must make an election between February 29 and April 29, 2016, and payment is scheduled to be made on or before June 30, 2016.
All payments will be made from the Pension Plan trust assets.
The target population has a total liability of $3.0 billion.
The amount of the total payments will depend on the participation rate of eligible participants, but is expected to be approximately $1.5 billion.
Based on the expected level of payments, settlement accounting rules will apply in the period in which the payments are made.
This will result in a plan remeasurement and the recognition in earnings of a pro-rata portion of unamortized net actuarial loss.
Ilim Holding S. A.  Shareholder’s Agreement In October 2007, in connection with the formation of the Ilim Holding S. A.  joint venture, International Paper entered into a shareholder’s agreement that includes provisions relating to the reconciliation of disputes among the partners.
This agreement was amended on May 7, 2014.
Pursuant to the amended agreement, beginning on January 1, 2017, either the Company or its partners may commence certain procedures specified under the deadlock provisions.
If these or any other deadlock provisions are commenced, the Company may in certain situations, choose to purchase its partners’ 50% interest in Ilim.
Any such transaction would be subject to review and approval by Russian and other relevant antitrust authorities.
Any such purchase by International Paper would result in the consolidation of Ilim’s financial position and results of operations in all subsequent periods.
MetLife, Inc.  Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements — (Continued) Account balances of contracts with insurance guarantees are invested in separate account asset classes as follows:
## Table 1 ##
9.
Reinsurance The Company’s Insurance Products segment participates in reinsurance activities in order to limit losses, minimize exposure to significant risks and provide additional capacity for future growth.
For its individual life insurance products, the Company has historically reinsured the mortality risk primarily on an excess of retention basis or a quota share basis.
Until 2005, the Company reinsured up to 90% of the mortality risk for all new individual life insurance policies that it wrote through its various subsidiaries.
During 2005, the Company changed its retention practices for certain individual life insurance policies.
Under the new retention guidelines, the Company reinsures up to 90% of the mortality risk in excess of $1 million.
Retention limits remain unchanged for other new individual life insurance policies.
Policies reinsured in years prior to 2005 remain reinsured under the original reinsurance agreements.
On a case by case basis, the Company may retain up to $20 million per life and reinsure 100% of amounts in excess of the Company’s retention limits.
The Company evaluates its reinsurance programs routinely and may increase or decrease its retention at any time.
Placement of reinsurance is done primarily on an automatic basis and also on a facultative basis for risks with specific characteristics.
In addition to reinsuring mortality risk as described above, the Company reinsures other risks, as well as specific coverages.
The Company routinely reinsures certain classes of risks in order to limit its exposure to particular travel, avocation and lifestyle hazards.
For other policies within the Insurance Products segment, the Company generally retains most of the risk and only cedes particular risks on certain client arrangements.
The Company’s Retirement Products segment reinsures a portion of the living and death benefit guarantees issued in connection with its variable annuities.
Under these reinsurance agreements, the Company pays a reinsurance premium generally based on fees associated with the guarantees collected from policyholders, and receives reimbursement for benefits paid or accrued in excess of account values, subject to certain limitations.
The Company enters into similar agreements for new or in-force business depending on market conditions.
The Company’s International and Corporate Benefit Funding segments have periodically engaged in reinsurance activities, as considered appropriate.
The impact of these activities on the financial results of these segments has not been significant.
The Company’s Auto & Home segment purchases reinsurance to manage its exposure to large losses (primarily catastrophe losses) and to protect statutory surplus.
The Company cedes to reinsurers a portion of losses and premiums based upon the exposure of the policies subject to reinsurance.
To manage exposure to large property and casualty losses, the Company utilizes property catastrophe, casualty and property per risk excess of loss agreements.
The Company also reinsures, through 100% quota share reinsurance agreements, certain long-term care and workers’ compensation business written by MICC.
These are run-off businesses which have been included within Banking, Corporate & Other.
The Company has exposure to catastrophes, which could contribute to significant fluctuations in the Company’s results of operations.
The Company uses excess of retention and quota share reinsurance arrangements to provide greater diversification of risk and minimize exposure to larger risks.
The Company reinsures its business through a diversified group of reinsurers and periodically monitors collectibility of reinsurance balances.
These reinsurance recoverable balances are stated net of allowances for uncollectible reinsurance, which as of December 31, 2009 and 2008, were immaterial.
The Company analyzes recent trends in arbitration and litigation outcomes in disputes, if any, with its reinsurers.
The Company monitors ratings and evaluates the financial strength of the Company’s reinsurers by analyzing their financial statements.
In addition, the reinsurance recoverable balance due from each reinsurer is evaluated as part of the overall monitoring process.
Recoverability of reinsurance recoverable balances are evaluated based on these analyses.
The Company has secured certain reinsurance recoverable balances with various forms of collateral, including secured trusts, funds withheld accounts and irrevocable letters of credit.
At December 31, 2009, the Company had $4.4 billion of unsecured unaffiliated reinsurance recoverable balances.
At December 31, 2009, the Company had $11.7 billion of net unaffiliated ceded reinsurance recoverables.
Of this total, $9.2 billion, or 79%, were with the Company’s five largest unaffiliated ceded reinsurers, including $3.0 billion of which were unsecured.
expected.
The Company monitors these changes and only changes the assumption when its long-term expectation changes.
The effect of an increase/(decrease) by 100 basis points in the assumed future rate of return is reasonably likely to result in a decrease/(increase) in the DAC and VOBA amortization of approximately $140 million with an offset to the Company’s unearned revenue liability of approximately $20 million for this factor.
The Company also reviews periodically other long-term assumptions underlying the projections of estimated gross margins and profits.
These include investment returns, policyholder dividend scales, interest crediting rates, mortality, persistency, and expenses to administer business.
We annually update assumptions used in the calculation of estimated gross margins and profits which may have significantly changed.
If the update of assumptions causes expected future gross margins and profits to increase, DAC and VOBA amortization will decrease, resulting in a current period increase to earnings.
The opposite result occurs when the assumption update causes expected future gross margins and profits to decrease.
Over the last several years, the Company’s most significant assumption updates resulting in a change to expected future gross margins and profits and the amortization of DAC and VOBA have been updated due to revisions to expected future investment returns, expenses, inforce or persistency assumptions and policyholder dividends on contracts included within the Insurance Products and Retirement Products segments.
During 2009, the amount of net investment gains (losses), as well as the level of separate account balances also resulted in significant changes to expected future gross margins and profits impacting amortization of DAC and VOBA.
The Company expects these assumptions to be the ones most reasonably likely to cause significant changes in the future.
Changes in these assumptions can be offsetting and the Company is unable to predict their movement or offsetting impact over time.
Note 6 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements provides a rollforward of DAC and VOBA for the Company for each of the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, as well as a breakdown of DAC and VOBA by segment and reporting unit at December 31, 2009 and 2008.
At December 31, 2009 and 2008, DAC and VOBA for the Company was $19.3 billion and $20.1 billion, respectively.
A substantial portion, approximately 84%, of the Company’s DAC and VOBA was associated with the Insurance Products and Retirement Products segments at December 31, 2009.
At December 31, 2009 and 2008, DAC and VOBA for these segments was $16.1 billion and $17.4 billion, respectively.
Amortization of DAC and VOBA associated with the variable & universal life and the annuities contracts within the Insurance Products and Retirement Products segments are significantly impacted by movements in equity markets.
The following chart illustrates the effect on DAC and VOBA within the Company’s U. S.  Business of changing each of the respective assumptions, as well as updating estimated gross margins or profits with actual gross margins or profits during the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
Increases (decreases) in DAC and VOBA balances, as presented below, result in a corresponding decrease (increase) in amortization.
## Table 2 ##
Prior to 2008, fluctuations in the amounts presented in the table above arose principally from normal assumption reviews during the period.
The following represents significant items contributing to the changes to DAC and VOBA amortization in 2009: ?
Actual gross profits decreased as a result of increased investment losses from the portfolios associated with the hedging of guaranteed insurance obligations on variable annuities, resulting in a decrease of DAC and VOBA amortization of $141 million.  ?
Changes in net investment gains (losses) resulted in the following changes in DAC and VOBA amortization: – Actual gross profits increased as a result of a decrease in liabilities associated with guarantee obligations on variable annuities, resulting in an increase of DAC and VOBA amortization of $995 million, excluding the impact from the Company’s own credit and risk margins, which are described below.
This increase in actual gross profits was partially offset by freestanding derivative losses associated with the hedging of such guarantee obligations, which resulted in a decrease in DAC and VOBA amortization of $636 million.
– The narrowing of the Company’s own credit spreads increased the valuation of guarantee liabilities, decreased actual gross profits and decreased DAC and VOBA amortization by $607 million.
This was partially offset by lower risk margins which decreased the guarantee liability valuations, increased actual gross profits and increased DAC and VOBA amortization by $20 million.
– The remainder of the impact of net investment gains (losses), which decreased DAC amortization by $484 million, was primarily attributable to current period investment activities.  ?
Included in policyholder dividends and other was a decrease in amortization of $90 million as a result of changes to long term assumptions.
The remainder of the decrease was due to various immaterial items.
The following represent significant items contributing to the changes to DAC and VOBA amortization in 2008: ?
The decrease in equity markets during the year significantly lowered separate account balances which lead to a significant reduction in expected future gross profits on variable universal life contracts and variable deferred annuity contracts resulting in an increase of $708 million in DAC and VOBA amortization.  ?
Changes in net investment gains (losses) resulted in the following changes in DAC and VOBA amortization: – Actual gross profits decreased as a result of an increase in liabilities associated with guarantee obligations on variable annuities resulting in a reduction of DAC and VOBA amortization of $1,047 million.
This decrease in actual gross profits was mitigated by freestanding derivative gains associated with the hedging of such guarantee obligations which resulted in an increase in actual gross profits and an increase in DAC and VOBA amortization of $625 million.
## Table 3 ##
Significant weather-related catastrophe losses in the second and third quarters of 2008 were the primary cause for the $63 million decline in operating earnings and resulted in an unfavorable change in the combined ratio, including catastrophes, to 91.2% in 2008 from 88.4% in 2007.
Such losses were partially offset by a decrease in non-catastrophe losses due to lower severities in the auto line of business, offset somewhat by higher frequencies in the homeowners line of business, which is reflected in the favorable change in the combined ratio, excluding catastrophes, to 83.1% in 2008 from 86.3% in 2007.
In addition, net investment income decreased by $7 million primarily due to decreasing yields, partially offset by growth in average invested assets.
Yields were adversely impacted by the severe downturn in the global financial markets which impacted other limited partnership interests and fixed maturity securities.
Finally, earned premiums were impacted by a modest increase in exposures, a decrease in the cost of reinsurance, and a decline in average earned premium per policy.
International
## Table 4 ##
The reduction in operating earnings includes the adverse impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates, which decreased operating earnings by $11 million relative to 2007.
Excluding the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates, operating earnings decreased by $78 million, or 14%, from the comparable 2007 period.
This decrease was primarily driven by difficult financial market conditions in Japan, which adversely impacted investment results and increased DAC amortization relative to the prior year, as well as the impact of pension reform in Argentina in 2007 and the nationalization of this business in 2008, which favorably impacted the prior year results relative to the current year.
Partially offsetting these decreases, the International segment benefited from the favorable impact of higher inflation rates on inflation-indexed investments in Chile, as well as business growth in the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions.
Share Repurchases.
The table below presents the common stock repurchase programs authorized by the Company’s Board of Directors and the aggregate amount and number of shares of MetLife, Inc. ’s common stock purchased pursuant to these authorizations:

<table><tr><td>In millions</td><td>2015</td><td>2016</td><td>2017</td><td>2018</td><td>2019</td><td>Thereafter</td></tr><tr><td>Maturities of long-term debt (a)</td><td>$426</td><td>$43</td><td>$811</td><td>$427</td><td>$183</td><td>$7,436</td></tr><tr><td>Lease obligations</td><td>118</td><td>95</td><td>72</td><td>55</td><td>41</td><td>128</td></tr><tr><td>Purchase obligations (b)</td><td>3,001</td><td>541</td><td>447</td><td>371</td><td>358</td><td>1,579</td></tr><tr><td>Total (c)</td><td>$3,545</td><td>$679</td><td>$1,330</td><td>$853</td><td>$582</td><td>$9,143</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="2"> December 31,</td></tr><tr><td></td><td> 2009</td><td> 2008</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="2"> (In millions)</td></tr><tr><td>Fund Groupings:</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Equity</td><td>$48,852</td><td>$39,842</td></tr><tr><td>Balanced</td><td>31,011</td><td>14,548</td></tr><tr><td>Bond</td><td>7,166</td><td>5,671</td></tr><tr><td>Money Market</td><td>2,104</td><td>2,456</td></tr><tr><td>Specialty</td><td>1,865</td><td>488</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>$90,998</td><td>$63,005</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">Years Ended December 31,</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2009</td><td>2008</td><td>2007</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">(In millions)</td></tr><tr><td>Investment return</td><td>$141</td><td>$70</td><td>$-34</td></tr><tr><td>Separate account balances</td><td>-32</td><td>-708</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Net investment gain (loss) related</td><td>712</td><td>-521</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>Expense</td><td>60</td><td>61</td><td>-53</td></tr><tr><td>In-force/Persistency</td><td>-87</td><td>-159</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Policyholder dividends and other</td><td>174</td><td>-30</td><td>-39</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>$968</td><td>$-1,287</td><td>$9</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="2">Years Ended December 31,</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2008</td><td>2007</td><td>Change</td><td>% Change</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">(In millions)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td> Operating Revenues</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Premiums</td><td>$2,971</td><td>$2,966</td><td>$5</td><td>0.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Net investment income</td><td>186</td><td>196</td><td>-10</td><td>-5.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Other revenues</td><td>38</td><td>43</td><td>-5</td><td>-11.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Total operating revenues</td><td>3,195</td><td>3,205</td><td>-10</td><td>-0.3%</td></tr><tr><td> Operating Expenses</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Policyholder benefits and claims and policyholder dividends</td><td>1,924</td><td>1,811</td><td>113</td><td>6.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Capitalization of DAC</td><td>-444</td><td>-471</td><td>27</td><td>5.7%</td></tr><tr><td>Amortization of DAC and VOBA</td><td>454</td><td>468</td><td>-14</td><td>-3.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Other expenses</td><td>794</td><td>832</td><td>-38</td><td>-4.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Total operating expenses</td><td>2,728</td><td>2,640</td><td>88</td><td>3.3%</td></tr><tr><td>Provision for income tax expense (benefit)</td><td>104</td><td>139</td><td>-35</td><td>-25.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Operating earnings</td><td>$363</td><td>$426</td><td>$-63</td><td>-14.8%</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="2">Years Ended December 31,</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2008</td><td>2007</td><td>Change</td><td>% Change</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">(In millions)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td> Operating Revenues</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Premiums</td><td>$3,470</td><td>$3,096</td><td>$374</td><td>12.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Universal life and investment-type product policy fees</td><td>1,095</td><td>995</td><td>100</td><td>10.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Net investment income</td><td>1,180</td><td>1,249</td><td>-69</td><td>-5.5%</td></tr><tr><td>Other revenues</td><td>18</td><td>24</td><td>-6</td><td>-25.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Total operating revenues</td><td>5,763</td><td>5,364</td><td>399</td><td>7.4%</td></tr><tr><td> Operating Expenses</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Policyholder benefits and claims and policyholder dividends</td><td>3,185</td><td>2,521</td><td>664</td><td>26.3%</td></tr><tr><td>Interest credited to policyholder account balances</td><td>171</td><td>354</td><td>-183</td><td>-51.7%</td></tr><tr><td>Capitalization of DAC</td><td>-798</td><td>-743</td><td>-55</td><td>-7.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Amortization of DAC and VOBA</td><td>381</td><td>309</td><td>72</td><td>23.3%</td></tr><tr><td>Interest expense</td><td>9</td><td>3</td><td>6</td><td>200.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Other expenses</td><td>2,079</td><td>2,180</td><td>-101</td><td>-4.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Total operating expenses</td><td>5,027</td><td>4,624</td><td>403</td><td>8.7%</td></tr><tr><td>Provision for income tax expense (benefit)</td><td>257</td><td>172</td><td>85</td><td>49.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Operating earnings</td><td>$479</td><td>$568</td><td>$-89</td><td>-15.7%</td></tr></table>

Question: In which year is Operating earnings smaller than 500 million?
Answer: 2008