The Company’s home office consists of four office buildings located in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. The Company owns this facility and leases it to SLOC for lease terms not exceeding five years. The home office of SLNY consists of office space in New York, New York, and is leased from an unrelated party.
Fees and other income - consist primarily of separate account fees, including mortality and expense charges earned on variable annuity balances, surrender charges and other income. Separate account fees, based on the market value of the assets in the separate accounts supporting the contracts, were $256.7 million and $242.7 million for the twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively. Variable product fees represented 1.29% of the average variable annuity separate account balances for the twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2006 and 2005. Average separate account assets were $19.9 billion and $18.9 billion for the twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively.
On April 19, 2005, the Company sold its interest in a consolidated variable interest entity ("VIE") and recognized a gain of $6.1 million. The Company received net cash proceeds of $17.0 million and reduced consolidated assets and liabilities by $74.5 million and $63.6 million, respectively. The Company’s net income for the year ended December 31, 2005 included a net loss of $0.8 million related to this VIE.
On September 6, 2006 the Company entered into an agreement with Credit and Repackaged Securities Limited Series 2006-10 Trust (the "Trust"), whereby the Company is the sole beneficiary of the Trust. As the sole beneficiary of the Trust, the Company is required to consolidate the Trust under the requirements of Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") Interpretation No. 46 (revised December 2003), "Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, an interpretation of ARB No. 51." Accordingly, the assets and liabilities of the Trust are included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements. As of December 31, 2006, the Company recorded in its consolidated balance sheets $55.3 million of trading fixed maturities, $1.2 million of accrued investment income and $56.8 million of liabilities.
The Company has a greater than or equal to 20% involvement in five VIEs at December 31, 2006. The Company is a creditor in three trusts and two limited liability companies that were used to finance commercial mortgages, franchise receivables and equipment used in utility generation. The Company’s maximum exposure to loss related to all of these VIEs is the investments’ carrying value, which was $30.1 million and $40.2 million at December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively. The notes relating to the VIE’s mature between July 2007 and October 2024. See Note 4 for additional information with respect to leveraged leases which is not included above.
A loan is recognized as impaired when it is probable that the principal or interest is not collectible in accordance with the contractual terms of the loan. Measurement of impairment is based on the lower of the present value of expected future cash flows discounted at the loan's effective interest rate, or on the loan's observable market price. A specific valuation allowance is established if the fair value of the impaired loan is less than the recorded amount. Loans are also charged against the allowance when determined to be uncollectible. The allowance is based on a continuing review of the loan portfolio, past loss experience and current economic conditions, which may affect the borrower's ability to pay. While management believes that it uses the best information available to establish the allowance, future adjustments to the allowance may become necessary if economic conditions differ from the assumptions used in making the evaluation.
Property, equipment, leasehold improvements and capitalized software costs that are included in other assets are stated at cost, less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization are calculated using the straight-line or accelerated method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets, which generally range from 3 to 10 years.
In March 2006, the FASB issued SFAS No. 156, "Accounting for Servicing of Financial Assets" ("SFAS No. 156"), an amendment to SFAS No. 140. SFAS No. 156 requires all separately recognized servicing assets and liabilities to be initially measured at fair value and permits entities to choose to either subsequently measure servicing rights at fair value and report changes in fair value in earnings, or amortize servicing rights in proportion to, and over the estimated net servicing income or loss and assess the rights for impairment or the need for an increased obligation. The option to subsequently measure servicing rights at fair value will allow entities which utilize derivative instruments to hedge their servicing rights to account for such hedging relationships at fair value and avoid the complications of hedge accounting under SFAS No. 133. SFAS No. is effective for fiscal years beginning after September 15, 2006. Earlier application is permitted provided that the reporting entity has not yet issued interim or annual financial statements for that fiscal year. The adoption of this statement will not have a material impact on the Company’s financial position or results of operations.
On May 17, 2006, the Company entered into a Terms Agreement (the "2006-A Terms Agreement") with its affiliates Sun Life Financial Global Funding II, L.P. (the "Issuer II"), Sun Life Financial Global Funding II, U.L.C. (the "ULC II") and Sun Life Financial Global Funding II, L.L.C. (the "LLC II"), and with Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. ("Citigroup"), Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated ("Morgan Stanley"), Banc of America Securities LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Lehman Brothers Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and RBC Capital Markets Corporation (collectively, with Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, the "2006-A Initial Purchasers"), in connection with the offer and sale by the Issuer II of $900 million of Series 2006-1 Floating Rate Notes due 2011 (the "2006-A Notes"). The payment obligations of the Issuer II are unconditionally guaranteed by the LLC II pursuant to a guarantee (the "2006-A Secured Guarantee"), and the obligations of the LLC II under the 2006-A Secured Guarantee are secured by a $900 million floating rate funding agreement issued by the Company to the LLC II. The 2006-A Terms Agreement incorporates by reference the provisions of a Purchase Agreement dated as of May 15, 2006 by and among the Issuer II, the ULC II, the LLC II, the Company and the 2006-A Initial Purchasers. Pursuant to these incorporated provisions, the Company has agreed, among other things, to indemnify each 2006 Initial Purchaser against certain securities law liabilities related to the offering of the 2006-A Notes. Total interest credited for the funding agreement was $30.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2006.
Beginning in 2005, the Company marketed GICs to unrelated third parties and entered into funding agreements and interest rate swaps as part of this guaranteed investment program. The interest rate swaps allow the Company to lock in U.S. dollar fixed rate payments for the life of the contracts.
The Company currently offers enhanced or bonus crediting rates to policyholders on certain of its annuity products. Effective January 1, 2004, upon adoption of SOP 03-1, the expenses associated with offering a bonus are deferred and amortized over the life of the related contract in a pattern consistent with the amortization of DAC. Previously some bonuses were deferred and amortized while others were expensed.
The Group Protection Segment markets, sells and administers group life, long-term disability, short-term disability and stop loss insurance to small and mid-size employers in the State of New York through the Company’s subsidiary, SLNY.