See Note 1 and Note 4 of the Notes to the Financial Statements for additional information relating to DAC and VOBA accounting policy and amortization.
Pursuant to applicable insurance laws and regulations, the Company establishes statutory reserves, reported as liabilities, to meet its obligations on its policies. These statutory reserves are established in amounts sufficient to meet policy and contract obligations, when taken together with expected future premiums and interest at assumed rates. Statutory reserves and actuarial liabilities for future policy benefits generally differ based on accounting guidance.
The principal cash inflows from our insurance activities come from insurance premiums, annuity considerations and net investment income. The principal cash outflows are the result of various annuity and life insurance products, operating expenses and income tax, as well as interest expense when applicable. The primary liquidity concern with respect to these cash flows is the risk of early contract holder and policyholder withdrawal.
Except as noted below, the ASUs adopted by the Company during 2018 did not have a material impact on its financial statements. ASUs adopted as of December 31, 2018 are summarized in the table below.
Includes the contract holder’s investments in the general account and separate account, if applicable.
Reinsurance agreements that do not expose the Company to a reasonable possibility of a significant loss from insurance risk are recorded using the deposit method of accounting. The deposit assets on reinsurance were $17.7 million and $19.6 million at December 31, 2018 and 2017. There were no deposit liabilities on reinsurance at both December 31, 2018 and 2017.
In May 2017, the Company recaptured from MLIC risks related to multiple life products under yearly renewable term and coinsurance agreements. This recapture resulted in an increase in cash and cash equivalents of $25.6 million and a decrease in premiums, reinsurance and other receivables of $22.4 million. The Company recognized a gain of $2.1 million, net of income tax, as a result of this reinsurance termination. Concurrent with the recapture from MLIC, the Company executed a reinsurance agreement with Brighthouse Life Insurance Company, as reinsurer to cede on a yearly renewable term basis risks related to multiple life products. The transaction resulted in an increase in premiums, reinsurance and other receivables of $24.7 million, an increase in other liabilities of $22.7 million, a decrease in premiums of $22.7 million and a reduction in policyholder benefits and claims of $24.7 million. The Company recognized a gain of $1.3 million, net of income tax, as a result of this transaction.
Mortgage loans are considered to be impaired when it is probable that, based upon current information and events, the Company will be unable to collect all amounts due under the loan agreement. Specific valuation allowances are established using the same methodology for both portfolio segments as the excess carrying value of a loan over either (i) the present value of expected future cash flows discounted at the loan’s original effective interest rate, (ii) the estimated fair value of the loan’s underlying collateral if the loan is in the process of foreclosure or otherwise collateral dependent, or (iii) the loan’s observable market price. A common evaluation framework is used for establishing non-specific valuation allowances for both loan portfolio segments; however, a separate non-specific valuation allowance is calculated and maintained for each loan portfolio segment that is based on inputs unique to each loan portfolio segment. Non-specific valuation allowances are established for pools of loans with similar risk characteristics where a property-specific or market-specific risk has not been identified, but for which the Company expects to incur a credit loss. These evaluations are based upon several loan portfolio segment-specific factors, including the Company’s experience for loan losses, defaults and loss severity, and loss expectations for loans with similar risk characteristics. These evaluations are revised as conditions change and new information becomes available.
In November 2016, the Company received a transfer of investments and cash and cash equivalents totaling $933.4 million for the recapture of risks related to certain single premium deferred annuity contracts previously reinsured to MLIC, a former affiliate. See Note 5 for additional information related to this transfer.
At December 31, 2018, the Company had net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $12.2 million and the Company had recorded a related deferred tax asset of $2.6 million which expires in year 2032.
Brighthouse affiliates and MetLife provide the Company certain services, which include, but are not limited to, treasury, financial planning and analysis, legal, human resources, tax planning, internal audit, financial reporting, and information technology. The Company is charged for the MetLife services through a transition services agreement and allocated to the legal entities and products within the Company. When specific identification to a particular legal entity and/or product is not practicable, an allocation methodology based on various performance measures or activity-based costing, such as sales, new policies/contracts issued, reserves, and in-force policy counts is used. The bases for such charges are modified and adjusted by management when necessary or appropriate to reflect fairly and equitably the actual incidence of cost incurred by the Company and/or affiliate. Management believes that the methods used to allocate expenses under these arrangements are reasonable. Costs incurred under these arrangements with the Brighthouse affiliates, as well as with MetLife prior to the MetLife Divestiture that were considered related party expenses, were $43.9 million, $38.0 million and $19.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, and were recorded in other expenses. Revenues received from affiliates related to these agreements, recorded in universal life and investment-type product policy fees, was $12.4 million, $12.7 million and $13.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
Brighthouse affiliates incur costs related to the establishment of services and infrastructure to replace those previously provided by MetLife. The Company is charged a fee to reflect the value of the available infrastructure and services provided by these costs. While management believes that the method used to allocate expenses under this arrangement is reasonable, the allocated expenses may not be indicative of those of a stand-alone entity. If expenses were allocated to the Company under this arrangement as incurred by Brighthouse affiliates, the Company would have incurred additional expenses of $2.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The Company would have incurred no additional expenses under this arrangement in 2017.