The Company conducts business in many countries. As a result, foreign exchange rate movements may impact period-to-period comparisons of revenue. Similarly, certain other items such as the revenue impact of acquisitions and dispositions, including transfers among businesses may impact period-to-period comparisons of revenue. Underlying revenue measures the change in revenue from one period to another by isolating these impacts.
Outside the United States, the Company has a large number of non-U.S. defined benefit pension plans, the largest of which are in the U.K., which comprise approximately 81% of non-U.S. plan assets at December 31, 2019. Contribution rates for non-U.S. plans are generally based on local funding practices and statutory requirements, which may differ significantly from measurements under U.S. GAAP. In the U.K., the assumptions used to determine pension contributions are the result of legally-prescribed negotiations between the Company and the plans' trustee that typically occur every three years in conjunction with the actuarial valuation of the plans. Currently, this results in a lower funded status than under U.S. GAAP and may result in contributions irrespective of the U.S. GAAP funded status. For the MMC U.K. Pension Fund, a new agreement was reached with the trustee in the fourth quarter of 2019 based on the surplus funding position at December 31, 2018. Under the agreement no deficit funding is required until 2023. The funding level will be re-assessed during 2022 to determine if contributions are required in 2023. As part of a long-term strategy, which depends on having greater influence over asset allocation and overall investment decisions, in November 2019 the Company renewed its agreement to support annual deficit contributions by the U.K. operating companies under certain circumstances, up to GBP 450 million over a seven-year period. In addition, in the U.K. the Company assumed responsibility for JLT's Pension Scheme ("JLT U.K. plan"). Deficit funding of approximately $28 million is expected during 2020 with a new funding agreement expected to be reached with the Trustee during 2020.
In 2018, the Company paid $91 million of contingent payments related to acquisitions made in prior periods, of which $55 million was reported as financing cash flows and $36 million as operating cash flows.
The Company paid $5,505 million and $884 million, net of cash acquired, for acquisitions it made during 2019 and 2018, respectively.
The following sets forth the Company’s future contractual obligations by the types identified in the table below as of December 31, 2019:
The adoption of the new revenue standard on January 1, 2018 has increased the significance of judgments and estimates management must make to apply the guidance. In particular, in the Risk and Insurance Services segment, judgments related to the amount of variable revenue consideration to ultimately be received on placement of quota share reinsurance treaties and contingent commission from insurers, which was previously recognized when the contingency was resolved, now requires significant judgments and estimates.
On April 1, 2019, the Company completed the acquisition (the "Transaction") of all of the outstanding shares of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc ("JLT"), a public company organized under the laws of England and Wales. JLT's results of operations for the period April 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 are included in the Company’s results of operations for 2019. JLT's results of operations for the period January 1 through March 31, 2019 and for the years ended 2018 and 2017 are not included in the Company's results of operations and therefore, affect comparability. Prior to being acquired by the Company, JLT operated in three segments: Specialty, Reinsurance and Employee Benefits. JLT operated in 41 countries, with significant revenue in the United Kingdom, Pacific, Asia and the United States. As of April 1, 2019, the historical JLT businesses were combined into MMC operations as follows: JLT Specialty is included by geography within Marsh, JLT Reinsurance is included in Guy Carpenter and the majority of JLT's Employee Benefits business is included in Mercer Health and Wealth.
Investments: The caption "Investment income (loss)" in the consolidated statements of income comprises realized and unrealized gains and losses from investments recognized in earnings. It includes, when applicable, other than temporary declines in the value of securities, mark-to-market increases or decreases in equity investments with readily determinable fair values and equity method gains or losses on the Company's investments in private equity funds.
In June 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on the impairment of financial instruments. The new guidance adds an impairment model (known as the current expected credit loss (CECL) model) that is based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. Under the new guidance, an entity recognizes as an allowance its estimate of lifetime expected credit losses, which the FASB believes will result in more timely recognition of such losses. The new standard is also intended to reduce the complexity of U.S. GAAP by decreasing the number of credit impairment models that entities use to account for debt instruments. Further, the new standard makes targeted changes to the impairment model for available-for-sale debt securities. The new standard is effective for public companies for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019, and interim periods therein. The adoption of this standard will not have a material impact on the Company's financial position or results of operations.
The Company had non-cash issuances of common stock under its share-based payment plan of $165 million, $130 million and $88 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The Company recorded stock-based compensation expense related to restricted stock units, performance stock units and stock options of $252 million, $193 million and $149 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.
During the year ended December 31, 2019, there were no assets or liabilities that were transferred between any of the levels.
At December 31, 2018, the aggregate future minimum rental commitments under all non-cancelable operating lease agreements were:
Includes inter-segment revenue of $82 million, $51 million and $45 million in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, interest income on fiduciary funds of $4 million, $3 million and $4 million in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and equity method income of $16 million, $8 million and $17 million in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.
We compared total incurred losses and current case estimates as of the balance sheet date to amounts reported in prior periods to evaluate trends and developments in reported cases.