substantially all aspects of UPC’s, and FSIC’s business; Skyway Claims Services, LLC, which provides claims adjusting services to UPC, FSIC and IIC; AmCo Holding Company (AmCo) and Family Security Holdings (FSH), which are holding company subsidiaries that consolidate their respective insurance companies; BlueLine Cayman Holdings (BlueLine) which reinsures portfolios of excess and surplus policies; UPC Re which provides a portion of the reinsurance protection purchased by our insurance subsidiaries when needed; and Skyway Reinsurance Services which provides reinsurance brokerage services for our insurance companies.
Should we determine that a premium deficiency exists, we would write off the unrecoverable portion of deferred policy acquisition costs and record a liability to the extent the deficiency exceeded the deferred policy acquisition costs. We did not have a premium deficiency at December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017.
In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-04, Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment (ASU 2017-04). This update simplifies the manner in which an entity is required to test goodwill for impairment by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. ASU 2017-04 is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those annual periods, with early adoption permitted for certain requirements. We do not intend to early adopt and are assessing the impact of prospectively adopting this new accounting standard on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. Any impact of the standard on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures will be dependent on market conditions of the reporting units at the time of adoption.
Our portfolio monitoring process includes a quarterly review of all fixed-income securities to identify instances where the fair value of a security compared to its cost or amortized cost is below established thresholds. The process also includes the monitoring of other impairment indicators such as ratings, ratings downgrades and payment defaults. The securities identified, in addition to other securities for which we may have a concern, are evaluated for potential other-than-temporary impairment using information relevant to the collectability or recovery of the security that is reasonably available. Inherent in our evaluation of other-than-temporary impairment for these fixed income securities are assumptions and estimates about the financial condition and future earnings potential of the issue or issuer. Some of the factors that may be considered in evaluating whether a decline in fair value is other-than-temporary are: (1) the financial condition, near-term and long-term prospects of the issue or issuer, including relevant industry specific market conditions and trends, geographic location and implications of rating agency actions and offering prices; (2) the specific reasons that a security is in an unrealized loss position, including overall market conditions which could affect liquidity; and (3) the length of time and extent to which the fair value has been less than amortized cost or cost.
Amortization expense of our intangible assets was $13,920,000, $31,200,000 and $10,910,000 for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The large increase in amortization expense in 2017 was primarily due to the amortization of intangible assets and Value of Business Acquired acquired as part of the AmCo acquisition.