Uncertainty about the effect of continuing promulgation and implementation of rules and regulations under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on us, the economy and the financial services sector in particular;
We have audited Lincoln National Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the “COSO criteria”). In our opinion, Lincoln National Corporation (the “Company”) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, based on the COSO criteria.
For residential mortgage loans, our primary credit quality indicator is whether the loan is performing or nonperforming. We generally define nonperforming residential mortgage loans as those that are 90 or more days past due and/or in nonaccrual status. There is generally a higher risk of experiencing credit losses when a residential mortgage loan is nonperforming.
The amortized cost and fair value of fixed maturity AFS securities by contractual maturities (in millions) as of December 31, 2019, were as follows:
For our commercial mortgage loans, there was one specifically identified impaired loan with a carrying value of less than $1 million as of December 31, 2019. There were no specifically identified impaired commercial mortgage loans as of December 31, 2018.
Our commercial mortgage loan portfolio is geographically diversified with the largest concentrations in California, which accounted for 24% and 23% of commercial mortgage loans on real estate as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and Texas, which accounted for 11% and 12% of commercial mortgage loans on real estate as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
We adopted ASU 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities, in 2019. See Note 2 for additional information.
As of December 31, 2019 and 2018, $48 million and $16 million, respectively, of our unrecognized tax benefits presented below, if recognized, would have affected our federal income tax expense (benefit) and our effective tax rate. We are not aware of any events for which it is likely that unrecognized tax benefits will significantly increase or decrease within the next year. A reconciliation of the unrecognized tax benefits (in millions) was as follows:
Protective represents our largest reinsurance exposure following the sale of the Liberty Life Business as discussed in Note 3, which resulted in amounts recoverable from Protective of $11.8 billion and $12.1 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Protective has funded trusts, of which the balance in the trusts changes as a result of ongoing reinsurance activity, to support the business ceded, which totaled $14.7 billion and $13.7 billion as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
On July 31, 2019, we refinanced our existing credit facility with a syndicate of banks. This facility (the “credit facility”) allows for the issuance of LOCs and borrowing of up to $2.25 billion. The credit facility is unsecured and has a commitment termination date of July 31, 2024. The LOCs under the credit facility are used primarily to satisfy reserve credit requirements of (i) our domestic insurance companies for which reserve credit is provided by our affiliated reinsurance companies and (ii) certain ceding companies of our legacy reinsurance business.
The changes in our common stock (number of shares) were as follows:
The payment for SARs exercised was $1 million, $1 million and $3 million during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.