Notes to Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements

 

1. BUSINESS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

 

Prudential Financial, Inc. (“Prudential Financial”) and its subsidiaries (collectively, “Prudential” or the “Company”) provide a wide range of insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services to both individual and institutional customers throughout the United States and in many other countries. Principal products and services provided include life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management.

The Company’s principal operations are comprised of five divisions, which together encompass seven segments, and its Corporate and Other operations. The U.S. Individual Solutions division consists of the Individual Annuities and Individual Life segments. The U.S. Workplace Solutions division consists of the Retirement and Group Insurance segments. The Investment Management division is comprised of the Investment Management segment. The International Insurance division is comprised of the International Insurance segment, and the Closed Block division is comprised of the Closed Block segment. The Closed Block division is accounted for as a divested business that is reported separately from the divested businesses that are included in the Company’s Corporate and Other operations. The Company’s Corporate and Other operations include corporate items and initiatives that are not allocated to business segments and businesses that have been or will be divested, excluding the Closed Block division.

 

Basis of Presentation

 

The Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”) on a basis consistent with reporting interim financial information in accordance with instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. The Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of Prudential Financial, entities over which the Company exercises control, including majority-owned subsidiaries and variable interest entities (“VIEs”) in which the Company is considered the primary beneficiary. See Note 4 for more information on the Company’s consolidated variable interest entities.  

In the opinion of management, all adjustments necessary for a fair statement of the financial position and results of operations have been made. All such adjustments are of a normal, recurring nature. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 .

Elimination of Gibraltar Life Reporting Lag

Prior to January 1, 2018, the Company’s Gibraltar Life Insurance Company, Ltd. (“Gibraltar Life”) consolidated operations used a November 30 fiscal year end for purposes of inclusion in the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. The result of this reporting date difference was a one-month reporting lag for Gibraltar Life. As a result, the Company’s unaudited interim consolidated balance sheet as of March 31 previously included the assets and liabilities of Gibraltar Life as of February 28, and the Company’s unaudited interim consolidated income statement previously included Gibraltar Life’s results of operations for the three months ended February 28.

Effective January 1, 2018, the Company converted its Gibraltar Life operations to a December 31 fiscal year end. This action eliminated the one-month reporting lag so that the reporting dates and periods of financial balances and results of Gibraltar Life are consistent with those of the Company. The establishment of a new fiscal year end for Gibraltar Life is considered a change in accounting principle to a preferable method and requires retrospective application. The Company believes this change in accounting principle is preferable given that it aligns the reporting dates of Prudential Financial and its subsidiaries which allows for more timely and consistent basis of reporting the financial position and results of Gibraltar Life. In order to effect this elimination, the Company restated prior periods’ equity which increased “Retained Earnings” by approximately $167 million as of December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The impact to the Statements of Operations, Statements of Cash Flows, Statements of Comprehensive Income and other balance sheet captions, as a result of the elimination of the reporting lag, was not material for any of the periods presented.

Use of Estimates

 

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

 

The most significant estimates include those used in determining deferred policy acquisition costs (“DAC”) and related amortization; value of business acquired (“VOBA”) and its amortization; amortization of deferred sales inducements (“DSI”); measurement of goodwill and any related impairment; valuation of investments including derivatives and the recognition of other-than-temporary impairments (“OTTI”); future policy benefits including guarantees; pension and other postretirement benefits; provision for income taxes and valuation of deferred tax assets; and accruals for contingent liabilities, including estimates for losses in connection with unresolved legal and regulatory matters.

Reclassifications

 

Certain amounts in prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

 

2. SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND PRONOUNCEMENTS

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Changes to U.S. GAAP are established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) in the form of accounting standards updates (“ASU”) to the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. The Company considers the applicability and impact of all ASU. ASU listed below include those that have been adopted during the current fiscal year and/or those that have been issued but not yet adopted as of the date of this filing. ASU not listed below were assessed and determined to be either not applicable or not material.

Adoption of ASU 2016-01

Effective January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments - Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Liabilities using a modified retrospective method. Adoption of this ASU impacted the Company’s accounting and presentation related to equity investments. The most significant impact is that the changes in fair value of equity securities previously classified as “available for sale” are to be reported in net income within “Other income” in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Prior to this, the changes in fair value on equity securities classified as “available for sale” were reported in “Accumulated other comprehensive income.”

The impacts of this ASU on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements can be categorized as follows: (1) Changes to the presentation within the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position; (2) Cumulative-effect Adjustment Upon Adoption; and (3) Changes to Accounting Policies. Each of these components is described below. This section is meant to serve as an update to, and should be read in conjunction with, Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

(1) Changes to the presentation within the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position

Because of the fundamental accounting changes as described in section “—(3) Changes to Accounting Policies” below, the Company determined that changes to the presentation of certain balances in the investment section of the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Financial Position were also necessary to maintain clarity and logical presentation. The table below illustrates these changes by presenting the balances as previously reported in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and the reclassifications that were made, along with a footnote explanation of each reclassification.

PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, INC.

Notes to Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements—(Continued)

* — New line item effective January 1, 2018.

Strikethrough — Eliminated line item effective January 1, 2018.

________

(2) Cumulative-effect Adjustment Upon Adoption

The provisions of ASU 2016-01 require that the Company apply the amendments through a cumulative-effect adjustment to the Consolidated Statements of Financial Position as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption. The following table illustrates the impact on the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as a result of recording this cumulative-effect adjustment on January 1, 2018.

(3) Changes to Accounting Policies

This section summarizes the changes in our accounting policies resulting from the adoption of ASU 2016-01 as well as an update to the components of the financial statement line items impacted by the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Financial Position presentation changes described above.

ASSETS

Fixed maturities, trading is a new financial statement line item comprised of fixed maturities that are carried at fair value. Prior to the adoption of the standard, these fixed maturities were reported in “Other trading account assets, at fair value.” These fixed maturities are primarily related to assets associated with consolidated variable interest entities for which the Company is the investment manager and the realized and unrealized gains and losses activity are generally offset by changes in the corresponding liabilities. Realized and unrealized gains and losses on these investments are reported in “Other income,” and interest and dividend income from these investments is reported in “Net investment income.”

Assets supporting experience-rated contractholder liabilities, at fair value is the new title of the financial statement line item formerly titled “Trading account assets supporting insurance liabilities, at fair value.” This financial statement line item includes invested assets that consist of fixed maturities, equity securities, and short-term investments and cash equivalents, that support certain products included in the Retirement and International Insurance segments which are experience-rated, meaning that the investment results associated with these products are expected to ultimately accrue to contractholders. Realized and unrealized gains and losses on these investments are reported in “Other income,” and interest and dividend income from these investments is reported in “Net investment income.”

Equity securities, at fair value is the new title of the financial statement line item formerly titled “Equity securities, available for sale, at fair value.” As a result of the adoption of the standard, equity securities previously reported in “Other trading account asset, at fair value” were reclassified to “Equity securities, at fair value.” The retitled financial statement line item is comprised of common stock, mutual fund shares and non-redeemable preferred stock, which are carried at fair value. Realized and unrealized gains and losses on these investments are reported in “Other income,” and dividend income is reported in “Net investment income” on the ex-dividend date. Prior to the adoption of the standard, for the equity securities reported in the financial statement line item formerly titled “Equity securities, available for sale, at fair value,” the associated net realized gains and losses were included in “Realized investment gains (losses), net” and the associated net unrealized gains and losses were included in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)” (“AOCI”). In addition, with the adoption of the standard, the identification of other-than-temporary impairment (“OTTI”) for these investments is no longer needed as all of these investments are now measured at fair value with changes in fair value reported in earnings.

Other invested assets is the new title of the financial statement line item formerly titled “Other long-term investments.” Investments previously reported in “Other long-term investments” were reclassified to “Other invested assets.” The retitled financial statement line item consists of the Company’s non-coupon investments in Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies (“LPs/LLCs”) (other than operating joint ventures), wholly-owned investment real estate, derivative assets and other investments. LPs/LLCs interests are accounted for using either the equity method of accounting, or at fair value with changes in fair value reported in “Other income.” Prior to the adoption of the standard, the Company applied the cost method of accounting for certain LPs/LLCs interests when its partnership interest was considered minor. The standard effectively eliminated the cost method of accounting for these equity investments. The Company’s income from investments in LPs/LLCs accounted for using the equity method, other than the Company’s investments in operating joint ventures, is included in “Net investment income.” The carrying value of these investments is written down, or impaired, to fair value when a decline in value is considered to be other-than-temporary. In applying the equity method (including assessment for OTTI), the Company uses financial information provided by the investee, generally on a one to three month lag. For the investments reported at fair value with changes in fair value reported in current earnings, the associated realized and unrealized gains and losses are reported in “Other income.” The Company consolidates LPs/LLCs in certain other instances where it is deemed to exercise control, or is considered the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity. See Note 4 for additional information about VIEs.

REVENUES AND BENEFITS AND EXPENSES

Other income includes realized and unrealized gains or losses from investments reported as “Fixed maturities, trading,” “Assets supporting experience-rated contractholder liabilities, at fair value,” “Equity securities, at fair value,” and “Other invested assets” that are measured at fair value.

Adoption of ASU 2014-09

This section is meant to serve as an update to, and should be read in conjunction with, Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. Effective January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), using a modified retrospective method. The core principle of this ASU is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. This core principle is assessed via application of a five-step revenue recognition model that is detailed within the ASU.

There was no material impact to the financial statements at the date of adoption of this ASU. The prospective impact primarily affects revenue recognition policies pertaining to the Company’s Investment Management business. This revenue is classified within the “Asset management and service fees” line item in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Adoption of this standard has no impact on revenues related to financial instruments and insurance contracts (some of which may be reflected within “Asset management and service fees”) given that these types of revenues were specifically scoped out of this ASU.

“Asset management and service fees” principally includes asset-based asset management fees (which continue to be recognized in the period in which the services are performed) and performance-based incentive fees. Under the previously existing guidance, the Company recorded performance-based incentive fee revenue when the contractual terms of the asset management fee arrangement were satisfied such that the performance fee was no longer subject to clawback or contingency. Under the new guidance, the Company will record this revenue when the contractual terms of the asset management fee arrangement have been satisfied and it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of the fee will not occur. Under this principle the Company will continue to record a deferred performance-based incentive fee liability to the extent it receives cash related to the performance-based incentive fee prior to meeting the revenue recognition criteria delineated above.

Asset management and service fee revenues included $862 million of asset-based management fees, $5 million of performance-based incentive fees and $159 million of other fees for the three months ended March 31, 2018. For the three months ended March 31, 2017, asset management and service fee revenues included $796 million of asset-based management fees, $7 million of performance-based incentive fees and $148 million of other fees. These fees predominantly relate to investment management activities but also include certain asset-based fees associated with insurance contracts. In accordance with the provisions of the ASU, the comparative information for the prior period was not restated and continues to be reported under the accounting standards in effect for that period.

Other ASU adopted during the three months ended March 31, 2018

PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, INC.

Notes to Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements—(Continued)