The Hartford 2014 Annual Report Download - page 143

Table of Contents
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(Dollar amounts in millions, except for per share data, unless otherwise stated)
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The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. is a holding company for insurance and financial services subsidiaries that provide property and casualty
insurance, group life and disability products and mutual funds to individual and business customers in the United States (collectively, “The Hartford”, the
“Company”, “we” or “our”). Also, the Company continues to administer life and annuity products previously sold.
On June 30, 2014, the Company completed the sale of the issued and outstanding equity of Hartford Life Insurance KK, a Japanese company ("HLIKK"), to
ORIX Life Insurance Corporation, a subsidiary of ORIX Corporation, a Japanese company.
On December 12, 2013, the Company completed the sale of the issued and outstanding equity of Hartford Life International Limited, a U.K. company
("HLIL"), to Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway company.
On January 1, 2013, the Company completed the sale of its Retirement Plans business to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company ("MassMutual") and
on January 2, 2013 the Company completed the sale of its Individual Life insurance business to The Prudential Insurance Company of America
("Prudential"), a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc. These sales were structured as reinsurance transactions.
For further discussion of these transactions, see Note 2 - Business Dispositions of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
The Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared on the basis of accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S.
GAAP”), which differ materially from the accounting practices prescribed by various insurance regulatory authorities.
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The Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., companies in which the Company directly or
indirectly has a controlling financial interest and those variable interest entities (“VIEs”) which the Company is required to consolidate. Entities in which the
Company has significant influence over the operating and financing decisions but is not required to consolidate are reported using the equity method. For
further discussions on VIEs see Note 6 - Investments and Derivative Instruments of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. All intercompany
transactions and balances between The Hartford and its subsidiaries and affiliates have been eliminated.
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The results of operations of a component of the Company that either has been disposed of or is classified as held-for-sale are reported in discontinued
operations if the operations and cash flows of the component have been or will be eliminated from the ongoing operations of the Company as a result of the
disposal transaction and the Company will not have any significant continuing involvement in the operations of the component after the disposal
transaction. The Company is presenting as discontinued operations certain businesses that meet the criteria for reporting as discontinued operations.
Amounts for prior periods have been retrospectively reclassified. For information on the specific businesses and related impacts, see Note 19 - Discontinued
Operations of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
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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 the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at 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 property and casualty insurance product reserves, net of reinsurance; estimated gross profits
used in the valuation and amortization of assets and liabilities associated with variable annuity and other universal life-type contracts; evaluation of other-
than-temporary impairments on available-for-sale securities and valuation allowances on investments; living benefits required to be fair valued; goodwill
impairment; valuation of investments and derivative instruments; valuation allowance on deferred tax assets; and contingencies relating to corporate
litigation and regulatory matters. Certain of these estimates are particularly sensitive to market conditions, and deterioration and/or volatility in the
worldwide debt or equity markets could have a material impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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Certain reclassifications have been made to prior year financial information to conform to the current year presentation.
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