Table of Contents Life & Group Policyholder Reserves The Company’s Life & Group segment includes its run-off long term care business as well as structured settlement obligations not funded by annuities related to certain property and casualty claimants. Long term care policies provide benefits for nursing homes  assisted living facilities and home health care subject to various daily and lifetime caps. Generally  policyholders must continue to make periodic premium payments to keep the policy in force and the Company has the ability to increase policy premiums  subject to state regulatory approval. The Company maintains both claim and claim adjustment expense reserves as well as future policy benefit reserves for policyholder benefits for the Life & Group segment. Claim and claim adjustment expense reserves consist of estimated reserves for long term care policyholders that are currently receiving benefits  including claims that have been incurred but are not yet reported. In developing the claim and claim adjustment expense reserve estimates for long term care policies  the Company’s actuaries perform a detailed claim experience study on an annual basis. The study reviews the sufficiency of existing reserves for policyholders currently on claim and includes an evaluation of expected benefit utilization and claim duration. The Company’s recorded claim and claim adjustment expense reserves reflect management's best estimate after incorporating the results of the most recent study. In addition  claim and claim adjustment expense reserves are also maintained for the structured settlement obligations. In developing the claim and claim adjustment expense reserve estimates for our structured settlement obligations  the Company's actuaries monitor mortality experience on an annual basis. Both elements of the Life & Group reserves are discounted as discussed in Note A to the Consolidated Financial Statements. The Company completed its annual long term care claim experience study in the third quarter of 2019 and 2018 which resulted in $56 million and $31 million pretax reductions in claim and claim adjustment expense reserves  respectively. The favorable claim reserve development in 2019 and 2018 was primarily due to lower claim severity than anticipated in the reserve estimates. Future policy benefit reserves represent the active life reserves related to the Company’s long term care policies which are the present value of expected future benefit payments and expenses less expected future premium. The determination of these reserves requires management to make estimates and assumptions about expected investment and policyholder experience over the life of the contract. Since many of these contracts may be in force for several decades  these assumptions are subject to significant estimation risk. The actuarial assumptions that management believes are subject to the most variability are morbidity  persistency  discount rates and anticipated future premium rate increases. Morbidity is the frequency and severity of injury  illness  sickness and diseases contracted. Persistency is the percentage of policies remaining in force and can be affected by policy lapses  benefit reductions and death. Discount rates are influenced by the investment yield on assets supporting long term care reserves which is subject to interest rate and market volatility and may also be affected by changes to the Internal Revenue Code. Future premium rate increases are generally subject to regulatory approval  and therefore the exact timing and size of the approved rate increases are unknown. As a result of this variability  the Company’s long term care reserves may be subject to material increases if actual experience develops adversely to the Company’s expectations. Annually  in the third quarter  management assesses the adequacy of its long term care future policy benefit reserves by performing a GPV to determine if there is a premium deficiency. Management also uses the GPV process to evaluate the adequacy of its claim and claim adjustment expense reserves for structured settlement obligations not funded by annuities. Under the GPV  management estimates required reserves using best estimate assumptions as of the date of the assessment without provisions for adverse deviation. The GPV required reserves are then compared to the existing recorded reserves. If the GPV required reserves are greater than the existing recorded reserves  the existing assumptions are unlocked and future policy benefit reserves are increased to the greater amount. Any such increase is reflected in the Company’s results of operations in the period in which the need for such adjustment is determined. If the GPV required reserves are less than the existing recorded reserves  assumptions remain locked in and no adjustment is required. Periodically  management engages independent third parties to assess the appropriateness of its best estimate assumptions. The most recent third party assessment  performed in early 2019  validated the assumption setting process and confirmed the best estimate assumptions appropriately reflected the experience data at that time. 106