TREMOR's US insurance-investment data comes from the Federal Reserve Z.1 Financial Accounts (Tables L.116 Life and L.115 P&C). This page documents how that data is validated: tree-closure checks, a line-by-line cross-check against the Fed's published L.116 table, and how the Z.1 figures relate to the insurance industry's own NAIC statutory numbers. For data sources and concepts, see the companion insurance methodology page.
Open the interactive US Insurance Assets tool on TREMOR for the live validation tables.
Tree closure
For every parent in the asset tree, the sum of its children should equal the parent total. This check runs across all parents at the latest quarter and flags any gap: PASS = gap under 1% of parent (exact closure); PARTIAL = 1% to 15% (a known Fed publication gap, explained below); FAIL = over 15% (would suggest a misclassified series, investigated and fixed). The Total Financial Assets parent closes exactly at 0.00% for both Life and P&C at the latest quarter. The live per-parent closure table is in the interactive tool.
Known gaps explained
A few parents do not close to zero - in each case a known Fed publication quirk, not a data error:
- Corporate & Foreign Bonds (Life and P&C): the Z.1 publishes the "ex-MBS/ABS" portion as a separate line but not the MBS/ABS portion on its own. The gap equals the implicit MBS/ABS holdings within insurer corporate-and-foreign bonds.
- Life Misc Assets: L.116 line 24 (Deferred and Unpaid Life Insurance Premiums, ~$41B) is published only annually, not quarterly, so it cannot be a quarterly child of the Misc Assets total. The gap is roughly that one line.
- P&C Loans: the Z.1 parent is "Commercial Mortgages including reinsurer holdings" while the child tracked is "Commercial Mortgages (direct)"; the small gap (~$1B) equals mortgages held by reinsurers. Both are real, separately published series.
How it works: the Z.1 publishes a hierarchy (Total Financial Assets, then asset-class lines, then sub-lines); every parent and child in this tool is matched to a published FRED series; children are summed and compared to the parent total at the latest quarter. A near-zero gap confirms our tree is consistent with the Fed's own breakdown; a non-zero gap means the Fed publishes a sub-line we do not carry separately - the gap is the unmodelled remainder, explained above.
Cross-check vs the Fed published L.116 table
A line-by-line comparison of our FRED-sourced data against the Federal Reserve's own published L.116 (Life Insurance Companies) HTML table, for each published line at the chosen quarter. Each row compares the Fed's table value to the value pulled from the corresponding FRED series; a match confirms the FRED data faithfully represents the Fed's Financial Accounts publication. All tracked items match. Lines marked "not tracked" are L.116 items not carried as separate FRED series here (e.g. security repos, equity in FHLB) - generally small or implicit in another bucket. The live per-line comparison table (selectable by quarter) is in the interactive tool.
Fed Z.1 vs NAIC statutory - understanding the numbers
This tool's data comes from the Federal Reserve Z.1. The insurance industry's own regulator (NAIC) publishes different numbers using different accounting rules. Both are correct - they measure different things.
Year-end 2024 comparison (Life insurance)
| Metric | Fed Z.1 (this tool) | NAIC Statutory | Difference | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | $10.3T (Financial Assets) | $9.3T (Net Admitted Assets) | +$1.0T | Market-value uplift + broader definition |
| General Account | $7.1T | $6.0T | +$1.1T | MV vs amortized cost; non-admitted assets |
| Separate Account | $3.2T | $3.3T | -$0.1T | Close match (both near market value) |
NAIC statutory numbers sourced from the ACLI 2025 Life Insurers Fact Book (80th edition, Nov 2025, reporting year-end 2024).
Framework differences
| Dimension | Fed Z.1 (this tool) | NAIC Statutory |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting basis | Fed's own framework (market value for equities / some bonds) | Statutory Accounting Principles (SAP) - amortized cost for bonds |
| Asset inclusion | All financial assets (broader) | Net admitted assets only (excludes non-admitted: software, furniture, etc.) |
| Coverage | Fed's estimate for the entire sector | ~850 life insurers filing with state regulators (~99% of industry) |
| Frequency | Quarterly (~10-week lag) | Annual + mid-year commentary |
| Source | FRED (free, API, quarterly) | NAIC reports (free PDF; company-level data paywalled) |
| Best analogy | Like GAAP market-value financials | Like regulatory/tax-basis financials |
Key takeaway
The ~10% gap between Z.1 ($10.3T) and NAIC ($9.3T) is structural and expected, not a data-quality issue. The Separate Account numbers match closely ($3.2T vs $3.3T) because both frameworks value SA assets near market value; the gap concentrates in the General Account ($7.1T vs $6.0T) where bond valuation (market vs amortized cost) and non-admitted asset exclusions compound.
NAIC sources (free, public)
- NAIC Industry Snapshots - quarterly summaries
- NAIC Capital Markets Bureau - asset-mix research reports
- ACLI 2025 Life Insurers Fact Book - comprehensive industry data
- III.org Life Insurance Facts - clean HTML tables
See it live
This page is the static, readable companion to the validation views in TREMOR's US Insurance Assets tool (live tree-closure and L.116 cross-check tables). Open the interactive tool on TREMOR, or read the insurance methodology page. TREMOR is part of tigzig.com - AI for analytics, databases and macro signals.