Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The following should be read in conjunction with and supplements and amends the risk factors that may affect the Company’s business or operations described under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A. of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Extensive regulation and changes in legislation can impact profitability and growth.
The Company’s insurance subsidiaries are subject to complex laws and regulations that are administered and enforced by a number of governmental authorities that exercise a degree of interpretive latitude, including the FSA and Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Japan, state insurance regulators, the BMA in Bermuda, the SEC, the NAIC, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), the U.S. Department of Justice, state attorneys general, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.S. Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in the U.S. The Company is subject to the risk that compliance with any particular regulator's or enforcement authority's interpretation of a legal or regulatory issue may result in non-compliance with another regulator's or enforcement authority's interpretation of the same issue, particularly when compliance is judged in hindsight. Further, regulatory authorities periodically re-examine existing laws and regulations applicable to insurance companies and their products. Changes in these laws and regulations, or in interpretations thereof, could have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition and results of operations.
In July 2023, new regulations were proposed by the Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services related to (i) short-term, limited-duration insurance, (ii) fixed indemnity and hospital indemnity excepted benefits, (iii) specified disease or illness excepted benefits, and (iv) tax treatments of fixed amounts received through employment-based accident or health insurance. The timing and substance of the final regulations, if any, is not known, but if passed in the proposed form these regulations could materially affect sales of Aflac U.S.
Additionally, changes in the overall legal or regulatory environment may, even absent any particular regulator's or enforcement authority's interpretation of an issue changing, cause the Company to change its views regarding the actions it needs to take from a legal or regulatory risk management perspective. This may necessitate changes to the Company's practices that may, in some cases, limit its ability to grow or otherwise negatively impact the profitability of the Company's business. If the Company's subsidiaries fail to meet the minimum capital or operational requirements established by its respective regulators, they could be subject to examination or corrective action, or the Company's financial strength ratings could be downgraded, or both. Compliance with applicable laws and regulations is time consuming and personnel-intensive, and changes in these laws and regulations may materially increase the Company's direct and indirect compliance and other expenses of doing business, thus having a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition and results of operations. See the “Government Regulation” subsections of Item 1. Business of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, for more information.
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