Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation RiverSource Life Insurance Company is a stock life insurance company with one wholly owned stock life insurance company subsidiary, RiverSource Life Insurance Co. of New York (RiverSource Life of NY). RiverSource Life Insurance Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (Ameriprise Financial).  RiverSource Life Insurance Company is domiciled in Minnesota and holds Certificates of Authority in American Samoa, the District of Columbia and all states except New York. RiverSource Life Insurance Company issues insurance and annuity products.  RiverSource Life of NY is domiciled and holds a Certificate of Authority in New York. RiverSource Life of NY issues insurance and annuity products. RiverSource Life Insurance Company also wholly owns RiverSource Tax Advantaged Investments, Inc. (RTA). RTA is a stock company domiciled in Delaware and is a limited partner in affordable housing partnership investments. The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of RiverSource Life Insurance Company and companies in which it directly or indirectly has a controlling financial interest (collectively, the Company). All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation. On January 1, 2018, the Company retrospectively adopted the new accounting standard for revenue recognition. See Note 3 and Note 4 for further information on the new accounting standard and the Companys revenue from contracts with customers. The impact to the Consolidated Statements of Income for both the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 was an increase of $16 million to policy and contract charges and a decrease of $16 million to other revenues. In 2017 , the Company recorded the following out-of-period corrections:  a $12 million out-of-period correction related to a variable annuity model assumption that decreased amortization of deferred acquisition costs (DAC) by $8 million and decreased benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses by $4 million .  a $20 million decrease to income tax provision for a reversal of a tax reserve. In 2016 , the Company recorded an out-of-period correction for a $29 million increase to benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses related to the claim utilization factor on long term care (LTC) reserves. The impact of these out-of-period corrections was not material to current or prior period financial statements. The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) which vary in certain respects from reporting practices prescribed or permitted by state insurance regulatory authorities as described in Note 16. Certain reclassifications of prior period amounts have been made to conform to the current presentation. The Company evaluated events or transactions that may have occurred after the balance sheet date for potential recognition or disclosure through the date the financial statements were issued. No subsequent events or transactions were identified. The Companys principal products are variable deferred annuities, universal life (UL) insurance, including indexed universal life (IUL) and variable universal life (VUL) insurance, which are issued primarily to individuals. Waiver of premium and accidental death benefit riders are generally available with UL products, in addition to other benefit riders. Variable annuity contract purchasers can choose to add optional benefit riders to their contracts, such as guaranteed minimum death benefit (GMDB), guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (GMWB) and guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit (GMAB) riders. The Company also offers immediate annuities, fixed deferred annuities, and traditional life and disability income (DI) insurance. The Company issues only non-participating life insurance policies which do not pay dividends to policyholders and contractholders. Nearly all of the Companys business is sold through the retail channel of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. (AFSI), a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial. RiverSource Distributors, Inc., a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, serves as the principal underwriter and distributor of variable annuity and life insurance products issued by the Company.