LAM11070 - Long-term business fixed capital: assets and liabilities not part of the life insurance business

A life insurance company can hold assets and liabilities which are not for the purpose of the life insurance trade. Whether such assets and liabilities are held is a question of fact but HMRC expect those circumstances to be very limited.

An example arises where a life insurance company also writes some general insurance business and the associated assets and liabilities will not be held for the purposes of the long-term business.

In general all of the assets of a life company will support the solvency of the long-term business. Therefore HMRC do not expect that any assets held by a life insurance company, including portfolio investments, will fall outside the life or general insurance businesses altogether.