A portfolio transfer is not the same as an insurance firm ceding (reinsuring) some or all of its policyholder liabilities to a reinsurer. Reinsurance creates an additional set of rights and obligations between the insurance firm and the reinsurer but does not change the insurance firm's obligations to its policyholders nor does it create any direct obligations (to each other) between the insurance firm's policyholders and the insurance firm's reinsurer.