A nearly year-long probe by New York's top financial-services regulator into life insurers' use of affiliated reinsurance entities has identified $48 billion in potentially troublesome transactions with "inconsistent, spotty and incomplete disclosures," officials said in a new report.

The report contains some of the most detailed information yet on the scale of the industry's dependence on the controversial entities—known as "captives"-- to help meet capital requirements.

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