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This article empirically evaluates whether life insurers appear to engage in gains trading to offset operating losses, despite the inefficiencies imposed by the IMR rule. The authors utilize a quantile regression approach to examine earnings management behaviors across the entire distribution of realized capital gains, rather than focusing solely on the conditional mean estimates. To isolate the distinct influence of the IMR rule on managerial discretion, the research design compares trading in bonds, which are subject to IMR amortization, to trading in common stocks, which are not. They also evaluate trading patterns for private insurers reporting solely under statutory accounting principles (SAP) versus those voluntarily reporting under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).