Title 33, Chapter 13, Section 5
( 33-13-5)
(a)(1) Transactions within a holding company system to which an
insurer subject to registration is a party shall be subject to the
following standards: (A) The terms shall be fair and reasonable; (B) Charges or fees for services performed shall be reasonable; (C) Expenses incurred and payment received shall be allocated to
the insurer in conformity with customary insurance accounting
practices consistently applied; (D) The books, accounts, and records of each party to all such
transactions shall be so maintained as to clearly and accurately
disclose the nature and details of the transactions, including
such accounting information as is necessary to support the
reasonableness of the charges or fees to the respective parties;
and (E) The insurer's surplus with regard to policyholders following
any dividends or distributions to shareholder affiliates shall
be reasonable in relation to the insurer's outstanding
liabilities and adequate to its financial needs. (2) The following transactions involving a domestic insurer and
any person in its holding company system may not be entered into
unless the insurer has notified the Commissioner in writing of its
intention to enter into such transaction at least 30 days prior
thereto, or such shorter period as the Commissioner may permit,
and the Commissioner has not disapproved it within such period: (A) Sales, purchases, exchanges, loans or extensions of credit,
guarantees, or investments, provided such transactions are equal
to or exceed: with respect to nonlife insurers, the lesser of 3
percent of the insurer's admitted assets or 25 percent of
surplus as regards policyholders; or with respect to life
insurers, 3 percent of the insurer's admitted assets; each as of
December 31 next preceding; (B) Loans or extensions of credit to any person who is not an
affiliate, where the insurer makes such loans or extensions of
credit with the agreement or understanding that the proceeds of
such transactions, in whole or in substantial part, are to be
used to make loans or extensions of credit to, to purchase
assets of, or to make investments in any affiliate of the
insurer making such loans or extensions of credit, provided such
transactions are equal to or exceed: with respect to nonlife
insurers, the lesser of 3 percent of the insurer's admitted
assets or 25 percent of surplus with regard to policyholders; or
with respect to life insurers, 3 percent of the insurer's
admitted assets; each as of December 31 next preceding; (C) Reinsurance agreements or modifications thereto in which the
reinsurance premium or a change in the insurer's liabilities
equals or exceeds 5 percent of the insurer's surplus with regard
to policyholders, as of December 31 next preceding, including
those agreements which may require as consideration the transfer
of assets from an insurer to a nonaffiliate, if an agreement or
understanding exists between the insurer and nonaffiliate that
any portion of such assets will be transferred to one or more
affiliates of the insurer; (D) All management agreements, service contracts, and all
cost-sharing agreements; and (E) Any material transactions, specified by regulation, which
the Commissioner determines may adversely affect the interests
of the insurer's policyholders. Nothing contained in this paragraph shall be deemed to authorize
or permit any transactions which, in the case of an insurer who is
not a member of the same holding company system, would be
otherwise contrary to law. (3) A domestic insurer may not enter into transactions which are part of a plan or series of like transactions with persons within the holding company system if the purpose of those separate transactions is to avoid the statutory threshold amount and thus avoid the review that would occur otherwise. If the Commissioner determines that such separate transactions were entered into over any 12 month period for such purpose, he may exercise his authority under Code Section 33-13-9 or Code Section 33-13-100. (4) The Commissioner, in reviewing transactions pursuant to
paragraph (2) of this subsection, shall consider whether the
transactions comply with the standards set forth in paragraph (1)
of this subsection and whether they may adversely affect the
interests of policyholders. (5) The Commissioner shall be notified within 30 days of any
investment of the domestic insurer in any one corporation if the
total investment in such corporation by the insurance holding
company system exceeds 10 percent of such corporation's voting
securities. (b)(1) No domestic insurer shall apply any extraordinary dividend
or make any other extraordinary distribution to its shareholders
until 30 days after the Commissioner has received notice of the
declaration thereof and has not within such period disapproved
such payment, or the Commissioner shall have approved such payment
within such 30 day period. (2) For the purposes of this subsection, an extraordinary dividend
or distribution includes any dividend or distribution of cash or
other property, whose fair market value together with that of
other dividends or distributions made within the preceding 12
months exceeds the greater of 10 percent of such insurer's surplus
with regard to policyholders as of December 31 next preceding, or
the net gain from operations of such insurer, if such insurer is a
life insurer, or the net income, if such insurer is not a life
insurer, not including realized capital gains, for the 12 month
period ending December 31 next preceding, but shall not include
pro rata distributions of any class of the insurer's own
securities. (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an insurer may
declare an extraordinary dividend or distribution which is
conditional upon the Commissioner's approval thereof, and such a
declaration shall confer no rights upon shareholders until the
Commissioner has approved the payment of such a dividend or
distribution or the Commissioner has not disapproved such payment
within the 30 day period referred to in paragraph (1) of this
subsection. (c) For purposes of this chapter, in determining whether an
insurer's surplus with regard to policyholders is reasonable in
relation to the insurer's outstanding liabilities and adequate to
its financial needs, the following factors, among others, shall be
considered: (1) The size of the insurer as measured by its assets, capital and
surplus, reserves, premium writings, insurance in force, and other
appropriate criteria; (2) The extent to which the insurer's business is diversified
among the several lines of insurance; (3) The number and size of risks insured in each line of business; (4) The extent of the geographical dispersion of the insurer's
insured risks; (5) The nature and extent of the insurer's reinsurance program; (6) The quality, diversification, and liquidity of the insurer's
investment portfolio; (7) The recent past and projected future trend in the size of the
insurer's surplus as regards policyholders; (8) The surplus with regard to policyholders maintained by other
comparable insurers, considering the factors provided in
paragraphs (1) through (7) of this subsection; (9) The adequacy of the insurer's reserves; (10) The quality and liquidity of investments in affiliates. The
Commissioner may discount or treat any such investment as a
disallowed asset for purposes of determining the adequacy of
surplus with regard to policyholders whenever in the
Commissioner's judgment such investment so warrants; and (11) The quality of the insurer's earnings and the extent to which
reported earnings include extraordinary items. |