Chapter 175

Section 141. Any domestic life company may from its surplus funds or profits attributable to its participating business accumulate and hold, or hold if already accumulated, as a safety fund, an amount not in excess of 20 per cent of its reserve for such business or one hundred th…

Section 142. (1) For the purpose of this section, ''Published monthly average'' shall mean: (a) the monthly average of the composite yield on seasoned corporate bonds as published by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. or any successor thereto; or (b), in the event that the monthly a…

Section 143. All policies of life insurance and deferred annuity contracts shall be subject to the laws limiting forfeiture applicable and in force at the date of their issue.

Section 144. 1. In the event of default in the payment of any premium on any policy of life insurance issued or delivered in the commonwealth by any life company, the holder thereof may elect by a writing filed with the company at its home office within sixty days after the due d…

Section 145. On policies of industrial insurance issued on or before December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and eleven, by a domestic life company on which premiums are paid weekly and are not more than fifty cents each, the surrender value shall in all cases be payable in cash,…

Section 146. The provisions of section one hundred and forty-four shall, except as hereinafter provided, apply to any policy of industrial life insurance issued or delivered in the commonwealth by any life company. The provisions of said section one hundred and forty-four relativ…

Section 146A. In case of any default in the payment of a premium on any policy of industrial life insurance issued or delivered in the commonwealth by any life company occurring after premiums have been paid thereon for three full years, the company, within six months from the du…

Section 146B. (1) This section may be referred to and cited as the ''Massachusetts Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Law''. (2) As used in this section the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:— ''Account'', …

Section 149. A domestic life company is authorized to issue both participating and nonparticipating policies of life, endowment and accident and sickness insurance, and annuity and pure endowment contracts, but no such company shall issue any such participating policies or contra…

Section 149A. ''Unclaimed funds'' within the meaning of this section and sections one hundred and forty-nine B to one hundred and forty-nine D, inclusive, shall mean and include all monies held and owing by any life insurance company doing business in this commonwealth which shal…

Section 149B. In addition to all other reports required by law, every life company shall, on or before the first day of April of each year, make a report in writing to the state treasurer of all unclaimed funds as defined in section one hundred and forty-nine A held or owing by i…

Section 149C. On or before the first day of September in each year, each life company shall pay over to the state treasurer all unclaimed funds set forth in the report required by section one hundred and forty-nine B, excepting any funds which since the date of such report have c…

Section 149D. Upon the payment of such unclaimed funds to the state treasurer, the commonwealth shall assume, for the benefit of those entitled to receive the same and for the safety of the moneys so paid, the custody of such unclaimed funds, and the insurer making such payment s…

Section 149E. The state treasurer may at any reasonable time following reasonable notice examine the records of any life company to determine if said company has complied with the provisions of this chapter. In the event any life company refuses to permit the state treasurer to e…

Section 149M. As used in sections 149M to 149X, inclusive, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Administrator'', the person who is responsible for the administration of the service contracts or the service contr…

Section 149N. (a) A provider may appoint an administrator or other designee to be responsible for the administration of service contracts executed under sections 149M to 149V, inclusive. (b) Service contracts shall not be issued, sold or offered for sale unless the provider has p…

Section 149O. (a) Reimbursement insurance policies insuring service contracts issued, sold or offered for sale in the commonwealth shall require the insurer that issued the reimbursement insurance policy to reimburse or pay on behalf of the provider any covered sums the provider …

Section 149P. Service contracts shall be printed in clear and understandable language and shall include: (1) a statement in substantially the following form: ''Obligations of the provider under this service contract are insured under a service contract reimbursement insurance pol…

Section 149Q. (a) A provider shall not: (i) use in its name the words insurance, casualty, surety, mutual or any other words descriptive of the insurance, casualty or surety business; or (ii) a name deceptively similar to the name or description of any insurance or surety corpora…

Section 149R. (a) The provider shall keep accurate accounts, books and records concerning transactions regulated under sections 149M to 149W, inclusive, which shall include: (i) copies of each type of service contract sold; (ii) the name and address of each service contract holde…

Section 149S. An insurer issuing a reimbursement insurance policy shall not terminate the policy until a notice of termination has been mailed or delivered to the commissioner. The termination of a reimbursement insurance policy shall not reduce the issuer's responsibility for se…

Section 149T. (a) An insurer issuing reimbursement insurance to providers shall be considered to have received the premiums for such insurance upon the payment of provider fees by consumers for service contracts issued by such insured providers. (b) Sections 149M to 149W, inclusi…

Section 149U. (a) The commissioner may conduct examinations of providers, administrators, insurers or other persons to enforce sections 149M to 149W, inclusive, and protect service contract holders. Upon request of the commissioner, the provider shall make all accounts, books and…

Section 149V. The following shall be exempt from sections 149M to 149W, inclusive: (a) warranties, service contracts or maintenance agreements provided by public utilities that are regulated by the department of telecommunications and cable or the Federal Communications Commissio…

Section 149W. The commissioner may promulgate rules and regulations for the administration and enforcement of sections 149M to 149V, inclusive.

Section 149X. The commissioner shall retain all registration fees collected under subsection (c) of section 149N and fines collected under clause (4) of subsection (b) of section 149U; provided, however, that revenue in excess of $100,000 annually shall revert to the General Fund…

Section 14A. If, in the valuation of securities held by a domestic life company, it becomes necessary or expedient for the commissioner to contribute to the expenses of the Committee on Valuation of Securities of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in order to ma…

Section 150. Foreign companies, upon complying with the conditions herein set forth applicable to such companies, may be admitted to transact in the commonwealth any kinds of business authorized by this chapter, subject to all general laws now or hereafter in force relative to in…

Section 151. No foreign company shall be admitted and authorized to do business until— First, It has deposited with the commissioner a certified copy of its charter or deed of settlement and a statement of its financial condition and business, in the form prescribed by section tw…

Section 152. No foreign company shall transact in this commonwealth any kind of business not specified in its charter and in its license. Any foreign stock company, or any company described in section one hundred and fifty-five, admitted to the commonwealth, may, if its charter p…

Section 152A. Any mutual fire company admitted before or after this section takes effect to transact business in this commonwealth may issue non-assessable policies in compliance with the requirements of section eighty-five A and any such mutual company, or any company specified …

Section 153. A company organized under the laws of any other state of the United States for the transaction of life insurance may, subject to all provisions of section one hundred and fifty-one so far as applicable to a life company, be admitted and authorized to do business in t…

Section 154. When legal process is served upon the commissioner as attorney for a foreign company under the third clause of section one hundred and fifty-one, he shall forthwith forward by mail, postage prepaid, one of the duplicate copies of the process served on him, addressed …

Section 155. A foreign company, if formed under the laws of any government or state other than the United States or one of the United States, shall not be admitted and authorized to do business until, besides complying with the conditions of section one hundred and fifty-one— Fir…

Section 156. Any such company may appoint trustees, who are citizens or corporations of the United States and approved by the commissioner, to hold funds in trust for the benefit of its policyholders and creditors in the United States. Said trustees shall be named by the director…

Section 156A. Every foreign company, other than a life company, whose capital stock or guaranty or deposit capital is reduced below the amounts required by section one hundred and fifty-one, one hundred and fifty-two or one hundred and fifty-five, or is impaired on the basis fixe…

Section 158. No policy of insurance and no annuity or pure endowment contract issued to a resident of the commonwealth by an authorized company organized under the laws of a foreign country shall be invalidated by war between such foreign country and the United States.

Section 159. If by the laws of any other state any taxes, fines, penalties, licenses, fees, deposits or other obligations or prohibitions, additional to or in excess of those imposed by the laws of this commonwealth upon foreign companies and their agents, are imposed on domestic…

Section 16. He shall preserve in a permanent form a record of his proceedings, including a concise statement of the result of official examinations of companies. He shall furnish, upon payment of the fee prescribed by section fourteen, when required for evidence in court, certifi…

Section 160. Whoever, for a person other than himself, acts or aids in any manner in the negotiation, continuation, or renewal of a policy of insurance or an annuity or pure endowment contract with a foreign company not lawfully admitted to issue such policies or contracts in thi…

Section 160A. No person shall print or publish, or cause to be printed or published, in any newspaper, magazine, pamphlet or other periodical any advertisement for or on behalf of any foreign company or fraternal benefit society not licensed to transact business in this commonwea…

Section 160B. The commissioner may, if it appears to him that any foreign company or fraternal benefit society not duly licensed to transact business in this commonwealth is issuing policies of insurance, annuity or pure endowment contracts or benefit certificates to residents th…

Section 160C. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections one hundred and sixty and one hundred and sixty-three an insurance company authorized to write automobile liability and physical damage insurance in this commonwealth may act as agent for one or more insurers authorized to …

Section 160D. Section one hundred and sixty shall not apply to a duly licensed insurance agent or broker who negotiates, continues or renews automobile insurance policies for residents of the United States in a Mexican insurance company providing liability or physical damage cove…

Section 161A. In this section and in sections one hundred and sixty-one B to one hundred and sixty-one E, inclusive, the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Alien insurer'', any insurer incorporated or organized under the …

Section 161B. Any alien insurer now or hereafter licensed to do business in the commonwealth which owns beneficially, directly or indirectly, all of the outstanding capital stock of a domestic insurer may, with the prior written approval of the commissioner and subject to the fin…

Section 161C. Said domestication agreement shall be authorized, adopted, approved, signed and acknowledged by the alien insurer in accordance with the laws of the country under which it is organized. In the case of a domestic insurer the domestication agreement shall be approved,…

Section 161D. An executed counterpart of the domestication agreement, together with certified copies of the corporate proceedings of the domestic insurer and the alien insurer, approving, adopting and authorizing the execution of said domestication agreement, shall be submitted t…

Section 161E. Upon the filing with the commissioner of a certified copy of the instrument of transfer and assumption pursuant to which a domestic insurer succeeds to the business and assets of the United States branch of an alien insurer and assumes all its liabilities, as provid…