Title 26 — Title 26 — Insurance Code

Scope and applicability of chapter. This chapter, except W.S. 26-16-118, 26-16-120 and 26-16-505, applies only to contracts of life insurance and annuities, other than reinsurance, group life insurance and group annuities.

Standard provisions required. (a) No life insurance policy, other than group and pure endowments with or without return of premiums or of premiums and interest, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless it contains provisions conforming in substance to each o…

Grace period. A grace period of thirty (30) days, or, at the insurer's option, of one (1) month of not less than thirty (30) days, or of four (4) weeks in the case of industrial life insurance policies the premiums for which are payable more frequently than monthly, shall be allo…

Incontestability. The policy, exclusive of provisions relating to disability benefits or to additional benefits in case of death by accident or accidental means, is incontestable, except for nonpayment of premiums, after it is in force during the insured's lifetime for a period o…

Policy and application constitutes entire contract; statements deemed representations. The policy, or the policy and the application therefor if a copy of the application is endorsed upon or attached to the policy when issued, constitutes the entire contract between the parties a…

Misstatement of age. If the age of the insured or of any other person whose age is considered in determining the premium or benefit is misstated, any amount payable or benefit accruing under the policy shall be in an amount as the premium would purchase at the correct age.

Dividends. (a) In participating policies, beginning not later than the end of the third policy year, the insurer shall annually ascertain and apportion the divisible surplus, if any, that will accrue on the policy anniversary or other dividend date specified in the policy, provid…

Policy loans. (a) As used in this section: (i) "Policy" includes certificates issued by a fraternal benefit society and annuity contracts which provide for policy loans; (ii) "Policyholder" includes the owner of the policy or the person designated to pay premiums as shown on the …

Table of installments required. In case the policy provides that the proceeds are payable in installments which are determinable at issue of the policy, there shall be a table showing the amounts of the guaranteed installments.

Reinstatement of policies. (a) Unless the policy has been surrendered for its cash surrender value, or its cash surrender value has been exhausted, or the paid-up term insurance, if any, has expired, the policy will be reinstated at any time within three (3) years, or two (2) yea…

Time and place of payment of premiums. The time and place of payment of premiums shall be specified.

Payment of claims. (a) If the benefits under the policy are payable because of the death of the insured, settlement shall be made upon receipt of proof of death and, at the insurer's option, surrender of the policy or proof of the interest of the claimant, or both. If an insurer …

policies. Beneficiaries of industrial life insurance (a) An industrial life insurance policy shall have the name of the beneficiary designated thereon, or in the application or other form if attached to the policy, with a reservation of the right to designate or change the benefi…

Title on policy. There shall be a title on the policy briefly describing the policy.

Excluded or restricted coverage under incontestability clause. A clause in any life insurance policy providing that the policy is incontestable after a specified period precludes only a contest of the policy's validity and does not preclude the assertion at any time of defenses b…

provisions. Annuity and pure endowment contracts; standard (a) No annuity or pure endowment contract, other than reversionary, survivorship or group annuities and except as stated in this section, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless it contains provisio…

Annuity and pure endowment contracts; provisions to be contained. (a) Any annuity or pure endowment contract, other than a reversionary, survivorship or group annuity, shall contain provisions as specified in this section. (b) There shall be a grace period of one (1) month, but n…

Standard provisions for reversionary annuities. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, no contract for a reversionary annuity shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless it contains in substance: (i) The provisions specified in W.S. 26-16-117, except…

Provisions limiting liability in life insurance policies prohibited; exceptions. (a) No life insurance policy shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state if it contains any provision: (i) Limiting the time within which an action at law or in equity may be commenced on…

Prohibited provisions generally in life insurance policies and industrial life insurance policies. (a) No life insurance policy, other than industrial insurance, shall be issued or delivered in this state, or be issued by any domestic insurer, if it contains any provision: (i) By…

Failure to pay premiums; notification. When an employer or trustee of a fund established or adopted by an employer, which employer or trustee is deemed the policyholder of the life insurance policy insuring the employer's employees for the benefit of persons other than the employ…

Short title; policy issue date; valuation manual operative date. (a) This article is known as the Standard Nonforfeiture Law for Life Insurance. (b) For the purpose of this article the date of issue of a policy is the date on which the insured's rated age is determined. (c) For t…

Policy provisions. (a) No life insurance policy, except as stated in W.S. 26-16-212, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless it contains provisions conforming in substance to each of the following provisions, or corresponding provisions which the commission…

Cash surrender values. (a) The insurer may reserve the right to defer the payment of any cash surrender value for a period of six (6) months after demand therefor with surrender of the policy. (b) Cash surrender value shall be as follows: (i) Any cash surrender value available un…

Paid-up nonforfeiture benefits. Any paid-up nonforfeiture benefit available under the policy in case of default in a premium payment due on any policy anniversary shall be such that its present value as of the anniversary shall be at least equal to the cash surrender value then p…

Section applicability; adjusted premiums. (a) This section does not apply to policies issued on or after the operative date of W.S. 26-16-209. (b) Except as provided in W.S. 26-16-207, the adjusted premiums for any policy shall be calculated on an annual basis and shall be such u…

Varying amount of insurance based on policy duration; uniform equivalent. (a) In the case of a policy providing an amount of insurance varying with duration of the policy, the equivalent uniform amount thereof for the purpose of W.S. 26-16-205 is the uniform amount of insurance p…

Adjustment of premiums for benefits provided by rider or supplemental policy provision. (a) The adjusted premiums for any policy providing term insurance benefits by rider or supplemental policy provision shall be equal to: (i) The adjusted premiums for an otherwise similar polic…

Section applicability; calculation of certain adjusted premiums. (a) This section does not apply to ordinary policies issued on or after the operative date of W.S. 26-16-209. All adjusted premiums and present values referred to in this article, for all policies of ordinary insura…

Section applicability; premium adjustment for any policy; annual calculation; exception. (a) This section applies to policies issued on or after the operative date in subsection (n) of this section. (b) Except as provided in subsection (h) of this section, the adjusted premiums f…

Determination of specified life insurance plan premiums and benefits. (a) For any life insurance plan which provides for future premium determination, the amounts of which are to be determined by the insurer based on the then estimates of future experience, or for any life insura…

Calculating cash surrender and paid-up nonforfeiture benefits for premium default other than on policy anniversary. (a) Any cash surrender value and any paid-up nonforfeiture benefit, available under the policy in case of default in a premium payment due at any time other than on…

(a) Applicability of article. This article does not apply to any: (i) Reinsurance; (ii) Group insurance; (iii) Pure endowment; (iv) Annuity or reversionary annuity contract; (v) Term policy of uniform amount which provides no guaranteed nonforfeiture or endowment benefits, or ren…

Nonforfeiture benefits on old policies. (a) In the case of policies referred to in W.S. 26-16-102 and issued prior to the operative date of article 2 of this chapter, there shall be a provision which, in case of default in premium payments after premiums are paid for three (3) ye…

Short title. This article is known as the "Standard Nonforfeiture Law For Individual Deferred Annuities".

(a) Applicability of article. This article does not apply to any: (i) Reinsurance; (ii) Group annuity purchased under a retirement plan or plan of deferred compensation established or maintained by an employer, an employee organization, or both, other than a plan providing indivi…

Contract provisions. (a) In the case of contracts issued on or after the operative date of this article as defined in W.S. 26-16-411, no annuity contract, except as stated in W.S. 26-16-402, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless it contains in substance t…

Minimum nonforfeiture amounts upon which certain minimum values are to be based. (a) The minimum values as specified in W.S. 26-16-405 through 26-16-409 of any paid-up annuity, cash surrender or death benefits available under an annuity contract shall be based upon minimum nonfor…

Present value of paid-up annuity benefits. Any paid-up annuity benefit available under a contract shall be such that its present value on the date annuity payments are to commence is at least equal to the minimum nonforfeiture amount on that date. The present value shall be compu…

Calculating cash surrender benefits available prior to contract maturity. (a) For contracts which provide cash surrender benefits, cash surrender benefits available prior to maturity shall not be less than an amount determined as follows: (i) Determine the present value as of the…

Minimum paid-up annuity benefit available as a nonforfeiture option. For contracts which do not provide cash surrender benefits, the present value of any paid-up annuity benefit available as a nonforfeiture option at any time prior to maturity shall not be less than the present v…

Annuity contract optional maturity dates. For the purpose of determining the benefits calculated under W.S. 26-16-406 and 26-16-407 in the case of annuity contracts under which an election may be made to have annuity payments commence at optional maturity dates, the maturity date…

Calculating benefits under contracts with fixed schedule considerations. Any paid-up annuity, cash surrender or death benefits available at any time, other than on the contract anniversary, under any contract with fixed scheduled considerations, shall be calculated with allowance…

Calculating minimum annuity and life insurance nonforfeiture benefits when included by rider or supplemental contract provision. For any contract which provides therein, by rider or supplemental contract provision, both annuity benefits and life insurance benefits that exceed the…

Operative date of article. (a) After May 20, 1981, any company may file with the commissioner a written notice of its election to comply with this article after a specified date before May 20, 1983. After filing the notice, then upon the specified date, which is the operative dat…

Incontestability and limitation of liability after reinstatement. (a) A reinstated life insurance policy or annuity contract may be contested because of fraud or misrepresentation of facts material to the reinstatement only for the same period following reinstatement and with the…

Allocation to separate accounts to provide for life insurance or annuities; regulation of variable contracts. (a) A domestic life insurer may establish one (1) or more separate accounts and may allocate to those accounts amounts, including without limitation proceeds applied unde…

Insurer issuing participating and nonparticipating policies; records. (a) Any life insurer issuing both participating and nonparticipating policies shall maintain any accounting records necessary for it to determine dividends to participating policyholders on an equitable basis. …

Policy plans prohibited. (a) No life insurer shall deliver or issue for delivery in this state: (i) As part of or in combination with any life insurance, endowment or annuity contract, any agreement or plan, additional to the rights, dividends and benefits arising out of the cont…

Unclaimed life insurance benefits. (a) An insurer shall perform a comparison of its insureds' policies and retained asset accounts against a death master file on at least a semi-annual basis by using the full death master file once and thereafter using the death master file updat…