CHAPTER 330
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 9, TITLE 18, DELAWARE CODE, RELATING TO VALUATION AND NONFORFEITURE REQUIREMENTS OF LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:
Section 1. § 903 (b), Title 18, Delaware Code, is amended by striking out paragraphs (3), (4), (5) and (6) and inserting the following paragraphs (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) in lieu thereof:
(3) For individual annuity and pure endowment contracts, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies—the 1937 Standard Annuity Mortality Table or, at the option of the Company, the Annuity Mortality Table for 1949, Ultimate, or any modification of either of these tables approved by the Insurance Commissioner;
(4) For group annuity and pure endowment contracts, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies—the Group Annuity Mortality Table for 1951, any modification of such table approved by the Insurance Commissioner, or, at the option of the company, any of the tables or modifications of tables specified for individual annuity and pure endowment contracts;
(5) For total and permanent disability benefits in or supplementary to ordinary policies or contracts—for policies or contracts issued on or after January 1, 1966, the tables of Period 2 disablement rates and the 1930 to 1950 termination rates of the 1952 Disability Study of the Society of Actuaries, with due regard to the type of benefit; for policies or contracts issued on or after January 1, 1961, and prior to January 1, 1966, either such tables or, at the option of the company, the Class (3) Disability Table (1926); and for policies issued prior to January 1, 1961, the Class (3) Disability Table (1926). Any such table shall, for active lives, be combined with a mortality table permitted for calculating the reserves for life insurance policies;
(6) For accidental death benefits in or supplementary to policies—for policies issued on or after January 1, 1966, the 1959 Accidental Death Benefits Table; for policies issued on or after January 1, 1961 and prior to January 1, 1966, either such table or, at the option of the company, the Inter-Company Double Indemnity Mortality Table; and for policies issued prior to January 1, 1961, the Inter-Company Double Indemnity Mortality Table. Either table shall be combined with a mortality table permitted for calculating the reserves for life insurance policies;
(7) For group life insurance, life insurance issued on the substandard basis and other special benefits—such tables as may be approved by the Insurance Commissioner.
Section 2. § 903 (c), Title 18, Delaware Code, is amended by striking out the last paragraph and inserting in lieu thereof:
Reserves according to the Commissioners' reserve valuation method for (i) life insurance policies providing for a varying amount of insurance or requiring the payment of varying premiums, (ii) annuity and pure endowment contracts, (iii) disability and accidental death benefits in all policies and contracts, and (iv) all other benefits, except life insurance and endowment benefits in life insurance policies, shall be calculated by a method consistent with the principles of this Subsection, except that any extra premiums charged because of impairments or special hazards shall be disregarded in the determination of modified net premiums.
Section 3. § 951 (d), Title 18, Delaware Code, is amended by striking out the first two paragraphs and inserting the following three paragraphs in lieu thereof:
Except as provided in the third paragraph of this Subsection, the adjusted premiums for any policy shall be calculated on an annual basis and shall be such uniform percentage of the respective premiums specified in the policy for each policy year, excluding extra premiums to cover impairments or special hazards, that the present value, at the date of issue of the policy, of all such adjusted premiums shall be equal to the sum of (1) the then present value of the future guaranteed benefits provided for by the policy; (2) 2% of the amount of insurance, if the insurance be uniform in amount, or of the equivalent uniform amount, as hereinafter defined, if the amount of insurance varies with duration of the policy; (3) 40% of the adjusted premium for the first policy year; (4) 25% of either the adjusted premium for the first policy year or the adjusted premium for a whole life policy of the same uniform or equivalent uniform amount with uniform premiums for the whole of life issued at the same age for the same amount of insurance, whichever is less. In applying the percentages specified in (3) and (4) above, no adjusted premium shall be deemed to exceed 4% of the amount of insurance or uniform amount equivalent thereto. The date of issue of a policy for the purpose of this Subsection shall be the date as of which the rated age of the insured is determined.
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 this Subsection shall be deemed to be the uniform amount of insurance provided by an otherwise similar policy, containing the same endowment benefit or benefits, if any, issued at the same age and for the same term, the amount of which does not vary with duration and the benefits under which have the same present value at the date of issue as the benefits under the policy, provided, however, that in the case of a policy providing a varying amount of insurance issued on the life of a child under age ten, the equivalent uniform amount may be computed as though the amount of insurance provided by the policy prior to the attainment of age ten were the amount provided by such policy at age ten.
The adjusted premiums for any policy providing term insurance benefits by rider or supplemental policy provision shall be equal to (A) the adjusted premiums for an otherwise similar policy issued at the same age without such term insurance benefits, increased, during the period for which premiums for such term insurance benefits are payable, by (B) the adjusted premiums for such term insurance, the foregoing items (A) and (B) being calculated separately and as specified in the first two paragraphs of this Subsection except that, for the purposes of (2), (3) and (4) of the first such paragraph, the amount of insurance or equivalent uniform amount of insurance used in the calculation of the adjusted premiums referred to in (B) shall be equal to the excess of the corresponding amount determined for the entire policy over the amount used in the calculation of the adjusted premiums in (A).
Section 4. § 951, Title 18, Delaware Code, is amended by striking out Subsection (e) and inserting in lieu thereof:
(e) Any cash surrender value and any paid-up non-forfeiture benefit, available under the policy in the event of default in a premium payment due at any time other than on the policy anniversary, shall be calculated with allowances for the lapse of time and the payment of fractional premiums beyond the last preceding policy anniversary. All values referred to in Subsections (b), (c), (d), and (d-1) of this Section may be calculated upon the assumption that any death benefit is payable at the end of the policy year of death. The net value of any paid-up additions, other than paid-up term additions, shall be not less than the dividends used to provide such additions. Notwithstanding the provision of Subsection (b) of this Section, additional benefits payable (1) in the event of death or dismemberment by accident or accidental means, (2) in the event of total and permanent disability, (3) as reversionary annuity or deferred reversionary annuity benefits, (4) as term insurance benefits provided by a rider or supplemental policy provision to which, if issued as a separate policy, this Section would not apply, (5) as term insurance on the life of a child or on the lives of children provided in a policy on the life of a parent of the child, if such term insurance expires before the child's age is twenty-six, is uniform in amount after the child's age is one, and has not become paid-up by reason of the death of a parent of the child, and (6) as other policy benefits additional to life insurance and endowment benefits, and premiums for all such additional benefits, shall be disregarded in ascertaining cash surrender values and nonforfeiture benefits required by this Section, and no such additional benefits shall be required to be included in any paid-up non-forfeiture benefits.
Approved January 25, 1962.