La. Admin. Code tit. 37 § XIII-7709

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024

Section XIII-7709 - Contracts Providing for Variable Benefits

A. Any variable contract delivered or issued for delivery in this state shall contain a statement of the essential features of the procedures to be followed by the insurance company in determining the dollar amount of benefits. Any such contract providing benefits which vary during the payment period, including a group contract and any certificate issued thereunder, shall state that the periodic payments will vary to reflect investment experience and shall contain, on its first page, a clear statement to the effect that the periodic payments thereunder are on a variable basis. Any such contract which provides values which are vested in an annuitant under an individual contract or in the holder of a certificate under a group contract prior to the commencement of the payment period, which values will vary to reflect investment experience, shall state that such values are on the variable basis. Any certificate issued under a group contract providing such variable values shall also contain the statements required by the preceding sentence. If any such contract provides such variable periodic payments, as well as such variable values, the statements required by the preceding sentences may be combined.

B. Illustrations of benefits payable under any variable contract shall not include projections of past investment experience into the future or attempted predictions of future investment experience, provided that nothing contained herein is intended to prohibit use of hypothetical assumed rates of return to illustrate possible levels of annuity payments.

C.

1. Any individual variable annuity contract delivered or issued for delivery in this state shall stipulate the investment increment factors to be used in computing the dollar amount of variable benefits or other contractual payments or values thereunder, and may guarantee that expenses and/or mortality results shall not adversely affect such dollar amounts. If not guaranteed, the expense and mortality factors shall also be stipulated in the contract.

2. In computing the dollar amount of variable benefits or other contractual payments or values under an individual variable annuity contract:

a. the annual net investment increment assumption shall not exceed 5 percent, except with the approval of the commissioner;

b. to the extent that the level of benefits may be affected by future mortality results, the mortality factor shall be determined from the Annuity Mortality Table for 1949, Ultimate, or any modification of that table not having a higher mortality rate at any age, or, if approved by the commissioner, from another table.

3.Expense, as used in this Subsection, may exclude some or all taxes, as stipulated in the contract.

4. Variable annuity contracts delivered or issued for delivery in this state may include as an incidental benefits provision for payment on death during the deferred period of an amount not in excess of the greater of the sum of the premiums or stipulated payments paid under the contract or the value of the contract at the time of death; such provisions will not be deemed to be contracts of life insurance and therefore not subject to the provisions of the Insurance Law governing life insurance. Provision for any other benefit on death during the deferred period will be subject to such insurance provisions.

5. The reserve liability for variable annuities shall be established pursuant to the requirements of the standard valuation law, in accordance with actuarial procedures that recognize the variable nature of the benefits provided.

La. Admin. Code tit. 37, § XIII-7709

Promulgated by the Department of Insurance, Commissioner of Insurance, January 1969, amended LR 24:69 (January 1998), amended LR 35:2782 (December 2009).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 22:1500 of the Revised Statutes of 1950.