The lives of a group of individuals may be insured under a policy issued to a mutual benefit society, which shall be deemed the policyholder, to insure members of the society for the benefit of persons other than the society or any of its officials, subject to the following requirements:
(1) The society must have been formed for purposes other than obtaining insurance and have, when the policy is placed in force, a membership in the classes eligible for insurance of not less than seventy-five per cent of the number of persons eligible for membership in such classes;(2) The members eligible for insurance under the policy shall be all of the members of the society, or all of any class or classes thereof;(3) The premium for the policy shall be paid either from the society's own funds or from charges collected from the insured members specifically for the insurance, or from both. No policy may be placed in force unless and until at least seventy-five per cent of the then eligible members of the society, excluding any as to whom evidence of individual insurability is not satisfactory to the insurer, have elected to be covered and have arranged for payment of their individual contributions to the society. Except as provided in paragraph (4), a policy on which no part of the premium is to be derived from funds contributed by the insured members specifically for their insurance must insure all eligible members;(4) An insurer may exclude or limit the coverage on any person as to whom evidence of individual insurability is not satisfactory to the insurer;(5) Charges collected from the insured members specially for the insurance, and the dues of the society if they include the cost of insurance, may be determined according to each attained age or in not less than four reasonably spaced attained age groups;(6) The policy must cover at least twenty-five persons at date of issue; and(7) The amounts of insurance under the policy must be based upon some plan precluding individual selection either by the members or by the society. As used in this section, the term "mutual benefit society" has the same meaning as that ascribed to it in section 432:1-104. Any mutual benefit society participating in an insurance program under this section shall be exempted from the requirements of chapter 432 relative to the management or operation of its death or accident and health or sickness benefit funds with respect to the insurance program.
L 1987, c 347, pt of §2; am L 2003, c 212, §87 .