§ 66A.34 — Dividends
Plain-Language Summary
Mutual life insurance companies must calculate and credit dividends to each participating policyholder every year, starting no later than the third year of the policy. After five years, policyholders can choose how their dividends are applied, such as reducing premiums, buying more insurance, or receiving cash.
66A.34 DIVIDENDS.
§
Subdivision 1.Annual apportionment and accounting of surplus.
Every life insurance company doing business in this state conducted on the mutual plan or in which policyholders are entitled to share in the profits or surplus shall make an annual apportionment and accounting of divisible surplus to each policyholder, beginning not later than the end of the third policy year, on all participating policies hereafter issued; and each such policyholder shall be entitled to and be credited with or paid, in the manner hereinafter provided, such a portion of the entire divisible surplus as has been contributed thereto by that person’s policy. §
Subd. 2.Policyholder to choose.
Every policyholder shall, on all participating policies hereafter issued, be permitted, after that person’s policy has been in force five years, annually, to select the manner and method of the application of the surplus to be annually apportioned to that person’s policy from among those set forth in the policy. All apportioned surplus not actually paid over to the insured, or applied in the reduction of current or future premiums or in the purchase of paid-up insurance or pure endowment additions, shall be credited to the insured and carried as an actual liability and be paid at the maturity of the policy. §
Subd. 3.Waiver prohibited.
No agreement between the company and the policyholder or applicant for insurance shall be held to waive any of the provisions of subdivisions 1 and 2. §
Subd. 4.Policies issued prior to January 1, 1908.
Every life insurance company doing business in this state conducted on the mutual plan, or in which policyholders are entitled to share in the profits or surplus, shall, on all policies of life insurance issued prior to January 1, 1908, under the conditions of which the distribution of surplus is deferred to a fixed or specified time, and contingent upon the policy being in force and the insured living at that time, annually ascertain the amount of surplus to which all such policies as a separate class are entitled, and shall annually apportion to such policies as a class the amount of surplus so ascertained, and carry the amount of such apportioned surplus, plus the actual interest earnings and accretions of such fund, as a distinct and separate liability to such class of policies on and for which the same was accumulated, and no company or any of its officers shall be permitted to use any part of such apportioned surplus fund for any purpose other than the express purpose for which the same was accumulated. This subdivision shall not apply to industrial policies. §
Subd. 5.Required policy provision.
The required policy provision is contained in section 61A.03, subdivision 1, paragraph (f).
History:
1967 c 395 art 2 s 26; 1986 c 444; 2005 c 69 art 2 s 18
History: History: 1967 c 395 art 2 s 26; 1986 c 444; 2005 c 69 art 2 s 18