ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 303
(By Senators Manchin, Helmick, Craigo, Dittmar, Sharpe, Wagner,
Wooton, Kimble, Scott, Blatnik, Chafin, Wiedebusch and Yoder.)
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[Originating in the Committee on Banking and Insurance;
reported February 2, 1996.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section ten, article six, chapter
thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to standard
provisions in insurance policies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article six, chapter thirty-three of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. THE INSURANCE POLICY.
§33-6-10. Standard provisions.
(a) Insurance contracts shall contain such standard provisions
as are required by the applicable provisions of this chapter
pertaining to contracts of particular kinds of insurance. The commissioner may waive the required use of a particular standard
provision in a particular insurance policy form, if he finds such
provision unnecessary for the protection of the insured and
inconsistent with the purposes of the policy, and the policy is
otherwise approved by him.
(b) No policy shall contain any provision inconsistent with or
contradictory to any standard provision used or required to be
used, but the commissioner may approve any substitute provision
which is, in his opinion, not less favorable in any particular to
the insured or beneficiary than the standard provisions or optional
standard provisions, otherwise required. This section shall not
apply to the standard fire insurance policy.
(c)On or after the first day of October, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-six, the insurer shall provide to all prospective
purchasers of individual life insurance policies with a face value
of twenty-five thousand dollars or less, a notice upon a form
prescribed by the commissioner to such prospective policyholder
that the total premiums paid by the purchaser at some point in the
future may exceed the death benefit. This notice shall be provided
at the time of delivery of the policy: Provided, That this
subsection does not apply to mass market life insurance products as
defined in section thirty-five of this article, to life insurance policies used exclusively to fund preneed burial contracts under
article fourteen, chapter forty-seven of this code or to life
insurance policies for which the total premiums paid by the
purchaser will not at any time exceed the death benefit.