ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 390
(By Senator Minard)
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[Introduced February 18, 1994;
referred to the Committee on Banking and Insurance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article six, chapter
thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the approval of
insurance policy forms.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, 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.
§33-6-8. Approval of forms.
(a) Except as provided in section eight, article seventeen
of this chapter (fire and marine forms), no insurance policy
form, no group certificate form, no insurance application form
where written application is required and is to be made a part of
the policy, and no rider, endorsement or other form to be
attached to any policy, shall be delivered or issued for deliveryin this state by an insurer unless it has been filed with and
approved by the commissioner, except that as to group insurance
policies delivered outside this state, only the group
certificates to be delivered or issued for delivery in this state
shall be filed for approval with the commissioner. This section
shall not apply to policies, riders, endorsements or forms of
unique character designed for and used with relation to insurance
upon a particular subject, or which relate to the manner of
distribution of benefits or to the reservation of rights and
benefits under life or accident and sickness insurance policies,
and are used at the request of the individual policyholder,
contract holder or certificate holder, nor to the surety bond
forms.
(b) Every such filing shall be made not less than sixty days
in advance of any such delivery. At the expiration of such sixty
days, the form so filed shall be deemed approved unless prior
thereto it has been affirmatively approved or disapproved by the
commissioner. Approval of any such form by the commissioner
shall constitute a waiver of any unexpired portion of such
waiting period. The commissioner may at any time, after notice
and for cause shown, withdraw any such approval.
(c) Any order of the commissioner disapproving any such form
or withdrawing a previous approval shall state the grounds
therefor.
(d) The commissioner may, by order, exempt from the
requirements of this section for so long as he deems proper anyinsurance document or form or type thereof as specified in such
order, to which, in his opinion, this section may not practicably
be applied, or the filing and approval of which are, in his
opinion, not desirable or necessary for the protection of the
public.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section,
any mass marketed life and/or health insurance policy offered to
members of any association by the association shall be exempt
from the provision requiring prior approval under this section:
Provided, That for purposes of this section, the association
shall have a minimum of one hundred members at the outset of the
issuance of the mass marketed life and/or health insurance policy
and shall have been organized and maintained in good faith for
purposes other than that of obtaining or providing insurance:
Provided, however, That the association shall also have been in
active existence for at least two years and shall have a
constitution and bylaws which provide that: (1) The association
holds annual meetings to further purposes of its members; (2)
except in the case of credit unions, the association collects
dues or solicits contributions from members; and (3) the members
have voting privileges and representation on the governing board
and committees that exist under the authority of the association.
(f) This section shall apply also to any form used by
domestic insurers for delivery in a jurisdiction outside West
Virginia, if the insurance supervisory official of such
jurisdiction informs the commissioner that such form is notsubject to approval or disapproval by such official, and upon the
commissioner's order requiring the form to be submitted to him
for the purpose. The applicable same standards shall apply to
such forms as apply to forms for domestic use.