The term “franchise” or “wholesale” insurance shall mean a life insurance plan under which a number of individual life insurance policies are issued at special rates to a selected group. A special rate is any rate lower than the rate shown in the issuing insurance company’s manual for individually issued policies of the same type and to insureds of the same class.

After the effective date of this section no franchise or wholesale life insurance plan shall be entered into in this State unless the individuals to whom such insurance is made available are members of a professional association, employees of a common employer or affiliated employers, or unless the insurance is made available in connection with an indebtedness or a contract of sale. The word “employees” as used in this section shall be deemed to include the individual proprietors or partners who constitute the employer or affiliated employers.

In the case of any plan existing on or before the effective date of this section, any individual plan or policy then in effect shall not be changed or affected by this section, but no individual may thereafter become insured for more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), under any such plan except those written in connection with a professional association, an indebtedness, a contract of sale, or a pension plan. Nothing herein contained shall prevent any such plan so existing at the effective date hereof from being changed or modified (a) to change the insurer or insurers underwriting said plan and, to the extent necessary without affecting benefits payable, to make the plan conform to the underwriting rules and procedures of the new insurer or insurers; (b) to change rates applicable to insurance written under said plan; or (c) to add to said plan incidental benefits providing coverage on the lives of dependents of the insured individual, accidental death benefits or waiver of premiums during periods of total disability on the insured.

For purposes of this section a professional association means an association whose membership is restricted to one or more of the licensed professions such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law and accountancy.

(Added by Stats. 1961, Ch. 718.)