PART IV. RESERVES

SUBPART A. LIFE INSURANCE RESERVES

§751. Commissioner of insurance to make valuation

A.(1)(a) The commissioner shall annually value, or cause to be valued, the reserve liabilities, hereinafter called "reserves", for all outstanding life insurance policies and annuity and pure endowment contracts of every life insurance company doing business in this state. The commissioner shall certify the amount of any such reserves.

(b) In calculating such reserves, the commissioner may use group methods and approximate averages for fractions of a year or otherwise.

(2)(a) Every foreign life insurance company or fraternal order shall either:

(i) Submit a valuation certificate from their domiciliary state before August first of the year following the year of valuation.

(ii) Be valued by the commissioner at the expense of the company.

(b) The commissioner shall require such documents and studies as he deems necessary in order to accomplish this valuation. In lieu of the valuation of the reserves herein required of any foreign or alien company, the commissioner may accept any valuation made, or caused to be made, by the insurance supervisory official of any state or other jurisdiction when such valuation complies with the minimum standard herein provided and if such official accepts as sufficient and for all valid legal purposes, the certificate of valuation of the commissioner when such certificate states the valuation to have been made in a specified manner according to which the aggregate reserves would be at least as large as if they had been computed in the manner prescribed by the law of that state or jurisdiction.

(3) The commissioner may adopt rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this Subsection, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act.

B. The legal minimum standard for such valuation of policies, including industrial life insurance policies, shall be the American Experience Table of Mortality with interest at four percent per annum, except that group insurance policies under which premium rates are not guaranteed for a period in excess of five years shall be valued on the American Men Ultimate Table of Mortality with interest at three and one-half percent per annum.

C. Such valuation shall be made according to a method producing reserves not less than those produced by the one year full preliminary term method and, with respect to policies (other than industrial policies) issued to residents of the continental United States on and after January 1, 1939, not less than those produced by the modified preliminary term method under what is known as the Illinois Standard.

D. The legal minimum standard for the valuation of annuities issued on and after January 1, 1939 shall be the American Annuitants Table with interest at five percent per annum for group annuities and four percent per annum for all other annuities, except that annuities deferred ten or more years and written in connection with life insurance shall be valued on the same basis as that used in computing the consideration or premiums therefor, or upon any higher standard at the option of the insurer. Annuities issued prior to January 1, 1939, shall continue to be valued on a basis not lower than that used for the annual statement for the year 1937.

E. On or after July 29, 1947, the reserves of industrial life insurance companies and service insurance companies chartered by this state shall be determined by the commissioner of insurance by applying the following reductions to the reserve figures produced, in each case, by the method of computation set forth in the foregoing provisions of this Section:

(1) On all policies issued by such insurers prior to January 1, 1937, which provide for the furnishing of a funeral as the obligation of the insurer to the insured and his beneficiary, a reduction not to exceed seventy percent of the reserve as computed in accordance with this Subpart.

(2) On all policies issued by such insurers from January 1, 1937, to December 31, 1946, inclusive, which provide for the furnishing of a funeral as the obligation of the insurer to the insured and his beneficiary, a reduction not to exceed forty percent of the reserve as computed in accordance with this Subpart.

(3)(a) On all policies issued by such an insurer from January 1, 1947 through December 31, 1977, which provide for the furnishing of a funeral as the obligation of the insurer to the insured and his beneficiary, a reduction not to exceed twenty-five percent of the reserve as computed in accordance with this Subpart. However, certain policies described in R.S. 22:142 and 143 shall be fully reserved without benefit of reduction in reserves.

(b) All policies issued by such an insurer on or after January 1, 1978, which provide for the furnishing of a funeral as the obligation of the insurer to the insured and his beneficiary, shall be fully reserved without benefit of reduction in reserves.

(4) Provided, that in all cases, this reduction shall be allowed only where the insurer produces satisfactory proof of a contract with an authorized funeral director who is capable of furnishing the service specified in the policy, allowing a discount for the furnishing of the service specified therein, and in no case shall the reduction allowed herein exceed the amount of the reduction allowed in such contract.

(5) Repealed by Acts 2009, No. 503, §2.

(6) Provided, further, that such reduction shall only be granted to those insurers who agree by an instrument in writing, filed with the commissioner of insurance, to apportion to and to maintain in a separate reserve fund, and who actually do apportion to and maintain in a separate fund, at least two percent of their annual gross premium income, for the purpose of bringing up the reserves to which the above reduction would apply on all funeral policies to seventy-five percent, and on all policies providing in whole or part for cash benefits to one hundred percent, of the full reserve on that portion of funeral policies providing for cash benefits, as computed in accordance with Subsections A, B, C and D of this Section, the aforesaid two percent to be in addition to any normal increase in reserves during the year.

F. Any life insurer transacting insurance in foreign countries only and not transacting insurance in any state of the United States or of the District of Columbia shall calculate its reserves on insurance written on such residents of foreign countries in accordance with reserve standards approved by the commissioner of insurance for the state of Louisiana. Acts that would otherwise be considered the transaction of insurance as that term is defined in this Title shall not be considered the transaction of insurance when undertaken in connection with the insurance of residents of foreign countries by life insurers that only insure residents of foreign countries. The mortality, interest, and other standards specified in this Section and in the standard nonforfeiture law as set forth in R.S. 22:936 shall not apply to policies and contracts approved for issuance only to residents of foreign countries.

Acts 1958, No. 125. Amended by Acts 1979, No. 370, §1; Acts 1992, No. 704, §1; Acts 1993, No. 535, §1; Acts 2001, No. 61, §1; Redesignated from R.S. 22:162 by Acts 2008, No. 415, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2009; Acts 2009, No. 503, §§1, 2.

NOTE: Former R.S. 22:751 redesignated as R.S. 22:2030 by Acts 2008, No. 415, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2009.