33-7-126. Exemption of certain societies. (1) Nothing in this chapter may be construed to affect or apply to:

(a) grand or subordinate lodges of societies, orders, or associations doing business in this state on July 1, 1992, that provide benefits exclusively through local or subordinate lodges;

(b) (i) orders, societies, or associations that admit to membership only persons engaged in one or more crafts or hazardous occupations or in the same or similar lines of business and that insure only their own members and their families; and

(ii) the ladies' societies or ladies' auxiliaries to such orders, societies, or associations;

(c) domestic societies that limit their membership to employees of a particular city or town, designated firm, business house, or corporation and that provide for a death benefit of not more than $400 or disability benefits of not more than $350 to any person in any 1 year, or both; or

(d) domestic societies or associations of a purely religious, charitable, or benevolent description, which provide for a death benefit of not more than $400 or for disability benefits of not more than $350 to a person in any 1 year, or both.

(2) A society or association described in subsection (1)(c) or (1)(d) that provides for death or disability benefits for which benefit certificates are issued and a society or association included in subsection (1)(d) that has more than 1,000 members are not exempt from the provisions of this chapter.

(3) A society that is exempt under this section from the requirements of this chapter, except a society described in subsection (1)(b), may not give or allow or promise to give or allow to any person any compensation for procuring new members.

(4) A society that provides for benefits in case of death or disability resulting solely from accident and that does not obligate itself to pay natural death or sick benefits has all of the privileges and is subject to all the applicable provisions and regulations of this chapter except the provisions of this chapter that relate to medical examination, valuations of benefit certificates, and incontestability.

(5) The commissioner may require from a society or association, by examination or otherwise, any information that will enable the commissioner to determine whether the society or association is exempt from the provisions of this chapter.

(6) A society that is exempt under the provisions of this section is also exempt from all other provisions of the insurance laws of this state.

History: En. Sec. 38, Ch. 586, L. 1991.