58-26-75. Valuation of reserves--Policies providing for uniform amount of insurance and requiring payment of uniform premiums--Policies providing varying amounts of insurance or varying premiums--Certain group annuity and pure endowment contracts maintained by employers--Disability and accidental death benefits--Other benefits. Except as otherwise provided in §§ 58-26-76, 58-26-81, 58-26-82, and 58-26-84, reserves according to the commissioners' reserve valuation method, for the life insurance and endowment benefits of policies providing for a uniform amount of insurance and requiring the payment of uniform premiums shall be the excess, if any, of the present value, at the date of valuation, of future guaranteed benefits provided for by the policies, over the then present value of any future modified net premiums of the policies. The modified net premiums for any policy shall be the uniform percentage of the respective contract premiums for the benefits such that the present value, at the date of issue of the policy, of all the modified net premiums shall be equal to the sum of the then present value of the benefits provided for by the policy and the excess of subdivision (1) over subdivision (2) as follows:

(1) A net level annual premium equal to the present value, at the date of issue, of the benefits provided for after the first policy year, divided by the present value, at the date of issue, of an annuity of one per annum payable on the first and each subsequent anniversary of a policy on which a premium falls due. However, the net level annual premium may not exceed the net level annual premium on the nineteen year premium whole life plan for insurance of the same amount at an age one year higher than the age at issue of the policy;

(2) A net one year term premium for the benefits provided for in the first policy year.

Any life insurance policy issued on or after January 1, 1986, for which the contract premium in the first policy year exceeds that of the second year and for which no comparable additional benefit is provided in the first year for the excess and which provides an endowment benefit or a cash surrender value or a combination thereof in an amount greater than the excess premium, the reserve according to the commissioners' reserve valuation method as of any policy anniversary occurring on or before the assumed ending date defined in this chapter as the first policy anniversary on which the sum of any endowment benefit and any cash surrender value then available is greater than the excess premium shall, except as otherwise provided in §§ 58-26-81 and 58-26-82, be the greater of the reserve as of the policy anniversary calculated as described in the preceding paragraph and the reserve as of the policy anniversary calculated as described in that paragraph, but with (i) the value defined in subdivision (1) of that paragraph being reduced by fifteen percent of the amount of excess first year premium, (ii) all present values of benefits and premiums being determined without reference to premiums or benefits provided for by the policy after the assumed ending date, (iii) the policy being assumed to mature on the date as an endowment, and (iv) the cash surrender value provided on the date being considered as an endowment benefit. In making the above comparison, the mortality and interest bases stated in §§ 58-26-56 to 58-26-63, inclusive, and §§ 58-26-71 to 58-26-74, inclusive, shall be used.

Reserves according to the commissioners' reserve valuation method for: (i) life insurance policies providing for varying amount of insurance or requiring the payment of varying premiums; (ii) group annuity and pure endowment contracts purchased under a retirement plan or plan of deferred compensation, established or maintained by an employer, including a partnership or sole proprietorship, or by an employee organization, or by both, other than a plan providing individual retirement accounts or individual retirement annuities under section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code, as of January 1, 1995; (iii) disability and accidental death benefits in all policies and contracts; and (iv) all other benefits, except life insurance and endowment benefits in life insurance policies and benefits provided by all other annuity and pure endowment contracts, shall be calculated by a method consistent with the principles of the preceding paragraphs of this section.

Source: SL 1995, ch 284, § 31; SL 2015, ch 254, § 17.