(a) No domestic stock or mutual life insurance company or fraternal benefit society shall grant any pension to any officer, director or trustee of the company or society, or to any member of the person's family after the person's death, or to any other person whomsoever except that the company or society may provide for an employees' retirement plan for its employees, which plan may or may not require contributions from the employees.

(b) Before the company or society enters into the employees' retirement plan, it shall first submit that plan to the commissioner for approval pursuant to the requirements of this section, and the plan shall not become effective until it has been so approved. After the effective date of the plan, the commissioner may, upon a finding that the plan no longer meets the requirements of this section, order the company or society to discontinue contributions to the plan for a specified time with renewal of the contributions to be subject to the commissioner's subsequent approval.

(c) The commissioner shall approve, or continue the approval of, an employees' retirement plan that meets the following requirements:

(1) No benefit payment can be made to any employee under the plan until the entire reserve required for the benefit payment to the employee has been accumulated and set aside; and

(2) If the plan is established for any classification of the employees of the company or society, such as home office employees, detached office employees, field representatives, agents, etc., it provides for participation and benefits on a nondiscriminatory basis for all employees in each classification who may elect to participate in the plan.

(d) As used in this section, “employees” includes all persons employed by the company or society in any capacity, but does not include any director or trustee of the company or society who serves in that capacity only.