California Insurance Code

§ 10506

INS § 10506 Effective Jan 1, 2003Div. 2 · Part 2 · Ch. 5 · Art. 5

Statute text

(a)Any domestic life insurance company may, after adoption of a resolution by its board of directors, allocate to one or more separate accounts, in accordance with the terms of a written agreement, any amounts which are paid to the company in connection with a pension, retirement, retirement medical benefits, or profit-sharing plan, or program for one or more persons, or with an individual or group variable life insurance policy, and which are to be, or may be, applied in payment or in making provision for payment of proceeds or benefits under the company’s policies, contracts, or agreements of retirement benefits, and other benefits incidental thereto, in fixed or variable dollar amounts, or both. The income, if any, and gains or losses, realized or unrealized, on each account shall be credited to or charged against the amount allocated to the account in accordance with the agreement, without regard to the other income, gains or losses of the company. The amounts allocated to the accounts and accumulations thereon, by any life insurance company shall be invested and reinvested as specified in the policy, contract, or agreement without regard to any requirements or limitations prescribed by the laws of this state governing the investments of insurance companies, provided that the amounts allocated to separate accounts for which the insurer has issued guarantees of benefits as to dollar amount and duration or of funds as to all or part of the principal amount thereof or stated rate of interest, and the accumulations thereon pursuant to Section 10506.4, shall be invested in the types of investments permitted to life insurance companies for investments held in the insurer’s general account as described in Article 3 (commencing with Section 1170), Article 4 (commencing with Section 1190), and Article 4.6 (commencing with Section 1211) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 1 (excluding Section 1212 thereof), except that the approved method of operations and applicable policy, contract, or agreement provisions shall govern the amount of these investments held in the separate account. However, with regard to variable life insurance separate accounts and accumulations thereon, the separate accounts shall have sufficient net investment income and readily marketable assets to meet anticipated obligations under policies funded by the account. The limitations contained in Sections 1192.4 and 1198 are not applicable to these investments. These investments shall not be included in determining the propriety of other investments of the company. The liability of the company with respect thereto, but only to the extent prescribed in the agreement, shall be shown on the statement of the company in the manner prescribed by the commissioner. Amounts allocated by an insurance company to separate accounts in the exercise of the power granted by this section shall be owned by the company, but shall not be chargeable with liabilities arising out of any other business the company may conduct except and to the extent provided in the policy, contract, or agreement. The company shall not hold itself out to be a trustee in respect to these amounts.

(b)In addition to amounts otherwise allocated to separate accounts, a domestic life insurer may allocate to the account or accounts amounts which otherwise would be subject to investment in accordance with Article 4 (commencing with Section 1190) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 1. The aggregate of these additional amounts shall not, however, exceed 1 percent of its admitted assets as of the preceding December 31, or 5 percent of the excess of its admitted assets over its liabilities and required reserves as of the preceding December 31, whichever is the smaller. The company shall be entitled to withdraw at any time, in whole or in part, its participation in any separate account to which funds have been allocated as provided in this subdivision and to receive, upon withdrawal, its proportionate share of the value of the assets of the separate account at the time of withdrawal.

(c)In addition to the allocations to separate accounts provided for in subdivision (a), a domestic insurer may, at the request of a policyholder or contractholder or the beneficiary of a policy or contract, allocate to any separate account or accounts, death payments, proceeds of matured endowments, dividends, or surrender values.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 347, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2003.