§ 58-37A-38 — Exempt societies--Allowance of compensation for procuring new members prohibited--Director to determine exemption--Exempt societies not subject to insurance laws.

Nothing contained in this chapter may be construed as to apply to: (1) Grand or subordinate lodges of societies, orders, or associations now doing business in this state which provide benefits exclusively through local or subordinate lodges; (2) Orders, societies, or associations which admit to membership only persons engaged in crafts or hazardous occupations, in the same or similar lines of business, insuring only their own members and their families, and the ladies' societies or ladies' auxiliaries to these orders, societies, or associations; (3) Domestic societies which limit their membership to employees of a particular municipality, designated firm, business house, or corporation which provide for a death benefit of not more than four hundred dollars or disability benefits of not more than three hundred fifty dollars to any person in any one year, or both; or (4) Domestic societies or associations of a purely religious, charitable, or benevolent description, which provide for a death benefit of not more than four hundred dollars or for disability benefits of not more than three hundred fifty dollars to any one person in any one year, or both. Any such society or association described in subdivision (3) or (4) of this section which provides for death or disability benefits for which benefit certificates are issued, and any such society or association included in subdivision (4) of this section which has more than one thousand members, is not exempt from the provisions of this chapter. No society which, by the provisions of this section, is exempt from the requirements of this chapter, except any society described in subdivision (2) of this section may give or allow, or promise to give or allow, to any person any compensation for procuring new members. Every society which provides for benefits in case of death or disability resulting solely from accident and which does not obligate itself to pay natural death or sick benefits has all of the privileges and is subject to the provisions of this chapter. However, the provisions of this chapter relating to medical examination, valuations of benefit certificates and incontestability, do not apply to that society. The director may require from any society or association, by examination or otherwise, the information that will enable the director to determine whether the society or association is exempt from the provisions of this chapter. Any society, exempt under the provisions of this section, is also exempt from all other provisions of the insurance laws of this state.

Legislative History

SL 1990, ch 410, § 38; SL 1992, ch 60, § 2.