§ 26-7-107 — Authorized investments

Wyoming § 26-7-107

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 26: Insurance Code
• Ch. 7: INVESTMENTS

Text

(a) An insurer may invest in:
(i) Bonds or other evidences of indebtedness, not in
default as to principal or interest, which are valid and legally
authorized obligations issued, assumed or guaranteed by the
United States or Canada or by any state, territory, possession
or province thereof, or by any county, city, town, village,
municipality or other political subdivision or public
instrumentality of one (1) or more of the governmental units
specified, if, by statutory or other legal requirements
applicable thereto, the obligations are payable as to both
principal and interest from:
(A) Taxes levied or required to be levied upon
all taxable property or all taxable income within the
jurisdiction of the governmental unit; or
(B) Adequate special revenues pledged or
otherwise appropriated or by law required to be provided for
that payment, but not including any obligation payable solely
out of special assessments on properties benefited by local
improvements unless adequate security is evidenced by the ratio
of assessment to the value of the property or the obligation is
additionally secured by an adequate guaranty fund required by
law.
(ii) The obligations and stock if stated, issued,
assumed or guaranteed by the following agencies of the United
States government, or in which that government is a participant,
whether or not it guarantees the obligations:
(A) Commodity credit corporation;
(B) Federal intermediate credit banks;
(C) Federal land banks;
(D) Banks for cooperatives;
(E) Federal home loan banks, and stock thereof;
(F) Federal national mortgage association and
stock thereof when acquired in connection with sale of mortgage
loans to the association;
(G) International bank for reconstruction and
development;
(H) Inter-American development bank;
(J) Any other similar agency of, or participated
in by, the United States government and of similar financial
quality.
(iii) Obligations other than those eligible for
investment under W.S. 26-7-107(a)(xii) if they are issued,
assumed or guaranteed by any solvent institution created or
existing under the laws of the United States or Canada or of any
state, district, territory or province thereof, and are
qualified under any of the following:
(A) Obligations which are secured by adequate
collateral security and bear fixed interest if during each of
any three (3), including the last two (2), of the five (5)
fiscal years immediately preceding the date of the insurer's
acquisition, the net earnings of the issuing, assuming or
guaranteeing institution available for its fixed charges, as
defined in W.S. 26-7-102, have been not less than one and
one-fourth (1 1/4) times the total of its fixed charges for that
year. In determining the adequacy of collateral security not
more than one-third (1/3) of the total value of the required
collateral shall consist of stock other than stock meeting the
requirements of W.S. 26-7-107(a)(iv);
(B) Fixed interest-bearing obligations, other
than those described in subparagraph (a)(iii)(A) of this
section, if the net earnings of the issuing, assuming or
guaranteeing institution available for its fixed charges for a
period of five (5) fiscal years immediately preceding the date
of the insurer's acquisition have averaged per year not less
than one and one-half (1 1/2) times its average annual fixed
charges applicable to that period and if during the last year of
that period the net earnings have been not less than one and
one-half (1 1/2) times its fixed charges for that year;
(C) Adjustment, income or other contingent
interest obligations if the net earnings of the issuing,
assuming or guaranteeing institution available for its fixed
charges for a period of five (5) fiscal years immediately
preceding the date of the insurer's acquisition have averaged
per year not less than one and one-half (1 1/2) times the sum of
its average annual fixed charges and its average annual maximum
contingent interest applicable to that period and if during each
of the last two (2) years of that period the net earnings have
been not less than one and one-half (1 1/2) times the sum of its
fixed charges and maximum contingent interest for each year.
(iv) Preferred or guaranteed stocks or shares of any
solvent institution existing under the laws of the United States
or of Canada, or of any state or province thereof, if all of the
prior obligations and prior preferred stocks, if any, of the
institution at the date of the insurer's acquisition of the
investment are eligible as investments under this chapter and if
the net earnings of the institution available for its fixed
charges during each of the last two (2) years have been, and
during each of the last five (5) years have averaged, not less
than one and one-half (1 1/2) times the sum of its average
annual fixed charges, if any, its average annual maximum
contingent interest, if any, and its average annual preferred
dividend requirements. For the purposes of this paragraph the
computation shall refer to the fiscal years immediately
preceding the date of the insurer's acquisition of the
investment, and the term "preferred dividend requirement" means
cumulative or noncumulative dividends, whether paid or not;
(v) Nonassessable common stocks, other than insurance
stocks, of any solvent corporation organized and existing under
the laws of the United States or Canada, or of any state or
province thereof, if the corporation has had net earnings
available for dividends on its stock in each of the five (5)
fiscal years immediately preceding the insurer's investment
therein. If the issuing corporation has not been in legal
existence for the whole of the five (5) fiscal years but was
formed as a consolidation or merger of two (2) or more
businesses of which at least one (1) was in operation on a date
five (5) years prior to the investment, the test of eligibility
of its common stock under this paragraph shall be based upon
consolidated pro forma statements of the predecessor or
constituent institutions;
(vi) Stocks of other solvent insurers formed under
the laws of this or another state, which stocks meet the
applicable requirements of W.S. 26-7-107(a)(iv) and
26-7-107(a)(v). With the commissioner's advance written consent
an insurer may acquire and hold the controlling interest in the
outstanding voting stock of another stock insurer formed under
the laws of this or another state, which stocks are limited as
to amount as provided in W.S. 26-7-107(a)(vii). The commissioner
shall not give his consent to any such acquisition if he finds
it is not in the best interests of the insurers involved or of
their policyholders or stockholders, or that the acquisition
would materially tend to result in any monopoly in the insurance
business;
(vii) Stock of a subsidiary insurance corporation it
forms. All of the insurer's investments under this paragraph,
together with its investments in insurance stocks under W.S.
26-7-107(a)(vi), shall not at any time exceed the amount of the
investing insurer's surplus, if a life insurer, or its surplus
to policyholders if other than a life insurer;
(viii) A bank's common trust fund as defined in
section 584 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954;
(ix) The securities of any open-end management type
investment company or investment trust registered with the
federal securities and exchange commission under the Investment
Company Act of 1940 as from time to time amended, if the
investment company or trust has assets of not less than
twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000.00) on the date of the
insurer's investment;
(x) Equipment trust obligations or certificates
adequately secured and evidencing an interest in transportation
equipment, wholly or in part within the United States of
America, which obligations or certificates carry the right to
receive determined portions of rental, purchase or other fixed
obligatory payments to be made for the use or purchase of the
transportation equipment;
(xi) Share accounts, savings accounts of savings and
loan associations or building and loan associations or in the
savings accounts of banks;
(xii) First liens upon improved real property located
in this or any other state or in Canada, subject to the
following conditions:
(A) For liens on single family residence
property the amount loaned shall not exceed seventy-five percent
(75%) of the fair value of the property, and the loan shall be
amortized within not more than thirty (30) years by payment of
installments thereon at regular intervals not less frequent than
every three (3) months;
(B) For liens on other improved real property
the amount loaned shall not exceed sixty-six and two-thirds
percent (66 2/3%) of the fair value of the property;
(C) No loan shall be made or acquired by the
insurer unless the fair value of the property has been
determined, for the purposes of the loan, by a qualified
independent appraiser;
(D) In applying the limitations provided in
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph, the amount in which
the loan is guaranteed by the administrator of veteran's affairs
or insured by the federal housing administration or other United
States or Canadian government agency may be excluded from the
amount of the loan;
(E) Insurance not less comprehensive than fire
and extended coverage shall be carried on the improvements on
the property in an amount not less than the insurable value of
the improvements, or the amount of the loan, whichever is less,
and the policy evidencing the insurance endorsed to show the
interest of the mortgagee. "Improved real property" means all
farm lands used for tillage, crop, other than timber, or
pasture, and all real property on which permanent improvements,
installations or structures suitable for residence or
construction of residences, or for commercial or industrial use,
are situated;
(F) Subparagraphs (A), (B) and (C) of this
paragraph do not apply to purchase money mortgages taken by the
insurer upon sale of property theretofore owned by it and
covering the real property. No such mortgage shall be for an
amount exceeding the original unpaid balance of the purchase
price.
(xiii) Real property as follows:
(A) The land and the buildings thereon occupied
by it as its principal office and any other real property
necessary in the transaction of its business, provided the
amount so invested and apportioned as to space actually so
occupied shall not aggregate more than fifteen percent (15%) of
the insurer's assets;
(B) Acquired in satisfaction of loans,
mortgages, liens, judgments, decrees or debts previously owing
to the insurer in the course of its business;
(C) Acquired in part payment of the
consideration of the sale of other real property it owns, if the
transaction effects a net reduction in the insurer's investments
in real property;
(D) Acquired by gift or devise or through
merger, consolidation or bulk reinsurance of another insurer
under this code;
(E) The seller's interest in real property
subject to an agreement of purchase or sale, but the sum
invested in the seller's interest shall not exceed two-thirds
(2/3) of the fair value of the property;
(F) Improved real property, or any interest
therein acquired or held by purchase, lease or otherwise, other
than real property to be used primarily for agricultural, ranch,
mining, development of oil or mineral resources, recreational,
amusement, hotel, motel or club purposes, acquired as an
investment for the production of income or acquired to be
improved or developed for such investment purposes pursuant to
an existing program therefor. The insurer may hold, improve,
develop, maintain, manage, lease, sell and convey real property
it acquires under this provision. An insurer shall not have at
any time invested in real property under this subparagraph an
amount exceeding fifteen percent (15%) of its assets. An
investment in any single parcel of real estate acquired under
this subparagraph after March 1, 1975, shall not exceed four
percent (4%) of the company's assets;
(G) Additional real property and equipment
incident to real property, if necessary or convenient for the
purpose of enhancing the sale or other value of real property
previously acquired or held under subparagraphs (B), (C), (D) or
(F) of this paragraph. The real property and equipment shall be
included, together with the real property for the enhancement of
which it was acquired, for the purpose of applicable investment
limits, and is subject to disposal at the same time and under
the same conditions applying to the enhanced real property under
W.S. 26-7-112;
(H) All real property owned by the insurer under
this section, except as to seller's interest specified in
subparagraph (E) of this paragraph, shall not at any time exceed
thirty percent (30%) of the insurer's assets.
(xiv) Common stock, preferred stock, debt
obligations, and other securities of one (1) or more subsidiary
business corporations formed under the laws of this state and
necessary and incidental to the insurer's insurance business or
to the administration of any of its investments. The amount of
the investment is governed by W.S. 26-44-102(b);
(xv) Nonassessable common stocks, other than
insurance stocks, of any solvent corporation organized and
existing under the laws of any foreign jurisdiction, any such
investment to be subject to the limitations of W.S. 26-7-106;
(xvi) Digital assets, as defined by W.S. 34-29-
101(a)(i) and excluding digital consumer assets as defined by
W.S. 34-29-101(a)(ii), that otherwise comply with all applicable
requirements of this chapter for the applicable asset class or
for the most analogous asset class;
(xvii) Obligations issued by any solvent corporation
in a foreign jurisdiction, other than an insurance company, that
are traded in the United States on United States exchanges and
denominated in United States dollars and subject to United
States securities laws. The obligations must be high grade
investments and are subject to the five percent (5%) limitation
in W.S. 26-7-106(a)(i);
(xviii) Interests in a partnership or limited
liability company, if the insurer has one hundred million
dollars ($100,000,000.00) or more in surplus and a total
adjusted capital that is at least five (5) times its authorized
control level risk-based capital. An insurer's investment in
any one partnership or limited liability company shall not
exceed five percent (5%) of the insurer's admitted assets. The
aggregate of all investments in partnerships and limited
liability companies shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the
insurer's admitted assets;
(xix) Securities issued by an exchange-traded fund as
defined in 17 C.F.R. 270.6c-11(a) as from time to time amended
provided the following conditions are met:
(A) The exchange-traded fund is registered under
the Investment Company Act of 1940 as from time to time amended;
(B) Shares of the exchange-traded fund are
registered under the Securities Act of 1933 as from time to time
amended;
(C) The exchange-traded fund is solvent and
reported at least one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000.00)
of net assets in the fund's most recent annual report or more
recent audited financial statement; and
(D) Shares of the exchange-traded fund are
listed and traded on a national securities exchange.
(b) At any one (1) time, the aggregate amount of foreign
investments shall not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the
insurer's admitted assets.