PERMANENT RULES
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER
Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
Purpose: This new rule provides clarification of insurable interest requirements in the context of corporate-owned life insurance in Washington state.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 48.02.060 and 48.18.586.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 07-17-166 on August 22, 2007.
Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: 1. In subsection (3), the insurer is required to keep, or require the employer to keep, throughout the period of insurance, evidence that the insured was a "key person" at the time the contract was made. The rule as proposed would have required the insurer to keep such evidence.
2. In subsection (5), the definition of "key person" was amended to recognize the definitions of "highly compensated individual" and "highly compensated employee" in the Internal Revenue Code. The rule as proposed had included some requirements that did not quite match standards found in the Internal Revenue Code.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: December 17, 2007.
Mike Kreidler
Insurance Commissioner
OTS-9378.3
NEW SECTION
WAC 284-23-580
Insurer must obtain and keep evidence
that insured is a key person -- Definition of "key person."
(1)
If a business entity seeks to be the owner and beneficiary of
a contract of life insurance on an employee, the insurer must
obtain and keep evidence that the business entity had an
"insurable interest" in the life of the insured as required by
RCW 48.18.030(3) and that the insured was a "key person" at
the time the contract was made.
(2) An insurer issuing employer-owned key person life insurance to a business entity shall establish and apply appropriate underwriting guidelines to ensure that the employees or other persons on whose lives key person life insurance policies are written are actually key persons.
(3) An insurer issuing employer-owned life insurance policies or certificates must keep or require the employer to keep throughout the period of insurance, evidence that the insured has applied for or consented to the contract in writing. Consent requirements include, but are not limited to RCW 48.18.030, 48.18.060, and 48.18.580.
(4) If a contract of insurance is entered into pursuant to an exchange under Section 1035 of the Internal Revenue Code, an insurer is not required to obtain a new consent by the insured employee (as required at RCW 48.18.580(2)) only if the insurer to be replaced provides the replacing insurer with a copy of the original signed consent.
(5) The term "key person" means a person that, during the year the contract was made, was:
(a) A director;
(b) A shareholder who owns more than five percent in value of the stock of the employer; or
(c) A "highly compensated individual" or "highly compensated employee" within the meaning of Internal Revenue Code sections 414(q), 105(h) or 101(j), as applicable.
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