An Act To Amend Certain Insurance Provisions Relating to Variable Annuity Death Benefits and Multiple Employer Trusts
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 0881
Committee: Insurance and Financial Services
Sponsors: RICHARDSON, MORRISON, TREAT
Amends: 24-A MRSA §2537, 24-A MRSA §2606-A

Legislative Document 
No. 881 
H.P. 648 
House of Representatives, March 7, 2011 
An Act To Amend Certain Insurance Provisions Relating to 
Variable Annuity Death Benefits and Multiple Employer Trusts 
Reference to the Committee on Insurance and Financial Services suggested and ordered 
printed. 
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative RICHARDSON of Warren. 
Cosponsored by Representatives: MORRISON of South Portland, TREAT of Hallowell. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  24-A MRSA §2537, sub-§10, as repealed and replaced by PL 2007, c. 
544, §1, is amended to read: 
10.  A variable annuity contract delivered or issued for delivery in this State may 
include as an incidental benefit a provision for payment on death during the deferred 
period of an amount equal to the greater of the sum of the premiums or stipulated 
payments paid under the contract less adjusted withdrawals from the policy and the value 
of the contract at the time of death.  The beneficiary under the contract may not be paid 
any other amount.  A variable annuity contract that includes such incidental benefit may 
not be deemed to be life insurance and therefore is not subject to the provisions of this 
Title governing life insurance contracts. A variable annuity contract with a provision for 
any other benefit on death during the deferred period is subject to the provisions of this 
Title governing life insurance contracts.  A payment on death pursuant to a variable 
annuity contract under this subsection must be made in accordance with section 2436.   
This subsection applies to variable annuity contracts delivered or issued for delivery in 
this State on or after January 1, 2009. 
Sec. 2.  24-A MRSA §2606-A, first ¶, as enacted by PL 1981, c. 150, §7, is 
amended to read: 
The lives of a group of individuals may be insured under a policy issued to a trust or 
to the trustee or trustees of a fund established or adopted by 2 or more employers, or by 
one or more labor unions or similar employee organizations, or by one or more employers 
and one or more labor unions or similar employee organizations, which trust or trustees 
are considered the policyholder, to insure employees of the employers or members of the 
unions or organizations for the benefit of persons other than the employers or the unions 
or organizations, subject to the following requirements. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends Maine's minimum variable annuity death benefit law, which 
currently requires a return of premium, to provide that the premium returned should be 
reduced by amounts that the insurance company has already distributed to the policy 
owners as, for example, in the form of cash withdrawals, loans or qualified transfers. 
The bill allows life insurance to be provided to trust groups without requiring that 
employers agree to serve as settlors of the trust.  This change will permit the creation of 
trust groups adopted by two or more employers instead of limiting the law to trusts 
established by employers. This change makes Maine law consistent with the national 
standards represented by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners model.