reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 176 § 18 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 18 - Children

Section 18. A society may provide for benefits on the lives of children under the minimum age for adult membership, but not greater than eighteen years of age at time of application therefor, upon the application of some adult person, as its by-laws or rules may provide, which benefits shall be in accordance with the provisions of section seventeen. A society may, at its option, organize and operate branches for such children. Membership and initiation in local lodges shall not be required of such children, nor shall they have a voice in the management of the society.  A society shall have power to provide for the designation and changing of designation of beneficiaries in the certificates providing for such benefits, and to provide in all other respects for the regulation, government and control of such certificates, and all rights, obligations and liabilities incident thereto and connected therewith.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 19 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 19 - Deferred Payments or Instalments

Section 19. Deferred payments or instalments of claims shall be considered as fixed liabilities on the happening of the contingency upon which such payments or instalments are thereafter to be paid. Such liability shall be the present value of such future payments or instalments upon the rate of interest and mortality assumed by the society for establishing contributions and for valuation; and every society shall at once, upon the filing of due proofs of the happening of the contingency, set apart a fund to meet such deferred payments, regardless of proposed future collections to meet any such payments, and hold such fund, with its interest accretions, in trust for the beneficiary entitled thereto.  No society shall provide for such deferred payments or instalments unless it possesses the full reserve specified in the following section, or, if paying accident benefits only, has assets sufficient to pay all its liabilities.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 20 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 20 - Paid-Up Nonforfeiture Benefits, Cash Surrender Values, and Other Options

Section 20. A society may grant paid-up nonforfeiture benefits, cash surrender values, certificate loans and such other options as its by-laws may permit. As to each certificate issued, a society shall grant at least one paid-up nonforfeiture benefit, except in the case of pure endowment, annuity or reversionary annuity contracts, reducing term insurance contracts or contracts of term insurance of uniform amount of fifteen years or less expiring before age sixty-six.  In the case of certificates other than those for which reserves are computed on the Commissioners 1941 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table, the Commissioners 1941 Standard Industrial Mortality Table, the Commissioners 1958 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table, or such later tables as are authorized for use by domestic life insurers and approved by the commissioner, the value of every paid-up nonforfeiture benefit and the amount of any cash surrender value, loan or other option granted shall not be less than the excess, if any, of (a) over (b) as follows:  (a) The reserve under the certificate determined on the basis specified in the certificate; and  (b) The sum of any indebtedness to the society on the certificate, including interest due and accrued, and a surrender charge equal to two and one-half per cent of the face amount of the certificate, which, in the case of insurance on the lives of children, shall be the ultimate face amount of the certificate, if death benefits provided therein are graded.  However, in the case of certificates issued on a substandard basis, or in the case of certificates, the reserves for which are computed upon the American Men Ultimate Table of Mortality, the term of any extended insurance benefit granted, including accompanying pure endowment, if any, may be computed upon the rates of mortality not greater than one hundred and thirty per cent of those shown by the mortality table specified in the certificate for the computation of the reserve.  In the case of certificates for which reserves are computed on the Commissioners 1941 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table, the Commissioners 1941 Standard Industrial Mortality Table, the Commissioners 1958 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table, or such later tables as are authorized for use by domestic life insurers and approved by the commissioner, every paid-up nonforfeiture benefit and the amount of any cash surrender value, loan or other option granted shall not be less than the corresponding amount ascertained in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the commonwealth applicable to life insurance companies issuing policies containing life insurance benefits based upon such tables.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 21 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 21 - Change of Beneficiary; Interest of Beneficiary; Funeral Benefits; Payment of Benefits to Personal Representative

Section 21. (a) The owner of a benefit contract shall have the right at all times to change the beneficiary or beneficiaries in accordance with the laws or rules of the society unless the owner waives this right by specifically requesting in writing that the beneficiary designation be irrevocable. A society may, through its laws or rules, limit the scope of beneficiary designations and shall provide that no revocable beneficiary shall have or obtain any vested interest in the proceeds of any certificate unless the certificate has become due and payable in conformity with the provision of the benefit contract.  (b) A society may make provision for the payment of funeral benefits to the extent of such portion of any payment under a certificate as might reasonably appear to be due to any person equitably entitled thereto by reason of having incurred expense occasioned by the burial of the member.  (c) If, at the death of any member, there is no lawful beneficiary to whom the insurance benefits shall be payable, the amount of such benefits, except to the extent that funeral benefits may be paid as provided in subsection (b), shall be payable to the personal representative of the deceased member, but if the owner of the certificate is other than the insured, such proceeds shall be payable to the owner.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 22 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 22 - Attachment or Other Process

Section 22. No money or other benefit, charity, relief or aid to be paid, provided or rendered by any society, shall be liable to attachment or other process, or to be seized, taken, appropriated or applied by any legal or equitable process or operation of law to pay any debt or liability of a member or beneficiary, or any other person who may have a right thereunder, either before or after payment by the society.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 22a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 22a - Burial Benefits; Restrictions; Payment

Section 22A. No society shall by its by-laws or by any contract or policy made or issued by it in this commonwealth restrict the payment of benefits or any part thereof accruing under such by-laws, contract or policy upon the death of a member or of the person insured, as the case may be, to a designated funeral director or group of funeral directors, or in any way deprive the personal representative or family of the deceased of freedom of choice in procuring and purchasing supplies and services in connection with the burial of such deceased.  Such benefits or any part thereof shall be paid to such funeral director as the person or persons entitled to said benefits or the personal representative of the deceased shall direct.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 23 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 23 - Certificate; Agreement Between Society and Member; Statements by Member as Representations; Reserves

Section 23. Every society authorized to do business in the commonwealth shall issue to each benefit member a certificate specifying the amount of benefits provided thereby. The certificate, together with any riders or endorsements attached thereto, the charter or articles of incorporation, the constitution and by-laws of the society, the application for membership, and declaration of insurability, if any, signed by the applicant, and all amendments to each thereof, shall constitute the agreement, as of the date of issuance, between the society and the member, and the certificate shall so state. A copy of the application for membership and of the declaration of insurability, if any, shall be endorsed upon or attached to the certificate.  All statements purporting to be made by the member shall be representations and not warranties. Any waiver of this provision shall be void.  Any changes, additions or amendments to the charter or articles of incorporation, constitution or by-laws duly made or enacted subsequent to the issuance of the certificate, shall bind the member and the beneficiaries, and shall govern and control the agreement in all respects the same as though such changes, additions or amendments had been made prior to and were in force at the time of the application for membership, except that no change, addition or amendment shall destroy or diminish benefits which the society contracted to give the member as of the date of issuance.  Copies of any of the documents mentioned in this section, certified by the secretary or corresponding officer of the society shall be received as evidence of the terms and conditions thereof.  A society shall provide in its constitution or by-laws that if its reserves as to all or any class of certificates become impaired, its board of directors or corresponding body may require that there shall be paid by the member to the society the amount of the member's equitable proportion of such deficiency as ascertained by its board, and that if the payment be not made it shall stand as an indebtedness against the certificate and draw interest not to exceed five per cent per annum compounded annually.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 24 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 24 - Filing Copies of Forms With Commissioner; Standard Provisions of Certificates

Section 24. (a) No certificate shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this commonwealth unless a copy of the form has been filed with the commissioner in the manner provided for like policies issued by life insurers in this commonwealth. Every life, accident, health, or disability certificate and every annuity certificate issued on or after January 1, 2001 shall meet the standard contract provision requirements not inconsistent with this chapter for like policies issued by life insurers authorized to write any of these lines of insurance in this commonwealth, except that a society may provide for a grace period for payment of premiums of one full month in its certificates. The certificate shall also contain a provision stating the amount of premiums which are payable under the certificate and a provision reciting or setting forth the substance of any sections of the society's laws or rules in force at the time of the issuance of the certificate which, if violated, will result in termination or reduction of benefits payable under the certificate.  (b) A society may specify the terms and conditions on which benefit contracts may be assigned.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 25 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 25 - Surplus of Assets; Waiver of Contributions

Section 25. Whenever it appears by a valuation certified to by a competent actuary that the actual assets of a society exceed its liabilities, including in liabilities the tabular reserves computed on the basis specified in section twenty by an amount equal to five per cent of said reserves, increased by an amount equal to all its other mortuary liabilities, it may, by vote of its officers having the powers of directors, and for such period as its assets are maintained as aforesaid, waive the further collection of the regular mortuary contributions from its members. A society maintaining a surplus of assets in excess of such amount as enables it to waive contributions as aforesaid may pay back to its several members an equitable portion of such surplus in such manner as may be determined by vote of said officers.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 27 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 27 - Waiver of By-Laws or Constitutional Provisions by Subordinate Bodies, Officers or Members

Section 27. The constitution and by-laws of the society may provide that no subordinate body, nor any of its subordinate officers or members shall have the power or authority to waive any of the provisions of by-laws or the constitution. Such provisions shall be binding on the society and every member and beneficiary of a member.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 28 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 28 - Reinsurance

Section 28. A domestic society may, by a reinsurance agreement, cede any individual risk or risks in whole or in part to an insurer, other than another fraternal benefit society, having the power to make such reinsurance and authorized to do business in the commonwealth, or, if not so authorized, one which is approved by the commissioner; but no such society may reinsure substantially all of its insurance in force without the written permission of the commissioner. It may take credit for the reserves on such ceded risks to the extent reinsured, but no credit shall be allowed as an admitted asset or as a deduction from liability, to a ceding society for reinsurance made, ceded, renewed or otherwise becoming effective, unless the reinsurance is payable by the assuming insurer on the basis of the liability of the ceding society under the contract or contracts reinsured without diminution because of the insolvency of the ceding society.  Notwithstanding the first paragraph, a society may reinsure the risks of another society in a consolidation, merger or assumption of reinsurance transaction approved by the commissioner pursuant to section 20 of chapter 175.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 29 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 29 - Termination and Renewal of Licenses; Fees; License as Evidence

Section 29. The authority of a society licensed under the provisions of this chapter may be renewed annually, but in all cases shall terminate on the first day of the succeeding July; provided, however, a license so issued shall continue in full force and effect until the new license be issued or specifically refused. For each such license or renewal the society shall pay the commissioner a fee to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven. A duly certified copy or duplicate of such license shall be prima facie evidence that the licensee is a fraternal benefit society within the meaning of this chapter.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 30 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 30 - Licensing of Foreign or Alien Societies

Section 30. No foreign or alien society shall transact business in the commonwealth without a license issued by the commissioner. Any such society may be licensed to transact business in the commonwealth upon filing with the commissioner—  (a) A duly certified copy of its charter or articles of incorporation;  (b) A copy of its constitution and by-laws, certified by its secretary or corresponding officer;  (c) A power of attorney to the commissioner as prescribed in section thirty-six;  (d) A statement of its business under oath of its president and secretary or corresponding officers in a form prescribed by the commissioner, duly verified by an examination made by the supervising insurance official of its home state or other state, territory, province or country, satisfactory to the commissioner;  (e) A certificate from the proper official of its home state, territory, province or country that the society is legally incorporated and licensed to transact business therein;  (f) Copies of its certificate forms; and  (g) Such other information as he may deem necessary—and upon a showing that its assets are invested in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.  Any foreign or alien society desiring admission to this commonwealth shall have the financial qualifications required of domestic societies organized under this chapter.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 31 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 31 - Action by Beneficiary

Section 31. The beneficiary under a certificate issued by any society may maintain an action thereon in his own name.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 32 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 32 - Foreign Societies; Deposits

Section 32. A foreign society, if formed under the laws of any government or state other than the United States or one of the United States, shall not be admitted and authorized to transact business in the commonwealth until, besides complying with the conditions of sections thirty and thirty-six, it has satisfied the commissioner that it has made a deposit, as hereinafter provided, with the state treasurer or with the proper board or officer of some other state of the United States or with trustees who are citizens or corporations of the United States and approved by the commissioner, appointed under a deed of trust executed in a form approved by the attorney general and the commissioner and who have filed with the commissioner a bond, in a form approved by the attorney general and the commissioner, with a surety company authorized to transact business in the commonwealth as surety, and in such sum as the commissioner may require, conditioned upon the faithful performance of their duties and running to the commissioner or his successor for the benefit of all the members, certificate holders and creditors within the United States of such society. Such deposit shall be held in exclusive trust for the benefit and security of all the members, certificate holders and creditors in the United States of such society, and shall be in an amount not less than the reserves with respect to all its outstanding certificates of membership held by residents of the United States and may be made in the securities and subject to the limitations specified in sections sixty-three and sixty-six of chapter one hundred and seventy-five, or in cash or such other securities as the commissioner may approve. If made with the state treasurer, such deposit shall not be returned to the society until it has ceased to transact business in the commonwealth, nor until the commissioner is satisfied that the society is under no obligation to members, certificate holders or other persons in this commonwealth or in any other state of the United States for whose benefit such deposit was made, nor until he has given his written consent to such return; provided, that the commissioner may, in any case, authorize in writing the return to the society of any excess of any such deposit over the amount required by this section if he is satisfied that such return will not be prejudicial to the interests of its members, certificate holders or creditors.
MA Gen L ch 176 § 33 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title XXII - Corporations|Chapter 176 - Fraternal Benefit Societies|Section 33 - Injunction Against Transaction of Business; Grounds; Procedure

Section 33. When the commissioner upon investigation finds that a domestic society—  (a) Has exceeded its powers;  (b) Has failed to comply with any provision of this chapter;  (c) Is not fulfilling its contracts in good faith;  (d) Has a membership of less than four hundred after an existence of one year or more; or  (e) Is conducting business fraudulently or in a manner hazardous to its members, creditors, the public or the business, he shall notify the society of his findings, state in writing the reasons for his dissatisfaction, and require the society to show cause before him, at a time and place named, why he should not take action to have the society enjoined from carrying on any business until the violation complained of shall have been corrected, or to have any other appropriate action commenced in court, as provided in the next paragraph.  If on such date the society does not present good and sufficient reasons why he should not take such action, the commissioner may present the facts relating thereto to the attorney general, who shall, if he deems the circumstances warrant, commence an action to enjoin the society from transacting business or commence any other appropriate action in court.  The court shall thereupon notify the officers of the society of a hearing. If after a full hearing it appears that the society should be so enjoined or liquidated or a receiver appointed, or that other appropriate action be taken by the court, the court shall enter the necessary order.  No society so enjoined shall have authority to do business until—  (a) The commissioner finds that the violation complained of has been corrected;  (b) The cost of such action shall have been paid by the society if the court finds that the society was in default as charged;  (c) The court has dissolved its injunction; and  (d) The commissioner has reinstated the certificate of authority.  If the court orders the society liquidated, it shall be enjoined from carrying on any further business, whereupon the receiver of the society shall proceed at once to take possession of the books, papers, money and other assets of the society, and, under the direction of the court, proceed forthwith to close the affairs of the society and to distribute its funds to those entitled thereto.  No action under this section shall be commenced in any court of the commonwealth unless brought by the attorney general upon request of the commissioner. Whenever a receiver is to be appointed for a domestic society, the court shall appoint the commissioner as such receiver.  The provisions of this section relating to hearing by the commissioner, action by the attorney general at the request of the commissioner, hearing by the court, injunction and receivership shall be applicable to a society which shall voluntarily determine to discontinue business.