2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XXII - Corporations › Chapter 175 - Insurance › Section 174 - Corporation Licenses

Section 174. The licenses described in sections 162M, 162N, one hundred and sixty-eight and one hundred and seventy-two may, upon payment of the fees prescribed by section fourteen, be issued to any corporation. Every such license, together with the corporation and officers or directors of the corporation named in the license, shall be subject to said sections, except as otherwise provided herein. Minors may be designated as such officers or directors in the license. Each officer or director to be specified in the license shall file the statement or application required by law. A certified copy of the articles of organization and of the certificate of incorporation shall be filed with the said statements or applications. The license may be revoked or suspended as to the corporation or as to any officer or director specified therein. Every officer or director specified in the license shall be personally liable to the penalties of the insurance laws for any violation thereof, although the act of violation is done in the name and in behalf of the corporation. The corporation shall be liable for any such violation, the responsibility for which cannot be placed on any individual officer or director.
The commissioner may at any time require such information as he deems necessary in respect to the corporation, its officers, directors or affairs, and may make such examination of its books and affairs as he deems necessary, and for this purpose shall have the powers conferred by section four. Any officer, director, agent or employee of any such corporation, who fails or refuses to furnish the commissioner any such information within ten days after written request therefor, and in such form as he may require, or who refuses to submit to such examination, or who obstructs the commissioner or any of his deputies or examiners in the making of such examination, shall be punished by the penalty provided in section four.
The clerk or other corresponding officer shall file with the commissioner, within thirty days after the adoption thereof, certified copies of all amendments to the articles of organization and shall at once notify the commissioner in writing in case of the dissolution of the corporation. Upon receipt of such notice, the commissioner shall forthwith revoke its license without a hearing. Whoever, being clerk or corresponding officer of a corporation licensed under this section, fails to file with the commissioner duly certified copies of all amendments to the articles of organization of such corporation as provided herein, or fails to notify the commissioner of the dissolution of the corporation, or whoever, being specified in the license of such corporation as an officer or director, acts under said license after the dissolution of such corporation, shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty nor more than five hundred dollars.
No corporation licensed under this section, and no officer, director, agent or employee thereof, shall directly or indirectly issue, place or negotiate, or negotiate the continuance or renewal of, or offer to issue, place or negotiate, or offer to negotiate the continuance or renewal of, any policy of insurance insuring or in favor of any stockholder in such corporation, except an officer or director thereof specified in its license, except that a stockholder of such corporation may be a purchaser of insurance, the premiums for which do not exceed two per cent of the total premiums written by said corporation; and no stockholder thereof, except as aforesaid, shall directly or indirectly place or procure through, or accept from, such corporation or any officer, director, agent or employee thereof, any policy of insurance, or any continuance or renewal thereof, insuring or in favor of such stockholder. No such corporation, and no officer, director, agent or employee thereof, shall directly or indirectly issue, sell or give, or assent to, or record the transfer of, or offer to issue, sell, give or transfer, and no stockholder of such corporation shall directly or indirectly sell, give or transfer, or offer to sell, give or transfer, any of the shares of its capital stock to any person except an officer or director of such corporation specified as aforesaid, if there is in effect a policy of insurance issued, placed or negotiated, or the continuance or renewal whereof was negotiated, by or on behalf of such corporation insuring such person or in his favor, and no person, except an officer or director of such corporation specified as aforesaid, shall directly or indirectly accept or hold any of the shares of such capital stock if there is in effect any such insurance policy insuring him or in his favor. A corporation violating any of the provisions of this paragraph shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars. Any individual violating any of said provisions shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both.