2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 33. Insurance and Insurance Companies › Chapter 20. Life Insurance › Part 6. Variable Contracts › 33-20-603. Separate accounts for life insurance or annuities

33-20-603. Separate accounts for life insurance or annuities.
(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (2), a life insurer may establish one or more separate accounts and may allocate to those accounts the amounts necessary to provide for life insurance or annuities and benefits incidental to the life insurance or annuities, payable in fixed or variable amounts, or both. The amounts allocated to the accounts may include without limitation proceeds applied under optional modes of settlement or under dividend options.
(2) Separate accounts for life insurance or annuities established under the provisions of subsection (1) are subject to the following:
(a) The income, gains, and losses, realized or unrealized, from assets allocated to a separate account must be credited to or charged against the account, without regard to other income, gains, or losses of the insurer.
(b) Except as provided for reserves for guaranteed benefits and funds in subsection (2)(c):
(i) amounts allocated to a separate account and accumulations on the separate account may be invested and reinvested in any class of investment authorized under chapter 12 if limitations under 33-12-208 or 33-12-308 on investments in stocks are not applicable;
(ii) the investments in the separate account or accounts may not be considered in applying the investment limitations otherwise applicable to the investments of the insurer.
(c) Except with the approval of the commissioner and under conditions relating to investments and other prescribed matters that recognize the guaranteed nature of the benefits provided, reserves for benefits guaranteed as to amount and duration and for funds guaranteed as to principal amount or stated rate of interest may not be maintained in a separate account.
(d) Unless otherwise approved by the commissioner, assets allocated to a separate account must be valued at their market value on the date of valuation or, if there is no readily available market, as provided under the terms of the contract or the rules or other written agreement applicable to that separate account; however, unless otherwise approved by the commissioner, the portion, if any, of the assets of that separate account equal to the insurer's reserve liability with regard to the guaranteed benefits and funds referred to in subsection (2)(c) must be valued in accordance with the laws and rules otherwise applicable to the insurer's assets.
(e) Amounts allocated to a separate account in the exercise of the power granted by this part must be owned by the insurer, and the insurer may not be or hold itself out to be a trustee with respect to those amounts. If and to the extent provided under applicable contracts, that portion of the assets of a separate account equal to the reserves and other contract liabilities with respect to the account are not chargeable with liabilities arising out of any other business the insurer may conduct.
(f) (i) A sale, exchange, or other transfer of assets may not be made by an insurer between any of its separate accounts or between any other investment account and one or more of its separate accounts unless:
(A) in case of a transfer into a separate account, the transfer is made solely to establish the account or to support the operation of the contracts with respect to the separate account to which the transfer is made; or
(B) the transfer, whether into or from a separate account, is made by a transfer of cash or by a transfer of securities having a readily determinable market value and the transfer of securities is approved by the commissioner.
(ii) The commissioner may approve other transfers among these accounts if, in the commissioner's opinion, transfers would not be inequitable.
(g) To the extent an insurer considers it necessary to comply with any applicable federal or state laws, the insurer, with respect to any separate account, including without limitation any separate account that is a management investment company or a unit investment trust account, may provide, for persons having an interest in the account, appropriate voting and other rights and special procedures for the conduct of the business of that account, including without limitation special rights and procedures relating to investment policy, investment advisory services, selection of independent public accountants, and selection of a committee, the members of which need not be otherwise affiliated with the insurer, to manage the business of that account.
History: En. Sec. 2, Ch. 112, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 25, Ch. 451, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 46, Ch. 304, L. 1999.