2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 59A - Insurance Code › Article 16 - Trade Practices and Frauds › Section 59A-16-16 - Exceptions to discrimination, rebate and inducement prohibition; life, health and annuity contracts.

A. Nothing in Section 59A-16-11 or 59A-16-15 NMSA 1978 shall be construed as including within the definition of discrimination or rebates any of the following practices:
(1) in the case of any contract of life insurance or life annuity, paying bonuses to policyholders or otherwise abating their premiums in whole or in part out of surplus accumulated from nonparticipating insurance, provided that any such bonuses or abatement of premiums shall be fair and equitable to policyholders and for the best interests of the insurer and its policyholders;
(2) in the case of life insurance policies issued on the industrial or debit plan, making allowance, in an amount which fairly represents the saving in collection expense, to policyholders who have continuously for a specified period made premium payments directly to an office of the insurer;
(3) readjusting the rate of premiums for a group insurance policy based on the loss or expense experience thereunder, at the end of the first or any subsequent policy year of insurance thereunder, which may be made retroactive only for such policy year;
(4) reducing the premium rate for policies of large amounts, but not exceeding savings in issuance and administration expenses reasonably attributable to such policies as compared with policies of similar plan issued in smaller amounts;
(5) reducing the premium rates for life or health insurance policies or annuity contracts on salary savings, payroll deduction, preauthorized check, bank draft or similar plans in amounts reasonably commensurate with the savings made by the use of such plans;
(6) extending credit for the payment of any premium, and for which credit a reasonable rate of interest is charged and collected; or
(7) offering or providing any value-added product or service in conformance with Subsection G of Section 59A-16-17 NMSA 1978.
B. Nothing in Chapter 59A, Article 16 NMSA 1978 shall be construed as including within the definition of securities as inducements to purchase insurance the selling or offering for sale, contemporaneously with life insurance, of mutual fund shares or face amount certificates of regulated investment companies under offerings registered with the securities and exchange commission where such shares or such face amount certificates or such insurance may be purchased independently of and not contingent upon purchase of the other, at the same price and upon similar terms and conditions as where purchased independently.
History:
Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 282; 2021, ch. 108, § 10.
ANNOTATIONS
The 2021 amendment,
effective July 1, 2021, provided an additional exception to the general prohibition of inducements; in the section heading, after "Exceptions to", added "discrimination"; in Subsection A, after "Nothing in", changed "Sections 279 or 281 of this article" to "Section 59A-16-11 or 59A-16-15 NMSA 1978", and added Paragraph A(7); and in Subsection B, after "Nothing in", changed "this article" to "Chapter 59A, Article 16 NMSA 1978".