2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 38 - Insurance › Chapter 63 - Individual Life Insurance › Section 38-63-520. Paid-up nonforfeiture benefit and cash surrender value provisions are required in life insurance policies.

No policy of life insurance, except as stated in Section 38-63-640, may be delivered or issued for delivery in this State unless it contains in substance the following provisions or corresponding provisions which, in the opinion of the director or his designee, are at least as favorable to the defaulting or surrendering policyholder as are the minimum requirements hereinafter specified and are essentially in compliance with Section 38-63-630:
(1) In the event of default in any premium payment, the insurer shall grant, upon proper request not later than sixty days after the due date of the premium in default, a paid-up nonforfeiture benefit on a plan stipulated in the policy, effective as of such due date, of such amount as may be hereinafter specified. In lieu of the stipulated paid-up nonforfeiture benefit, the insurer may substitute, upon proper request not later than sixty days after the due date of the premium in default, an actuarially equivalent alternative paid-up nonforfeiture benefit which provides a greater amount or longer period of death benefits or, if applicable, a greater amount or earlier payment of endowment benefits.
(2) Upon surrender of the policy within sixty days after the due date of any premium payment in default after premiums have been paid for at least three full years in the case of ordinary insurance or five full years in the case of industrial insurance, the insurer shall pay, in lieu of any paid-up nonforfeiture benefit, a cash surrender value of such amount as may be specified in this article.
(3) A specified paid-up nonforfeiture benefit becomes effective as specified in the policy unless the person entitled to make the election elects another available option not later than sixty days after the due date of the premium in default.
(4) If the policy has become paid up by completion of all premium payments or if it is continued under any paid-up nonforfeiture benefit which became effective on or after the third policy anniversary in the case of ordinary insurance or the fifth policy anniversary in the case of industrial insurance, the insurer shall pay, upon surrender of the policy within thirty days after any policy anniversary, a cash surrender value of such amount as may be specified in this article.
(5) In the case of policies which cause on a basis guaranteed in the policy unscheduled changes in benefits or premiums, or which provide an option for changes in benefits or premiums other than a change to a new policy, a statement of the mortality table, interest rate, and method used in calculating cash surrender values and the paid-up nonforfeiture benefits available under the policy. In the case of all other policies, a statement of the mortality table and interest rate used in calculating the cash surrender values and the paid-up nonforfeiture benefits available under the policy, together with a table showing the cash surrender value, if any, and paid-up nonforfeiture benefits, if any, available under the policy on each policy anniversary either during the first twenty policy years or during the term of the policy, whichever is shorter, such values and benefits to be calculated upon the assumption that there are no dividends or paid-up additions credited to the policy and that there is no indebtedness to the insurer on the policy.
(6) A statement that the cash surrender values and the paid-up nonforfeiture benefits available under the policy are not less than the minimum values and benefits required by or pursuant to the insurance law of the state in which the policy is delivered; an explanation of the manner in which the cash surrender values and the paid-up nonforfeiture benefits are altered by the existence of any paid-up additions credited to the policy or any indebtedness to the insurer on the policy; if a detailed statement of the method of computation of the values and benefits shown in the policy is not stated therein, a statement that the method of computation has been filed with the insurance supervisory official of the state in which the policy is delivered.
Any of the foregoing provisions or portions thereof not applicable by reason of the plan of insurance may, to the extent inapplicable, be omitted from the policy.
The insurer shall reserve the right to defer the payment of any cash surrender value for a period of six months after demand therefor with surrender of the policy.
HISTORY: Former 1976 Code Section 38-7-20 [1960 (51) 1554; 1962 Code Section 37-172; 1964 (53) 2139; 1982 Act No. 403, Section 2] recodified as Section 38-63-520 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 727.