2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 38 - Insurance › Chapter 29 - South Carolina Life And Accident And Health Insurance Guaranty Association › Section 38-29-130. Assessment liability of insureds not reduced; records of Association; Association considered creditor of impaired insurer; distribution of assets of impaired insurer; unfair trade practice; recovery procedure.

(1) Nothing in this chapter may be construed to reduce the liability for unpaid assessments of the insureds of an impaired or insolvent insurer operating under a plan with assessment liability.
(2) Records must be kept of all negotiations and meetings of the board of directors to discuss the activities of the association in carrying out its powers and duties under Section 38-29-70. Records of these meetings must be made public only upon the termination of a liquidation, rehabilitation, or conservation proceeding involving the impaired or insolvent insurer, upon the termination of the impairment or insolvency of the insurer, or upon the order of a court of competent jurisdiction. Nothing in this subsection limits the duty of the association to render a report of its activities under Section 38-29-140.
(3) For the purpose of carrying out its obligations under this chapter, the association is considered to be a creditor of the impaired or insolvent insurer to the extent of assets attributable to covered policies reduced by any amounts to which the association is entitled as subrogee pursuant to Section 38-29-70(12). All assets of the impaired or insolvent insurer attributable to covered policies must be used to continue all covered policies and pay all contractual obligations of the impaired or insolvent insurer as required by this chapter. Assets attributable to covered policies, as used in this subsection, are that proportion of the assets which the reserves that should have been established for those policies bear to the reserve that should have been established for all policies of insurance written by the impaired or insolvent insurer.
(4) As a creditor of the impaired or insolvent insurer as established in this section and consistent with Section 38-27-530, the association and other similar associations are entitled to receive a disbursement of assets out of the marshaled assets, from time to time as the assets become available to reimburse it, as a credit against contractual obligations under this chapter. If the liquidator has not, within one hundred twenty days of a final determination of insolvency of a member insurer by the receivership court, made an application to the court for the approval of a proposal to disburse assets out of marshaled assets to guaranty associations having obligations because of the insolvency, then the association is entitled to make application to the receivership court for approval of its own proposal to disburse these assets.
(5)(a) Prior to the termination of any liquidation, rehabilitation, or conservation proceeding, the court may take into consideration the contributions of the respective parties, including the association, the shareholders, policy and contract owners, certificate holders, and enrollees of the impaired or insolvent insurer, and any other party with a bona fide interest, in making an equitable distribution of the ownership rights of the impaired or insolvent insurer. In this determination, consideration must be given to the welfare of the policy and contract owners, certificate holders, and enrollees of the continuing or successor insurer.
(b) No distribution to stockholders, if any, of an impaired or insolvent insurer may be made until and unless the total amount of assessments levied by the association with respect to the insurer plus interest has been fully recovered by the association.
(6) The recovery procedure shall provide that:
(a) If an order for liquidation or rehabilitation of a domestic insurer has been entered, the receiver appointed under the order has a right to recover on behalf of the insurer, from any affiliate that controlled it, the amount of distributions, other than stock dividends paid by the member insurer on its capital stock, made at any time during the five years preceding the petition for liquidation or rehabilitation subject to the limitations of items (b), (c), and (d) of this subsection.
(b) No such distribution is recoverable if the insurer shows that when paid the distribution was lawful and reasonable and that the insurer did not know and could not reasonably have known that the distribution might adversely affect the ability of the insurer to fulfill its contractual obligations.
(c) Any person who was an affiliate that controlled the insurer at the time the distributions were paid is liable up to the amount of distributions he received. Any person who was an affiliate that controlled the insurer at the time the distributions were declared is liable up to the amount of distributions he would have received if they had been paid immediately. If two or more persons are liable with respect to the same distributions, they are jointly and severally liable.
(d) The maximum amount recoverable under this section is the amount needed in excess of all other available assets of the impaired insurer to pay the contractual obligations of the impaired insurer.
(e) If any person liable under item (c) is insolvent, all its affiliates that controlled it at the time the dividend was paid are jointly and severally liable for any resulting deficiency in the amount recovered from the insolvent affiliate.
HISTORY: Former 1976 Code Section 38-29-130 [1962 Code Section 37-1411; 1971 (57) 351] recodified as Section 38-21-120 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; Former 1976 Code Section 38-17-130 [1962 Code Section 37-574; 1972 (57) 2776] recodified as Section 38-29-130 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 631; 2020 Act No. 121 (S.580), Section 1.A, eff March 24, 2020.
Editor's Note
2020 Act No. 121, Section 1.B, provides as follows:
"[1.]B. The amendments made by this act do not apply to a member insurer that has been placed under an order of rehabilitation or liquidation before July 1, 2020."
Effect of Amendment
2020 Act No. 121, Section 1.A, rewrote the section.