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<section article="gin" article_name="Insurance" number="8-404" title_number="8" title_name="Entities That Act as Insurers" subtitle_number="4" subtitle_name="Fraternal Benefit Societies">
  <level label="a">
    <text>Except as provided in this section, this subtitle and the other insurance laws of the State do not apply to:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>a grand or subordinate lodge or society, order, or association that:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>was doing business in the State on December 31, 1963;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>provides benefits exclusively through local or subordinate lodges; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>does not issue benefit certificates;</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>an order, society, or association that:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <level label="1">
          <text>limits its membership to individuals engaged in one or more crafts or hazardous occupations in the same or similar lines of business; and</text>
        </level>
        <level label="2">
          <text>insures only its members and their families and dependents; or</text>
        </level>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <level label="1">
          <text>as to individual health insurance policies, offers those policies in this State only to members of the Mennonite Church and their dependents and families;</text>
        </level>
        <level label="2">
          <text>was formed as a fraternal benefit society under the laws of the State of Indiana prior to January 1, 1966 for the purpose of providing mutual aid in affiliation with the Mennonite Church; and</text>
        </level>
        <level label="3">
          <text>is registered as a foreign corporation under § 7–202 of the Corporations and Associations Article;</text>
        </level>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>a society or auxiliary of an order, society, or association described in item (2) of this subsection;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="4">
      <text>a domestic society that:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>limits its membership to employees of a particular municipal area or a designated firm, business house, or corporation;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>provides for individual death benefits not exceeding $400 per year or disability benefits not exceeding $350 per year or both; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>does not issue benefit certificates;</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="5">
      <text>a domestic society or association that:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>has a purely religious, charitable, or benevolent purpose;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>provides for individual death benefits not exceeding $400 per year or disability benefits not exceeding $350 per year or both;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>does not issue benefit certificates; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>has a membership of not more than 1,000 individuals; and</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="6">
      <text>any association, whether or not a fraternal benefit society:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>that was organized before 1880;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>the members of which are officers or enlisted, regular or reserve, active, retired, or honorably discharged members of the uniformed services; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>a principal purpose of which is to provide insurance and other benefits to its members and the dependents or beneficiaries of its members.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="b">
    <text>Except for an organization described in subsection (a)(2) or (3) of this section, a society that is exempt from this subtitle may not give, allow, or promise to give or allow to any person compensation for obtaining new members.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="c">
    <text>The provisions of this subtitle relating to medical examination, valuation of benefit certificates, and incontestability do not apply to a society that:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>provides benefits in case of death or disability resulting solely from accident; and</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>does not obligate itself to pay natural death or sickness benefits.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="d">
    <text>By examination or otherwise, the Commissioner may require information from any society or association that will enable the Commissioner to determine whether the society or association is exempt from this subtitle.</text>
  </level>
</section>
