N.Y. Insurance Law § 4522: Exemptions of certain organizations

§ 4522. Exemptions of certain organizations. (a) Except as provided in

subsection (b) hereof the following societies, corporations,

unincorporated associations, and other organizations shall be exempt

from the provisions of this chapter requiring the obtaining of a license

to do an insurance business and from all other requirements of this

chapter except those provided in subsections (c) and (d) hereof and

except section three thousand two hundred nine and the provisions of

article seventy-four of this chapter:

(1) Organizations of workmen of the same trade or of several allied

trades maintained for the purpose of securing by united action the most

favorable conditions as regards wages, hours and conditions of labor,

and the protection of their individual rights in the prosecution of

their trade or trades.

(2) Organizations which limit their membership to the employees of a

particular city or town, or of a designated business corporation or

firm, or of one or more business corporations or firms having business

interests in common, except as otherwise provided in subsection (f) of

section one thousand one hundred eight of this chapter. Any such

organization which limits its membership to the employees of a

corporation having more than five thousand employees may provide for

hospital, surgical and medical benefits for the employee, his or her

spouse, and his or her child or children not over eighteen years of age.

(3) Organizations of a religious, charitable, benevolent or fraternal

character, which are not organized or maintained primarily for the

purpose of providing insurance benefits, and which have not more than

fifteen hundred members who are or may be entitled to any insurance

benefits unless the organization obligates itself to pay a death benefit

of more than five hundred dollars on the death of any one member, or

disability benefits of more than three hundred fifty dollars to any one

person in any one year, or both.

(4) Organizations which limit their membership to persons engaged in

one or more occupations in the same or similar lines of business and

which, together with their legal predecessors or affiliated bodies

continuously paid or provided for the payment of death or disability

benefits to their members for a period of not less than fifteen years

prior to January first, nineteen hundred forty.

(5) Any organization of a religious, charitable, benevolent or

fraternal character, which is not organized or maintained primarily for

the purpose of providing insurance benefits, which have furnished

hospital benefits to its members under a plan where the maximum charge

for such benefits is not in excess of two dollars per annum and which

was in operation for ten years prior to March first, nineteen hundred

forty-one, or which obligates itself to pay a death benefit of not more

than one hundred dollars on the death of any one member, and has been in

operation for more than twenty-five years prior to March first, nineteen

hundred fifty.

(6) Organizations which limit their membership to members of a

fraternal benefit society organized under the provisions of this chapter

and which provide either cemetery benefits, or funeral benefits not in

excess of seventy-five dollars for any one interment, or both, for such

member, his or her spouse or his or her child or children not over

twenty-one years of age.

(b) The foregoing exemptions shall not apply to:

(1) any organization which is incorporated or organized under the laws

of, or has its principal office or headquarters in, any province or

country outside of the United States,

(2) any organization, except one specified in paragraph two of

subsection (a) hereof, which makes or issues annuity contracts,

(3) any organization of any of the kinds specified in paragraph two,

three or five of subsection (a) hereof if it gives or allows, or

promises to give or allow, to any person any compensation for procuring

new members, or

(4) any subordinate lodge of any society providing insurance benefits

to its members.

(c) The superintendent may require from any organization claiming

exemption under subsection (a) hereof, by examination in accordance with

section three hundred ten of this chapter, or otherwise, such

information as will enable him to determine whether such organization is

exempt under this section.

(d) No organization of the kinds hereinbefore specified which

obligates itself to pay life insurance or accident or health or

disability insurance benefits to its members shall make, issue or

deliver in this state any certificate or other written evidence of such

obligation unless the same shall have conspicuously printed on the first

page thereof in bold-faced type not smaller than ten point the following

statement: "This organization does not operate under the supervision of

the New York State Department of Financial Services."