Sec. 48.0. Purpose, scope, and unfair trade practice

(a) The purpose of this Part is to establish standards for the determination and any readjustment of non-guaranteed elements that may vary at the insurer’s discretion for life insurance policies and annuity contracts delivered or issued for delivery in this State, to ensure that policy forms do not contain provisions that may mislead policy owners as to the crediting of non-guaranteed amounts or the deduction of non-guaranteed charges, and to ensure that the issuance of any policy forms would not be prejudicial to the interest of owners or members or contain provisions that are unjust, unfair or inequitable.

(b)

(1) This Part shall apply to any determination or readjustment of non-guaranteed elements occurring on or after the effective date of this Part, including any readjustment of non-guaranteed elements occurring on or after the effective date of this Part for life insurance policies or annuity contracts issued prior to the March 19, 2018.

(2) This Part shall apply to all individual life insurance policies, individual annuity contracts, and applicable group certificates, except as otherwise provided in this Part.

(3) This Part shall not apply to any corporate or bank owned individual life insurance policy or group life insurance certificate authorized by Insurance Law section 3205(a)(1)(B) or (d) where all benefits under the policy are payable to the corporate or bank policy owner.

(c) A contravention of this Part shall be deemed to be an unfair method of competition or an unfair or deceptive act and practice in the conduct of the business of insurance in this State, and shall be deemed to be a trade practice constituting a determined violation, as defined in section 2402(c) of the Insurance Law, in violation of section 2403.