(a) This section constitutes and may be cited as the Standard Valuation Law.
(b) Annual valuation: The Commissioner shall annually value, or cause to be valued, the reserve liabilities (hereinafter called reserves) for all outstanding life insurance policies and annuity and pure endowment contracts of every life insurer doing business in this territory, except that in the case of an alien insurer such valuation shall be limited to its insurance transactions in the United States, and may certify the amount of any such reserves, specifying the mortality table or tables, rate or rates of interest and methods (net level premium method or others) used in the calculation of such reserves. In calculating such reserves, the Commissioner may use group methods and approximate averages for fractions of a year or otherwise. He may accept, in his discretion, the insurer's calculation of such reserves. In lieu of the valuation of the reserves herein required of any foreign or alien insurer, he may accept any valuation made, or caused to be made, by the insurance supervisory official of any state or other jurisdiction when such valuation complies with the minimum standard herein provided and if the official of such state or jurisdiction accepts as sufficient and valid for all legal purposes the certificate of valuation of the Commissioner when such certificate states the valuation to have been made in a specified manner according to which the aggregate reserves would be at least as large as if they had been computed in the manner prescribed by the law of that state or jurisdiction.
(c) Minimum valuation standard:
(1) The minimum standard for the valuation of all such policies and contracts issued prior to the operative date of section 984 of this title, shall be as follows:
(A) for policies issued prior to the operative date no standard of valuation for ordinary policies, whether on the net level premium, preliminary term, or select and ultimate reserve basis, shall be less than that determined upon such basis according to the American Experience Table of Mortality with 3 ½ percent interest; except, that when the preliminary term basis is used it shall not exceed one year. The Commissioner may vary the standard of valuation in particular cases of invalid lives and other extra hazards; Provided, That the interest rate used is not greater than 3 ½ percent;
(B) the legal minimum standard for the valuation of annuities issued on or after January 1, 1912, and prior to the operative date of section 984 of this title, shall be McClintock's Table of Mortality Among Annuitants, with interest at 3 ½ percent per annum, but annuities deferred ten or more years and written in connection with life or term insurance may be valued on the same mortality table from which the consideration or premiums were computed, with interest not higher than 3 ½ percent per annum;
(C) the legal minimum standard for the valuation of industrial policies issued on or after the first day of January 1912, and prior to the operative date of section 984 of this title, shall be the American Experience Table of Mortality with interest at 3 ½ percent per annum; except, that any life insurer may voluntarily value such industrial policies according to the Standard Industrial Mortality Table or the Substandard Industrial Mortality Table; and
(D) the legal minimum standard for the valuation of group life insurance policies under which premium rates are not guaranteed for a period in excess of five years shall be, at the option of the life insurer issuing such policies, either the American Men Ultimate Table of Mortality, the Commissioners 1941 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table, or any other table approved by the Commissioner, with interest at 3 ½ percent per annum.
(2) The minimum standard for the valuation of all such policies and contracts issued on or after the operative date of section 984 of this title shall be the Commissioners Reserve Valuation Method defined in subsection (d) of this section, 3 ½ percent interest, and the following tables:
(A) for all ordinary policies of life insurance issued on the standard basis, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies, the Commissioners 1941 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table for such policies issued prior to the operative date of section 984(f) of this title, and the Commissioners 1958 Standard Ordinary Mortality Table for such policies issued on or after such operative date; Provided, That for any category of such policies issued on female risks on or after July 1, 1957, modified net premiums and present values, referred to in subsection (d) of this section, may be calculated according to an age not more than three years younger than the actual age of the insured;
(B) for all industrial life insurance policies issued on the standard basis, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies, the 1941 Standard Industrial Mortality Table;
(C) for individual annuity and pure endowment contracts, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies, the 1937 Standard Annuity Mortality Table or, at the option of the insurer, the Annuity Mortality Table for 1949, Ultimate, or any modification of either of these tables approved by the Commissioner;
(D) for group annuity and pure endowment contracts, excluding any disability and accidental death benefits in such policies, the Group Annuity Mortality Table for 1951, any modification of such table approved by the Commissioner, or, at the option of the insurer, any of the tables or modifications of tables specified for individual annuity and pure endowment contracts;
(E) for total and permanent disability benefits in or supplementary to ordinary policies or contracts, for policies or contracts issued on or after January 1, 1966, the tables of Period 2 disablement rates and the 1930 to 1950 termination rates of the 1952 Disability Study of the Society of Actuaries, with due regard to the type of benefit; for policies or contracts issued on or after January 1, 1961, and prior to January 1, 1966, either such tables or, at the option of the insurer, the Class (3) Disability Table (1926); and for policies issued prior to January 1, 1961, the Class (3) Disability Table (1926). Any such table shall, for active lives, be combined with a mortality table permitted for calculating the reserves for life insurance policies;
(F) for accidental death benefits in or supplementary to policies, for policies issued on or after January 1, 1966, the 1959 Accidental Death Benefits Table; for policies issued on or after January 1, 1961, and prior to January 1, 1966, either such table or, at the option of the insurer, the Inter-Company Double Indemnity Mortality Table; and for policies issued prior to January 1, 1961, the Inter-Company Double Indemnity Mortality Table. Either table shall be combined with a mortality table permitted for calculating the reserves for life insurance policies; and
(G) for group life insurance, life insurance issued on the substandard basis and other special benefits, such tables as may be approved by the Commissioner.
(d) Commissioners Reserve Valuation Method: Reserves according to the Commissioners Reserve Valuation Method, for the life insurance and endowment benefits of policies providing for a uniform amount of insurance and requiring the payment of uniform premiums, shall be the excess, if any, of the present value, at the date of valuation, of such future guaranteed benefits provided for by such policies, over the then present value of any future modified net premiums for any such policy shall be such uniform percentage of the respective contract premiums for such benefits (excluding extra premiums on a substandard policy) that the present value, at the date of issue of the policy, of all such modified net premiums shall be equal to the sum of the then present value of such benefits provided for by the policy and the excess of (1) over (2) as follows:
(1) at net level annual premium equal to the present value, at the date of issue, of such benefits provided for after the first policy year, divided by the present value, at the date of issue, of an annuity of one percent per annum payable on the first and each subsequent anniversary of such policy on which a premium falls due; Provided, however, That such net level annual premium shall not exceed the net level annual premium on the nineteen-year premium whole life plan for insurance of the same amount at an age one year higher than the age at issue of such policy;
(2) a net one-year term premium for such benefits provided for in the first policy year.
(e) Minimum aggregate reserves: In no event shall an insurer's aggregate reserves for all life insurance policies, excluding disability and accidental death benefits, issued on or after the operative date of section 984 of this title, be less than the aggregate reserves calculated in accordance with the method set forth in subsection (d) and the mortality table or tables and rate or rates of interest used in calculating nonforfeiture benefits for such policies.
(f) Optional reserve basis: Reserves for all policies and contracts issued prior to the operative date of section 984 of this title, may be calculated, at the option of the insurer, according to any standards which produce greater aggregate reserves for all such policies and contracts than the minimum reserves required by the laws in effect immediately prior to such date.
(g) Deficiency reserve: If the gross premium charged by any life insurer on any policy or contract is less than the net premium for the policy or contract according to the mortality table, rate of interest and method used in calculating the reserve thereon, there shall be maintained on such policy or contract a deficiency reserve in addition to all other reserves required by law. For each such policy or contract the deficiency reserve shall be the present value, according to such standard, of an annuity of the difference between such net premium and the premium charged for such policy or contract, running for the remainder of the premium-paying period.