2023 New York Laws
ISC - Insurance
Article 45 - Fraternal Benefit Societies
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."