Effective 28 Aug 1977

379.235. License required — conditions to be complied with. — 1. No such company shall issue policies or transact any business of insurance unless it holds a license from the director authorizing the transaction of such business. A license shall not be issued unless the company complies with the following conditions:

(1) It shall hold bona fide applications for insurance upon which it shall issue simultaneously, or it shall have in force, at least twenty policies to at least twenty members for the same kind of insurance upon not less than two hundred separate risks, each within the maximum single risk described herein.

(2) The maximum single risk shall not exceed five percent of the admitted assets or three times the average risk or one percent of the insurance in force, whichever is the greater, any reinsurance taking effect simultaneously with the policy being deducted in determining such maximum single risk.

(3) It has collected an annual premium upon each application, which premium shall be equal to not less than five times the maximum single risk assumed nor less than one hundred thousand dollars; provided, however, that the total assets of the company shall not be less than one hundred thousand dollars of paid-in premiums and a guaranty fund or contributed surplus of not less than six hundred thousand dollars which shall be held in cash or securities in which these insurance companies are authorized to invest; and provided further, that any mutual company other than life and fire licensed to do business on September 28, 1977, which confines its writings to burglary and theft, and liability, property damage and collision other than automobile and workers' compensation, shall maintain a guaranty fund or contributed surplus of not less than three hundred thousand dollars.

(4) For the purpose of transacting employer's liability and workers' compensation insurance the applications shall cover not less than one thousand five hundred employees, each employee being considered a separate risk for determining the maximum single risk.

2. Any other provision of law notwithstanding any mutual company other than life and fire licensed to do business in this state on September 28, 1977, may renew its license for business specified therein until December 31, 1979, if it maintains assets of not less than three hundred thousand dollars consisting of paid-in premiums and a guaranty fund or contributed surplus which shall be held in cash or securities in which these insurance companies are authorized to invest.

3. Violation of any of the provisions of this section by an insurer is grounds for the revocation of its certificate of authority by the director.

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(RSMo 1939 § 5956, A.L. 1953 p. 245, A.L. 1963 p. 485, A.L. 1977 S.B. 368)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 5845; 1919 § 6255

(1968) The certificate of authority issued to an insurance company is a license and not a contract with the state. Under its police power, the legislature may amend, repeal or reenact the statutes prescribing the conditions for such a license whenever it deems it necessary and the insurance company has no vested property right in its license. Public Mutual Casualty Co. v. Scharz (Mo.), 422 S.W.2d 301.