Every investment company authorized to transact business in this State shall maintain on all its outstanding investment contracts the reserves specified in this section. The reserve on any investment contract at any time shall not be less than the amount which the issuer, under the terms of such contract, is liable as of such time to pay in cash or its equivalent as a surrender value or otherwise to the holder of such contract. If the commissioner shall not be satisfied of the sufficiency of such minimum reserves as affording reasonable assurance of the company’s ability to meet all such liabilities, including all deferred maturities under its outstanding investment contracts as they fall due, he may require the company to increase such reserves to such amount as shall be deemed by him sufficient for such purposes. The reserve on any investment contract shall not be required to be increased to an amount exceeding the net value of such investment contract as determined by the commissioner. The net value of an investment contract shall be based upon such assumed annual net payments as may bear reasonable relationship to the incidence of reasonable expenses of procurement, issue and maintenance of such contract, the net payments to be exactly sufficient to provide for the maturity payments provided for in such contract when due, at such rate of interest as may be determined by the commissioner in the exercise of reasonable discretion and based on the company’s experience and on the rate of interest earned or earnable by the company on its investments.

L.1938, c. 322, p. 824, s. 11.