(A) Subject to § 38-21-270, each registered insurer shall report to the department all dividends and other distributions to shareholders within five business days following the declaration of it and at least fifteen days before the payment of it. The department promptly shall consider this report as information, and these considerations must include the factors as provided in § 38-21-260. If an insurer’s surplus as regards policyholders is determined by the department not to be reasonable in relation to the insurer’s outstanding liabilities and adequate to its financial needs, the department shall have the authority, within the fifteen-day period before payment of it, to limit the amount of the dividends or distributions.

(B) No dividend or other distribution may be declared or paid at any time when the surplus of the insurer is less than the surplus required by law for the kinds of business authorized to be transacted by such insurer, nor when the payment of a dividend or other distribution would reduce its surplus to less than such amount.

(C) Except in the case of share dividends, surplus for determining whether dividends or other distributions may be declared shall not include surplus arising from unrealized appreciation in value, or revaluation of assets, or from unrealized profits upon investments.

(D) No dividend or other distribution may be declared or paid contrary to any restriction contained in the insurer’s articles of incorporation.

(E) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the insurer may declare, conditional upon the department’s approval, a dividend or other distribution to shareholders from surplus, and such declaration confers no rights until the department:

(1) has approved the payment of the dividend or distribution; or

(2) has not disapproved the payment within fifteen days after receiving notice of the declaration.