West Virginia Code 33-8-1 – Purpose and scope
(a) The purpose of this article is to protect the interests
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 33-8-1
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
of insureds by promoting insurer solvency and financial strength. This will be accomplished through the application of investment standards that facilitate a reasonable balance of the following objectives:
(1) To preserve principal;
(2) To assure reasonable diversification as to type of investment, issuer and credit quality; and
(3) To allow insurers to allocate investments in a manner consistent with principles of prudent investment management to achieve an adequate return so that obligations to insureds are adequately met and financial strength is sufficient to cover reasonably foreseeable contingencies.
(b) This article applies only to investments and investment practices of domestic insurers and United States branches of alien insurers entered through this state. This article does not apply to separate accounts of an insurer except as provided in article thirteen-a of this chapter.
(c) This recodification of former article eight preserves and continues prior limitations contained in section 106(a)(1) or (2) of the Secondary Mortgage Market Enhancement Act of 1984 ("SMMEA"), an act of the Congress of the United States adopted by the acts of the Legislature in 1991 albeit under separate sections of the same article. Pursuant to section 106(b) of SMMEA, this section prohibits domestic insurers from exercising the investment authority granted any person, trust, corporation, partnership, association, business trust or business entity pursuant to section 106(a)(1) or (2) of that act.