Insurance Act, 1989

Application of assets of undertaking transacting life assurance business.

15.—(1) The assets representing the fund maintained by an undertaking in accordance with section 14 (1)

(a) shall be applied for the purposes of that business, and

(b) shall not be transferred so as to be available for other purposes of the undertaking except where the transfer constitutes reimbursement of expenditure borne by other assets (in the same or the last preceding financial year) in discharging liabilities wholly or partly attributable to life assurance business.

(2) Where the value of the assets mentioned in subsection (1) is shown, by an investigation to which Article 5 of the European Communities (Life Assurance Accounts, Statements and Valuations) Regulations, 1986 (S.I. No. 437 of 1986) applies or which is made in pursuance of a requirement imposed under section 16 or 17 to exceed the amount of the liability attributable to the undertaking's life assurance business the restriction imposed by that subsection shall not apply to so much of those assets as represents the excess.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not authorise a transfer or other application of assets by reference to an actuarial investigation at any time after the date when the abstract of the actuary's report of the investigation has been deposited with the Minister in accordance with Article 9 (1) of the said Regulations of 1986.

(4) Nothing in subsection (1) shall preclude an undertaking from exchanging, at fair market value, assets representing the fund maintained by the undertaking in respect of its life assurance business for other assets of the undertaking.

(5) A mortgage or charge shall be void to the extent to which it contravenes subsection (1).

(6) Money from the fund maintained by an undertaking in respect of its life assurance business shall not be used for the purposes of any business of the undertaking which is not life assurance business notwithstanding any arrangement for its subsequent repayment out of the receipts of that other business.

(7) No undertaking to which this section applies shall declare a dividend at any time when the value of the assets representing the fund or the solvency margin, as determined in accordance with any applicable valuation regulations, is—

(a) in the case of the fund, less than the amount of the liabilities attributable to that business as so determined, or

(b) in the case of the solvency margin, less than the amount required by the Regulations of 1984.

(8) In this section a reference to “the fund” is to the total fund of assets maintained by an undertaking in respect of its life assurance business, not being shareholders' assets.