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The Vermont Statutes Online
Title
08
:
Banking and Insurance
Chapter
121
:
FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES
§
4479. The contract
(a) Every
society authorized to do business in this State shall issue to each benefit
member a certificate specifying the amount of benefits provided thereby. The
certificate, together with any riders or endorsements attached thereto, the
charter or articles of incorporation, the constitution and laws of the society,
the application for membership, and declaration of insurability, if any, signed
by the applicant, and all amendments to each thereof, shall constitute the
agreement, as of the date of issuance, between the society and the member, and
the certificate shall so state. A copy of the application for membership and of
the declaration of insurability, if any, shall be endorsed upon or attached to
the certificate.
(b) All statements
purporting to be made by the member shall be representations and not
warranties. Any waiver of this provision shall be void.
(c) Any changes,
additions, or amendments to the charter or articles of incorporation,
constitution, or laws duly made or enacted subsequent to the issuance of the
certificate, shall bind the member and the beneficiaries and shall control the
agreement in all respects the same as though the changes, additions, or
amendments had been made before and were in force at the time of the
application for membership, except that no change, addition, or amendment shall
destroy or diminish benefits which the society contracted to give the member as
of the date of issuance.
(d) Copies of
any of the documents mentioned in this section, certified by the secretary or
corresponding officer of the society, shall be received in evidence of the
terms and conditions thereof.
(e) A society
shall provide in its constitution or laws that if its reserves as to all or any
class of certificates become impaired its board of directors or corresponding
body may require that there shall be paid by the member to the society the
amount of the member's equitable proportion of the deficiency as ascertained by
its board, and that if the payment be not made it shall stand as an
indebtedness against the certificate and draw interest not to exceed five
percent a year compounded annually. (1959, No. 197, § 19, eff. Nov. 22, 1959.)