26.1-29-09.1. Insurable interest in personal insurance
1. An individual of competent legal capacity may procure or effect an insurance contract
upon that individual's own life or body for the benefit of any person. A person may not
procure or cause to be procured an insurance contract upon the life or body of another
individual unless the benefits under the contract are payable to the individual insured
or that individual's personal representatives, or to a person having, at the time the
contract was made, an insurable interest in the individual insured.
2. If the beneficiary, assignee, or other payee under a contract made in violation of this
section receives from the insurer any benefits from the contract upon the death,
disablement, or injury of the individual insured, the individual insured or that
individual's executor or administrator may maintain an action to recover the benefits
from the person receiving the benefits.
3. "Insurable interest", with reference to personal insurance, includes only the following
interests:
a. In the case of an individual related closely by blood or by law, a substantial
interest engendered by love and affection.
b. In the case of a person other than an individual described in subdivision a, a
lawful and substantial economic interest in having the life, health, or bodily safety
of the individual insured continue, as distinguished from an interest that would
arise only by, or would be enhanced in value by, the death, disablement, or injury
of the individual insured.
c. In the case of an individual party to a contract or option for the purchase or sale
of an interest in a business partnership or firm, of a membership interest in a
limited liability company, or of shares of stock of a closed corporation or of an
interest in the shares, an interest in the life of each individual party to the contract
for the purpose of the contract only, in addition to an insurable interest that may
otherwise exist as to the life of the individual.
d. In the case of a religious, educational, eleemosynary, charitable, or benevolent
organization, a lawful interest in the life of the individual insured if that individual
executed a written consent to the insurance contract.
e. In the case of an employer or the trustee of a trust providing life, health, disability,
retirement, or similar benefits to employees of one or more employers, and acting
in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the employees, retired employees, or the
employees' dependents or beneficiaries, an employer or the trustee of a trust has
an insurable interest in the lives of employees for whom the benefits are to be
provided and the employer or trustee of a trust may purchase, accept, or
otherwise acquire an interest in personal insurance as a beneficiary or owner.
Written consent of the insured individual is required if the personal insurance
purchased names the employer or the trustee of a trust as a beneficiary.
f. In the case of a service recipient or the trustee of a trust providing a nonqualified
deferred compensation plan, as defined by section 409A(d)(1) of the Internal
Revenue Code [26 U.S.C. 409A(d)(a)], to a service provider, an insurable interest
in the life of the service provider for whom the nonqualified deferred
compensation plan is provided. The service recipient or the trustee of a trust may
purchase, accept, or otherwise acquire an interest in personal insurance with the
trust as a beneficiary or owner. Written consent of the insured individual is
required. As used in this subdivision:
(1) "Service provider" means an individual, other than an employee, who
provides significant services to a service recipient.
(2) "Service recipient" means the entity for which services are performed by a
service provider.
