Chap. 112.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 4222 of the Code of Wrenn:
as amended, relating to certain insurance companies doing business in this oe

S 54]
Approved March 2, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section forty-two hundred twenty-two of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as amended, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 4222. Insurance companies not to do business in Virginia
except through resident agents or agencies; countersignature; excep-
tion; discriminations prohibited ; agents not to make agreements not ex-
pressed i in contracts ; notice to companies to refrain from making discrimi-
nation ; exceptions.—(a) Insurance companies, legally authorized to do
business in this State, except life, title and ocean marine insurance com-
panies, and except any mutual fire insurance company conducting busi-
ness exclusively in this State and on a strictly mutual plan which pays its
losses wholly from assessments upon its members and makes no division
or distribution of its earnings or profits among its members, shall not
make contracts of insurance or surety on persons or property herein, ex-
cept through regularly constituted and registered resident agents or agen-
cies of stich companies: no contract of insurance or surety covering per-
sons or property in this State, except contracts of life, title and ocean
marine insurance and except temporary binders covering other forms of
insurance shall be written, issued or delivered by any such authorized
insurance company, or any of its representatives, unless such contract is
duly countersigned in writing by a resident agent or agency of such com-
pany; provided, however, that the countersignature of an insurance
agency shall not be considered valid unless such countersignature be
attested to in writing by a regularly constituted and registered resident
agent of such company.

No State agent, special agent, company representative, salaried of-
ficer, manager or other salaried representative of any legally authorized
insurance company, except a mutual insurance company, shall counter-
sign any contract of insurance or surety, or any renewal thereof, cover-
ing persons or property in this State, except contracts of life, title and
ocean marine insurance; provided that this section shall not apply to
railroad companies and other common carriers engaged in interstate
commerce. Except in case of a mutual insurance company, no person
shall concurrently hold license as a special agent, State agent, or company
representative and as resident agent for the same company or for dif-
ferent companies.

(b) No life insurance company doing business in this State shall
make any discrimination in favor of individuals of the same class or of
the same expectation of life, either in the amount of premium charged
or in any return of premium, dividends or other advantages. No policy
of life insurance shall be issued or delivered in this State if it shall pur-
port to be issued or to take effect, at an age lower than the actual age
nearest birthday of the applicant at the time of the original written ap-
plication; provided, however, that neither this provision nor any other
provision of general law shall prohibit the conversion of any existing life
insurance policy, or any deferred annuity contract purchased by a con-
sideration payable in annual or more frequent instalments and under
which no annuity payments have yet been made, to some form of life
insurance dated back to become effective as at an age not lower than the
age, nearest birthday, of the applicant at the date of the written appli-
cation for such existing policy or contract, in amount not to exceed the
greater of (1) the amount of insurance under such existing policy or
(2) the amount of insurance which the premium or consideration paid
for the existing policy or contract would have purchased at the age, near-
est birthday. of the applicant at the date of the original written applica-
tion for such existing policy or contract.

(c) No agent, agency or company representative of any insurance
company shall make any contract for insurance or surety or agreement as
to such contract other than that which 1s plainly expressed in the con-
tract issued. No insurance company or agent thereof shall pay, or al-
low or offer to pay, or allow as an inducement to any person to have
issued any contract of insurance or surety, any rebate of premium, or any
special favor or advantage whatever in the dividends to accrue thereon,
or anv inducement whatever not specified in the contract.

(d) A person who is authorized by any company to solicit insurance
or applications therefor shall in any controversy between the insured or
his beneficiary and the company be held to be the agent of the company
which issued the insurance solicited or so applied for, anything in the ap-
plication or policy to the contrary notwithstanding.

(e) Nothing in this chapter shall be so construed as to forbid a com-
pany transacting industrial insurance on a weekly payment plan with
weekly collections of premiums at the homes of the insured, from return-
ing to policyholders who have made premium payments directly to the
company at its home office or district offices, the savings which the com-
pany effects through such direct payment, or to forbid a life insurance
company from allowing its bona fide employees to receive a commission
on the premiums paid by them on policies on their own lives.