§ 27-14.3-3 - Definitions.
SECTION 27-14.3-3
§ 27-14.3-3 Definitions. – For the purposes of this chapter:
(1) "Ancillary state" means any state other than adomiciliary state;
(2) "Commissioner" means the director of the department ofbusiness regulation;
(3) "Creditor" is a person having any claim, whether maturedor unmatured, liquidated or unliquidated, secured or unsecured, absolute,fixed, or contingent;
(4) "Delinquency proceeding" means any proceeding institutedagainst an insurer for the purpose of liquidating, rehabilitating,reorganizing, or conserving that insurer, and any summary proceeding under§ 27-14.3-10. "Formal delinquency proceeding" means any liquidation orrehabilitation proceeding;
(5) "Doing business" includes any of the following acts,whether effected by mail or otherwise:
(i) The issuance or delivery of contracts of insurance topersons resident in this state;
(ii) The solicitation of applications for those contracts, orother negotiations preliminary to the execution of those contracts;
(iii) The collection of premiums, membership fees,assessments, or other consideration for those contracts;
(iv) The transaction of matters subsequent to the executionof those contracts and arising out of them;
(v) Operating under a license, approval, or certificate ofauthority, as an insurer, issued by the insurance department; or
(vi) Those other acts defined in § 27-16-1.2(b);
(6) "Domiciliary state" means the state in which an insureris incorporated or organized; or, in the case of an alien insurer, its state ofentry;
(7) "Fair consideration" is given for property or obligation:
(i) When in exchange for the property or obligation, as afair equivalent for these, and in good faith, property is conveyed or servicesare rendered or an obligation is incurred or an antecedent debt is satisfied; or
(ii) When the property or obligation is received in goodfaith to secure a present advance or antecedent debt in an amount notdisproportionately small as compared to the value of the property or obligationobtained;
(8) "Foreign country" means any other jurisdiction not in anystate of the United States;
(9) "General assets" means all property, real, personal, orotherwise, not specifically mortgaged, pledged, deposited, or encumbered forthe security or benefit of specified persons or classes of persons. As tospecifically encumbered property, "general assets" includes all property or itsproceeds in excess of the amount necessary to discharge the sum or sums securedby those assets. Assets held in trust and on deposit for the security orbenefit of all policyholders or all policyholders and creditors in more than asingle state, shall be treated as general assets;
(10) "Guaranty association" means the Rhode Island insurers'insolvency fund created by the Rhode Island Insurers' Insolvency Fund Act,chapter 34 of this title, and the Rhode Island life and health insuranceguaranty association, created by the Rhode Island Life and Health InsuranceGuaranty Association Act, chapter 34.1 of this title, and any other similarentity now or after this created by the legislature of this state for thepayment of claims of insolvent insurers. "Foreign guaranty association" meansany similar entities now in existence in or after this created by thelegislature of any other state;
(11) "Insolvency" or "insolvent" means:
(i) For an insurer issuing only assessable fire insurancepolicies:
(A) The inability to pay any obligation within thirty (30)days after it becomes payable; or
(B) If an assessment is made within thirty (30) days afterthat date, the inability to pay the obligation thirty (30) days following thedate specified in the first assessment notice issued after the date of loss;
(ii) For any other insurer, including those referenced in§ 27-14.3-2(8), that it is unable to pay its obligations when they aredue, or when its admitted assets do not exceed its liabilities plus the greaterof:
(A) Any capital and surplus required by law for itsorganization and continued operation; or
(B) The total par or stated value of its authorized andissued capital stock;
(iii) For the purposes of this subdivision, "liabilities"includes, but is not limited to, reserves required by statute or by insurancedepartment general regulations or specific requirements imposed by thecommissioner upon a subject company at the time of admission or subsequent toadmission;
(12) "Insurer" means any person who has done, purports to do,is doing, or is licensed or approved to do an insurance business, and is or hasbeen subject to the authority of, or to liquidation, rehabilitation,reorganization, supervision, or conservation by, any insurance commissioner.For the purposes of this chapter, any other persons included under §27-14.3-2 shall be deemed to be insurers and for the purposes of this chapter,guaranty associations shall not be deemed to be doing the business of insuranceor the insurer;
(13) "Person" includes any natural person, corporation,association, partnership, trust, or other legal entity;
(14) "Preferred claim" means any claim with respect to whichthe terms of this chapter accord priority of payment from the general assets ofthe insurer;
(15) "Receiver" means receiver, liquidator, rehabilitator, orconservator, as the context requires;
(16) "Reciprocal state" means any state other than this statein which in substance and effect §§ 27-14.3-22(a), 27-14.3-56,27-14.3-57 and 27-14.3-59 – 27-14.3-61 are in force, and in whichprovisions are in force requiring that the commissioner or equivalent officialis the receiver of a delinquent insurer, and in which some provision exists forthe avoidance of fraudulent conveyances and preferential transfers;
(17) "Secured claim" means any claim secured by mortgage,trust deed, pledge, deposit as security, escrow, or otherwise, but notincluding special deposit claims or claims against general assets. The termalso includes claims, which have become liens upon specific assets by reason ofjudicial process;
(18) "Special deposit claim" means any claim secured by adeposit made pursuant to statute for the security or benefit of a limited classor classes of persons, but not including any claim secured by general assets;
(19) "State" means any state, district, or territory of theUnited States and the Panama canal zone; and
(20) "Transfer" includes the sale and every other anddifferent mode, direct or indirect, or disposing of or of parting with propertyor with an interest in property, or with the possession of property or offixing a lien upon property or upon an interest in it absolutely orconditionally, voluntarily, by or without judicial proceedings. The retentionof a security title to property delivered to a debtor shall be deemed atransfer suffered by the debtor.