56-1-409 - Examination when deemed prudent or requested.
56-1-409. Examination when deemed prudent or requested.
(a) The commissioner shall also make an examination of each insurance company licensed in this state whenever the commissioner deems it prudent to do so, or upon the request of five (5) or more of the stockholders or persons pecuniarily interested in the company, who shall make affidavit of their belief, with specifications of their reasons for the belief, that the company is in an unsound condition.
(b) For the purpose of ascertaining financial condition or legality of conduct, the commissioner may, for good cause, make an investigation and examination, independent of any other examination of an insurer or proposed insurer, of any accounts, records, files, documents, and transactions pertaining to the business of insurance. The investigatory and examination authority shall extend to:
(1) Any insurance agency, agent, general agent, surplus lines agent, insurance representative, or any person holding out to be an insurance agency, agent, general agent, surplus lines agent, or insurance representative;
(2) Any person having a contract under which that person enjoys by terms or in fact the exclusive or dominant right to manage or control an insurer;
(3) Any corporation, association, or person engaged in the business of adjusting losses, financing premiums, or furnishing insurance services in the form of administrative services only to self-insured groups;
(4) Any other individual, corporation, association, partnership, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, Lloyds insurer, fraternal benefit society, and any other legal entity engaged in the business of insurance; and
(5) Any employer that self-insures its workers' compensation liabilities pursuant to § 50-6-405(b) or a group of employers qualifying as self-insurers pursuant to § 50-6-405(c).
[Acts 1895, ch. 160, § 4; Shan., § 3279; Code 1932, § 6093; Acts 1978, ch. 647, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 56-121; Acts 2004, ch. 962, § 38.]