TITLE 33 INSURANCE

Section 38. Georgia Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association, 33-38-1 through 33-38-22.

ARTICLE 4 LIQUIDATION PROCEEDINGS

33-38-17. Assessment liability, association as creditor of insolvent or impaired insurer; distribution of insolvent insurer's ownership rights; reimbursement of association from disbursement of marshaled assets as available; recovery of distributions to affiliates.

1. This chapter shall not be construed to reduce the liability for unpaid assessments of the insureds of an impaired or insolvent insurer operating under a plan with assessment liability.
2. For the purpose of carrying out its obligations under this chapter, the association shall be deemed to be a creditor of the impaired or insolvent insurer to the extent of the assets attributable to covered policies, reduced by any amounts to which the association is entitled as subrogee pursuant to paragraph (11) of Code Section 33-38-7. The assets of the impaired or insolvent insurer attributable to covered policies shall be used by the association to continue the covered policies and pay the contractual obligations of the impaired or insolvent insurer as required by this chapter. For purposes of this subsection, that portion of the total assets of an impaired or insolvent insurer that is attributable to covered policies shall be determined by using the same proportion as the reserves that should have been established for such policies bears to the reserves that should have been established for all policies of insurance written by the impaired or insolvent insurer.
3. As a creditor of the impaired or insolvent insurer as established in subsection (b) of this Code section and consistent with Code Section 33-37-33, the association and other similar associations shall be entitled to receive a disbursement of assets out of the marshaled assets, from time to time as the assets become available to reimburse it, as a credit against contractual obligations under this chapter. If the liquidator has not, within 120 days of a final determination of insolvency of an insurer by the receivership court, made an application to the court for the approval of a proposal to disburse assets out of marshaled assets to guaranty associations having obligations because of the insolvency, then the association shall be entitled to make application to the receivership court for approval of its own proposal to disburse these assets.
4. 1. Prior to the termination of any liquidation, rehabilitation, or conservation proceeding, the court may take into consideration the contributions of the respective parties, including the association, the shareholders, policy owners of the insolvent insurer, and any other party with a bona fide interest, in making an equitable distribution of the ownership rights of such insolvent insurer. In such a determination, consideration shall be given to the welfare of the policyholders of the continuing or successor insurer.
   2. No distribution to stockholders of an impaired or insolvent insurer shall be made until and unless the total amount of valid claims of the association with interest thereon for funds expended in carrying out its powers and duties under Code Section 33-38-7, with respect to such insurer, has been fully recovered by the association.
   3. No insurer that is subject to any delinquency proceedings, whether formal or informal, administrative or judicial, shall have any of its assets returned to the control of its shareholders or private management until all payments of or on account of the insurer's contractual obligations by all guaranty associations, along with all expenses thereof and interest on all such payments and expenses, shall have been repaid to the guaranty associations or a plan of repayment by the insurer shall have been approved by the guaranty association.
5. 1. If an order for liquidation or rehabilitation of an insurer domiciled in this state has been entered, the receiver appointed under such order shall have a right on behalf of the insurer to recover from any affiliate the amount of distributions, other than stock dividends paid by the insurer on its capital stock, made at any time during the five years preceding the petition for liquidation or rehabilitation, subject to the limitations of this Code section.
   2. No such distribution shall be recoverable if the insurer shows that the distribution was lawful and reasonable when paid and that the insurer did not know and could not reasonably have known that the distribution might adversely affect the ability of the insurer to fulfill its contractual obligations.
   3. Any person who was an affiliate that controlled the insurer at the time the distributions were paid shall be liable to the extent of the distributions received. Any person who was an affiliate that controlled the insurer at the time the distributions were declared shall be liable to the extent of the distributions that would have been received if such distributions had been paid immediately. Whenever two persons are liable with respect to the same distribution, they shall be jointly and severally liable.
   4. The maximum amount recoverable under this subsection shall be the amount needed, in excess of all other available assets of the insolvent insurer, to pay the contractual obligations of the insolvent insurer.
   5. Whenever any person liable under paragraph (3) of this subsection is insolvent, all affiliates that controlled it at the time the distribution was paid shall be jointly and severally liable for any resulting deficiency in the amount recovered from the insolvent affiliate.

(Code 1933, § 56-2211, enacted by Ga. L. 1981, p. 1336, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 33; Ga. L. 2012, p. 701, § 1/HB 786.)

The 2012 amendment, effective July 1, 2012, added subsection (a); redesignated former subsection (a) as present subsection (b); in subsection (b), substituted "paragraph (11)" for "paragraph (8)" in the first sentence and, in the second sentence, substituted "The assets" for "All assets" at the beginning and substituted "all" for "the" near the middle; added subsection (c); redesignated former subsection (b) as present subsection (d); in subsection (d), inserted "with interest thereon" near the middle of paragraph (d)(2) and added paragraph (d)(3); redesignated former subsection (c) as present subsection (e); and deleted "subsection and subsections (a) and (b) of this" preceding "Code section" in paragraph (e)(1).