N.D. Cent. Code § 26.1-33.4-01 (2025)
As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
1. "Advertisement" means any written, electronic, or printed communication or any communication by means of recorded telephone messages or transmitted on radio; television; the internet; or similar communications media, including filmstrips, motion pictures, and videos; published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of creating an interest in or inducing a person to purchase or sell, assign, devise, bequest, or transfer the death benefit or ownership of a life insurance policy or an interest in a life insurance policy pursuant to a life settlement contract.
2. "Broker" means an individual who, on behalf of an owner and for a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration, offers or attempts to negotiate life settlement contracts between an owner and providers. A broker represents only the owner and owes a fiduciary duty to the owner to act according to the owner's instructions, and in the best interest of the owner, notwithstanding the manner in which the broker is compensated. The term does not include an attorney, certified public accountant, or financial planner retained in the type of practice customarily performed in that individual's professional capacity to represent the owner whose compensation is not paid directly or indirectly by the provider or any other person, except the owner.
3. "Business of life settlements" includes an activity involved in offering to enter, soliciting, negotiating, procuring, effectuating, monitoring, or tracking of life settlement contracts.
4. "Chronically ill" means: a. Being unable to perform at least two activities of daily living, such as eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, or continence; b. Requiring substantial supervision to protect the individual from threats to health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment; or c. Having a level of disability similar to that described in subdivision a as determined by the United States secretary of health and human services.
5. "Financing entity" means an underwriter, a placement agent, a lender, a purchaser of securities, a purchaser of a policy or certificate from a provider, a credit enhancer, or any entity that has a direct ownership in a policy or certificate that is the subject of a life settlement contract, but whose principal activity related to the transaction is providing funds to effect the life settlement contract or purchase of one or more policies, and who has an agreement in writing with one or more providers to finance the acquisition of life settlement contracts. The term does not include a nonaccredited investor or purchaser.
6. "Financing transaction" means a transaction in which a licensed provider obtains financing from a financing entity, including any secured or unsecured financing, any securitization transaction, or any securities offering which either is registered or exempt from registration under federal and state securities law.
7. "Fraudulent life settlement act" includes: a. Any act or omission committed by any person that, knowingly and with intent to defraud, for the purpose of depriving another of property or for pecuniary gain, commits or permits the person's employees or agents to engage in acts, including: (1) Presenting, causing to be presented, or preparing with knowledge and belief that it will be presented to or by a provider, premium finance lender, broker, insurer, insurance producer, or any other person, false material information, or concealing material information, as part of, in support of, or concerning a fact material to one or more of the following: (a) An application for the issuance of a life settlement contract or insurance policy; (b) The underwriting of a life settlement contract or insurance policy;
1. 9. 'Life expectancy' means the arithmetic mean of the number of months the insured under the life insurance policy to be settled can be expected to live as determined by a life expectancy company considering medical records and appropriate experiential data.
2. 10. 'Life insurance producer' means any person licensed in this state as a resident or nonresident insurance producer that has received qualification or authority for life insurance coverage or a life line of coverage pursuant to chapter 26.1-26.
3. 11. 'Life settlement contract' means a written agreement entered between a provider, or any affiliate of the provider, and an owner establishing the terms under which compensation or anything of value will be paid, which compensation or thing of value is less than the expected death benefit of the insurance policy or certificate, in return for the owner's present or future assignment, transfer, sale, devise, or bequest of the death benefit or ownership of any portion of an insurance policy or certificate of insurance for compensation; provided, however, that the minimum value for a life settlement contract must be greater than a cash surrender value or accelerated death benefit available at the time of an application for a life settlement contract. The term includes the transfer for compensation or value of ownership or beneficial interest in a trust or other entity that owns such policy if the trust or other entity was formed or availed of for the principal purpose of acquiring one or more life insurance contracts, which life insurance contract insures the life of an individual residing in this state.
1. a. 'Life settlement contract' also includes: 1. (1) A written agreement for a loan or other lending transaction, secured primarily by an individual or group life insurance policy; or 2. (2) A premium finance loan made for a policy on or before the date of issuance of the policy when: 1. (a) The loan proceeds are not used solely to pay premiums for the policy and any costs or expenses incurred by the lender or the borrower in connection with the financing; 2. (b) The owner receives on the date of the premium finance loan a guarantee of the future life settlement value of the policy; or 3. (c) The owner agrees on the date of the premium finance loan to sell the policy or any portion of the policy's death benefit on any date following the issuance of the policy.
2. b. 'Life settlement contract' does not include: 1. (1) A policy loan by a life insurance company pursuant to the terms of the life insurance policy or accelerated death benefits provisions contained in the life insurance policy, whether issued with the original policy or as a rider; 2. (2) A premium finance loan, as defined herein, or any loan made by a bank or other licensed financial institution, provided that neither default on such loan nor the transfer of the policy in connection with such default is pursuant to an agreement or understanding with any other person for the purpose of evading regulation under this chapter; 3. (3) A collateral assignment of a life insurance policy by an owner; 4. (4) A loan made by a lender that does not violate chapter 26.1-20.1, provided the loan is not described in paragraph 1, and is not otherwise within the definition of life settlement contract; 5. (5) An agreement in which all the parties: 1. (a) Are closely related to the insured by blood or law; or 2. (b) Have a lawful substantial economic interest in the continued life, health, and bodily safety of the individual insured, or are trusts established primarily for the benefit of such parties; 6. (6) Any designation, consent, or agreement by an insured who is an employee of an employer in connection with the purchase by the employer, or trust established by the employer, of life insurance on the life of the employee; 7. (7) A bona fide business succession planning arrangement:
f. Any authorized or eligible insurer that provides stop-loss coverage to a provider, purchaser, financing entity, special purpose entity, or related provider trust;
g. A financing entity;
2. 19. 'Purchaser' means a person that pays compensation or anything of value as consideration for a beneficial interest in a trust which is vested with, or for the assignment, transfer, or sale of, an ownership or other interest in a life insurance policy or a certificate issued pursuant to a group life insurance policy which has been the subject of a life settlement contract.
3. 20. 'Related provider trust' means a titling trust or other trust established by a licensed provider or a financing entity for the sole purpose of holding the ownership or beneficial interest in purchased policies in connection with a financing transaction. In order to qualify as a related provider trust, the trust must have a written agreement with the licensed provider under which the licensed provider is responsible for ensuring compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements and under which the trust agrees to make all records and files relating to life settlement transactions available to the insurance department as if those records and files were maintained directly by the licensed provider.
4. 21. 'Settled policy' means a life insurance policy or certificate that has been acquired by a provider pursuant to a life settlement contract.
5. 22. 'Special purpose entity' means an organization formed solely to provide either directly or indirectly access to institutional capital markets for a financing entity or provider; or in connection with a transaction in which the securities in the special purpose entity are acquired by the owner or by a 'qualified institutional buyer' as defined in rule 144 promulgated under the federal Securities Act of 1933, as amended [15 U.S.C. 77a et seq.]; or the securities pay a fixed rate of return commensurate with established a set-backed institutional capital markets.
6. 23. 'Stranger-originated life insurance' is a practice or plan to initiate a life insurance policy for the benefit of a third-party investor that at the time of policy origination has no insurable interest in the insured. Stranger-originated life insurance practices include cases in which life insurance is purchased with resources or guarantees from or through a person that at the time of policy inception could not lawfully initiate the policy on its own, and in which at the time of inception there is an arrangement or agreement, whether verbal or written, to directly or indirectly transfer the ownership of the policy or the policy benefits or both to a third party. Trusts that are created to give the appearance of insurable interest, and are used to initiate policies for investors, violate insurable interest laws and the prohibition against wagering on life. Stranger-originated life insurance arrangements do not include those practices set forth in subdivision b of subsection 11.
7. 24. 'Terminally ill' means having an illness or sickness that can reasonably be expected to result in death in twenty-four months or less.