(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, nothing contained in this chapter shall be so construed as to affect or apply to:
(a) Grand or subordinate lodges of orders, societies or associations doing business in this state that provide benefits exclusively through local or subordinate lodges;
(b) Orders, societies or associations that admit to membership only persons engaged in one or more crafts or hazardous occupations, in the same or similar lines of business, insuring only their own members and their families, and the ladies’ societies or ladies’ auxiliaries to such orders, societies or associations;
(c) Domestic societies that limit their membership to employees of a particular city or town, designated firm, business house or corporation that provide for a death benefit of not more than $400 or disability benefits of not more than $350 to any person in any one year, or both; or
(d) Domestic societies or associations of a purely religious, charitable or benevolent description, that provide for a death benefit of not more than $400 or for disability benefits of not more than $350 to any one person in any one year, or both.
(2) No society or association described in subsection (1)(c) or (d) of this section that provides for death or disability benefits for which benefit certificates are issued, and no society or association included in subsection (1)(d) of this section that has more than 1,000 members, shall be exempted from the provisions of this chapter. Any society or association described in this subsection shall comply with all requirements of this chapter.
(3) No order, society or association that, by the provisions of this section, is exempt from the requirements of this chapter, except an order, society or association described in subsection (1)(b) of this section, shall give or allow, or promise to give or allow to any person any compensation for procuring new members.
(4) Every society that provides for benefits in case of death or disability resulting solely from accident, and that does not obligate itself to pay natural death or sick benefits, shall have all of the privileges and be subject to all the applicable provisions and regulations of this chapter except that the provisions relating to medical examination, valuations of benefit certificates and incontestability, shall not apply to the society.
(5) The Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services may require from any society or association, by examination or otherwise, any information enabling the commissioner to determine whether the society or association is exempt from the provisions of this chapter.
(6) Societies exempted under the provisions of this section are also exempt from all other provisions of the insurance laws of this state except as provided in ORS 731.042. [1987 c.490 §44; 1991 c.182 §16; 2003 c.802 §176]
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