Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003
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Interpretation. |
2.—(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires— | |
“Act of 2001” means the Dormant Accounts Act 2001 ; | ||
“Agency” means the National Treasury Management Agency; | ||
“approved policy” means— | ||
(a) a policy approved by the Revenue Commissioners— | ||
(i) for the purpose of receiving payments from retirement benefit schemes approved under Chapter 1 of Part 30 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 , or | ||
(ii) under section 784 or 785 (1)(a) of Part 30 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 , | ||
or | ||
(b) a Personal Retirement Savings Account established with an insurance undertaking; | ||
“communication” means an electronic or written communication from a policy holder to an insurance undertaking in relation to a policy and includes the payment of premiums under, or partial encashment of, a policy by the policy holder; | ||
“continuing risk policy” means a policy which has acquired a surrender value and continues, by the imposition of charges on the policy without reference to the policy holder, to assure an amount which will become payable by the insurance undertaking in the event of death or disability; | ||
“correspondence address” means— | ||
(a) subject to subsection (2), in the case of a policy holder other than a body corporate, the holder's last known address for correspondence according to the records of the insurance undertaking at which the policy is held, and | ||
(b) in the case of a policy holder that is a body corporate, its registered office or place of business; | ||
“First Directive” means Council Directive No. 79/267/EEC of 5 March 19791 ; | ||
“Fund” means the Dormant Accounts Fund established by the Act of 2001; | ||
“insurance undertaking” means— | ||
(a) the holder of an authorisation granted under the European Communities (Life Assurance) Framework Regulations 1984 ( S.I. No. 57 of 1984 ) or the Life Regulations of 1994, | ||
(b) the holder of an official authorisation granted pursuant to the First Directive as amended or extended from time to time, or | ||
(c) the holder of an official authorisation to undertake insurance in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, pursuant to the EEA Agreement within the meaning of the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 , who is carrying on the business of life assurance in the State, | ||
and references to “undertaking” shall be read accordingly; | ||
“life assurance” means insurance of a class specified in Part A of Annex I to the Life Regulations of 1994 the text of which Annex is set out for convenience of reference in Schedule 1; | ||
“Life Regulations of 1994” means the European Communities (Life Assurance) Framework Regulations 1994 ( S.I. No. 360 of 1994 ); | ||
“Minister” means the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs; | ||
“Personal Retirement Savings Account” has the same meaning as in Chapter 2A (inserted by the Pensions (Amendment) Act 2002 ) of Part 30 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 ; | ||
“policy” means— | ||
(a) a policy of life assurance in respect of which the contract may or may not be evidenced by a policy document, or | ||
(b) a Personal Retirement Savings Account established with an insurance undertaking; | ||
“policy holder” means— | ||
(a) a person who proposes for life assurance to an insurance undertaking and to whom the undertaking issues the policy concerned, | ||
(b) where a policy has been assigned to another person, that person, to the extent of his or her entitlement, | ||
(c) where a person is deceased, the heirs, executors, administrators and assigns of that person, | ||
(d) where another person is entitled to be paid an amount payable under the policy, that other person, to the extent of his or her entitlement, | ||
(e) a person appointed to administer the policy on behalf of the policy holder, whether by a court or pursuant to Part II of the Powers of Attorney Act 1996 or otherwise, or | ||
(f) a contributor (within the meaning of Chapter 2A (inserted by the Pensions (Amendment) Act 2002 ) of Part 30 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 ) in respect of a Personal Retirement Savings Account established with an insurance undertaking, | ||
and “holder” shall be read accordingly; | ||
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister and cognate words shall be read accordingly; | ||
“register” means the register of unclaimed policies established under section 12 ; | ||
“regulatory authority” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment or any successor to his or her functions as the regulatory authority for life assurance business in the State; | ||
“specified term”, in relation to a policy, means, subject to subsection (3), a period after which moneys become payable under the policy to the policy holder; | ||
“surrender value” means the monetary value of a policy where it is surrendered by the policy holder to the insurance undertaking; | ||
“unclaimed policy” means a policy to which this Act applies by virtue of section 6 or pursuant to regulations made under section 7 . | ||
(2) Where a person (other than a body corporate) does not give an address for correspondence to the insurance undertaking concerned, any other address given by the person to the undertaking is deemed to be his or her correspondence address for the purposes of this Act. | ||
(3) For the purposes of this Act an approved policy is deemed to have a specified term which expires on the date for commencing payment of the retirement or superannuation benefits out of, or secured by, the proceeds of the policy, or where there is more than one such date provided for in the policy, the latest of those dates. | ||
(4) (a) For the purposes of this Act, the net encashment value of an unclaimed policy is the total of— | ||
(i) the amount payable by an insurance undertaking to a policy holder under the policy if the policy holder were to make a claim, whether by encashment or otherwise, on the assumption that any contingency assured under the policy which would vary the amount otherwise payable has not occurred, and | ||
(ii) any interest applied by the insurance undertaking, on the relevant date, to the moneys payable under the policy, in accordance with the usual practice of the undertaking concerned. | ||
(b) In the case of an approved policy, amounts payable to the policy holder under the policy include amounts available to be applied on behalf of the policy holder in accordance with the terms of the policy. | ||
(c) In the case of a continuing risk policy, when transferring moneys to the Fund under section 10 , the amount referred to in paragraph (a)(i) is exclusive of the charges (if any) payable to maintain the policy in force until the life assured or, in the case of joint lives, the youngest of the lives assured under the policy has reached, or would have reached if he or she were living, 100 years of age. | ||
(d) In this subsection “relevant date” means— | ||
(i) in the case of the transfer of moneys to the Fund under section 10 , the date of transfer, and | ||
(ii) in the case of a claim under an unclaimed policy under section 15 , the date of the notice given to the Agency under subsection (1)(b) of that section. | ||
(5) In this Act— | ||
(a) a reference to a Part, Chapter, section or Schedule is to a Part, Chapter or section of or Schedule to this Act, unless it is indicated that a reference to some other enactment is intended, | ||
(b) a reference to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is to the subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that a reference to some other provision is intended, | ||
(c) a reference to any other enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be read as a reference to that enactment as amended by or under any other enactment, including this Act, and | ||
(d) a reference to the performance of functions includes, with respect to powers and duties, a reference to the exercise of powers and the carrying out of duties. | ||