§ 33-1-2. Definitions

As used in this title, the term:

1. “Commissioner of Insurance” or “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Insurance of the State of Georgia.
2. “Department of Insurance” or “department” means the Department of Insurance established by Code Section 33-2-1.
3. “Health benefit policy,” “health benefit plan,” or other similar terms shall not include limited benefit insurance policies designed, advertised, and marketed to supplement major medical insurance such as accident only, CHAMPUS supplement, dental, disability income, fixed indemnity, long-term care, medicare supplement, specified disease, vision, and any other type of accident and sickness insurance other than basic hospital expense, basic medical-surgical expense, or major medical insurance.
4. “Insurance” means a contract which is an integral part of a plan for distributing individual losses whereby one undertakes to indemnify another or to pay a specified amount or benefits upon determinable contingencies.
5. “Insurer” means any person engaged as indemnitor, surety, or contractor who issues insurance, annuity or endowment contracts, subscriber certificates, or other contracts of insurance by whatever name called. Burial associations, health care plans, and health maintenance organizations are insurers within the meaning of this title.
6. “Natural person” means an individual human being and does not include any firm, partnership, association, corporation, or trust.
7. “Person” means an individual, insurer, company, association, trade association, organization, society, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, partnership, syndicate, business trust, corporation, Lloyd’s association, and associations, groups, or department of underwriters, and any other legal entity.
8. “Security,” “security deposit,” “special deposit,” or “deposit,” when used to refer to posted deposits required to be placed in the possession of the Commissioner, shall mean the actual physical evidence of a security, such as a certificate, or an entry made through the federal reserve book-entry system. The federal reserve book-entry system shall be limited in meaning to the computerized systems sponsored by the United States Department of Treasury and certain agencies and instrumentalities of the United States for holding and transferring securities of the United States government and such agencies and instrumentalities, respectively, in federal reserve banks through banks which are members of the Federal Reserve System or which otherwise have access to such computerized systems.
9. “Transact,” with respect to insurance, includes any of the following:
   1. Solicitation and inducement;
   2. Preliminary negotiations;
   3. Effectuation of a contract of insurance; or
   4. Transaction of matters subsequent to effectuation of the contract and arising out of it.

History. Code 1933, §§ 56-102, 56-103, 56-104, 56-105, 56-106, 56-107, enacted by Ga. L. 1960, p. 289, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 33; Ga. L. 1988, p. 693, § 1; Ga. L. 1989, p. 1119, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 136, § 33; Ga. L. 2003, p. 387, § 1.1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 872, § 1; Ga. L. 2017, p. 164, § 3/HB 127; Ga. L. 2019, p. 337, § 1-1/SB 132.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, added paragraph (2); deleted former paragraph (3), which read: “ ‘Insurance Department’ or ‘department’ means the Insurance Department established by Code Section 33-2-1.”; redesignated former paragraphs (1.1) through (6) as present paragraphs (3) through (9), respectively; and, in paragraph (3), substituted “terms shall not” for “terms do not”, “CHAMPUS” for “Champus”, and “medicare” for “Medicare”.

Cross references.

Designation of Comptroller General as Insurance Commissioner, § 33-2-1 .

Investigation, adjustment, and litigation of claims as not constituting “transacting of insurance,” § 33-3-2(b) .

Lending institutions being authorized to underwrite credit life and accident and sickness insurance, § 33-3-23 .

Code Commission notes.

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1989, the definitions of “Insurance” and “Commissioner of Insurance” have been renumbered and “Commissioner of Insurance” has been substituted for “Insurance Commissioner” in two places in paragraph (1).

Law reviews.

For article discussing interpretation in Georgia of insurance policies containing evidentiary conditions, see 12 Ga. L. Rev. 783 (1978).

For annual survey article on insurance law, see 49 Mercer L. Rev. 175 (1997).