A "certain participating" policy is defined as any contract of life insurance which contains a provision through which the policy holder becomes, or which creates or tends to create the understanding that he will become, an investor in the insurance company, and that, as an investor, he will be entitled to participate in future corporate earnings as specified in the contract of insurance. The "certain participating" policy defined in this paragraph is to be contrasted to policies which employ participation provisions which make no greater promise (or which neither create nor tend to create an understanding of a greater promise) than that the policy holder may receive back, by way of participation, part of the premiums which he has paid. This latter type of participation provision, which is unobjectionable, raises no inference that the insured occupies any status other than that of policy holder. It does not, in other words, promise or tend to lead the policy holder into the belief that he is an investor in the company and that his position is comparable to a part owner of the company insofar as the distribution of profits is concerned. In making the distinctions herein described, the commissioner may also consider any regulations as applied by the Internal Revenue Service relating to the taxation of corporate profits distributed as dividends. This is to be contrasted to a partial refund of insurance premiums, which is not taxable as income under Internal Revenue Service regulations.

Source Note: The provisions of this §3.201 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976.