Sec. 885.004.  INAPPLICABILITY TO CERTAIN SOCIETIES.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), this chapter does not apply to:
(1)  a grand or subordinate lodge of Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, or the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics;
(2)  a society that limits its membership to those engaged in one or more hazardous occupations in the same or similar lines of business;
(3)  a society that does not issue benefit certificates;
(4)  an association of local lodges of a society engaged in business in this state on July 1, 1913, that provides:
(A)  death benefits of not more than $500 to any one individual;
(B)  disability benefits of not more than $300 in any one year to any one individual;  or
(C)  both death benefits described by Paragraph (A) and disability benefits described by Paragraph (B);
(5)  a contract of reinsurance on a plan in this state described by Subdivision (4);
(6)  a domestic society that limits its membership to the employees of:
(A)  a particular municipality;  or
(B)  a designated firm or corporation;  or
(7)  a domestic lodge, order, or association of a purely religious, charitable, and benevolent description that does not provide:
(A)  death benefits of more than $100;  or
(B)  disability benefits of more than $150 to any one individual in any one year.
(b)  This chapter applies to:
(1)  the insurance department of the supreme lodge Knights of Pythias;  and
(2)  the beneficiary degree of insurance branch of the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics.
(c)  The department may require from any society information that will permit the department to determine whether the society is exempt from this chapter.
Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1419, Sec. 1, eff. June 1, 2003.