Massachusetts § 181 - Misrepresentations by insurer; penalty

§ 181. Misrepresentations by insurer; penalty

Section 181. No company, no officer or agent thereof and no insurance broker or insurance adviser shall make, issue, circulate or use, or cause or permit to be made, issued, circulated or used, any written or oral statement misrepresenting the terms of any policy of insurance or any annuity or pure endowment contract issued or to be issued by any company, or the benefits or privileges promised thereunder. No company, no officer or agent thereof and no insurance broker or insurance adviser shall make to any person insured under any policy of insurance or holding any annuity or pure endowment contract any written or oral misrepresentation or misleading representation in respect to the terms, benefits or privileges of any policy of insurance or any annuity or pure endowment contract, or any written or oral incomplete or misleading comparison of any such policy or contract or of any of the terms, benefits or privileges thereof with any other such policy or contract or any of the terms, benefits or privileges thereof, in order to induce or which tends to induce such person to lapse, forfeit or surrender the policy issued to him or the contract held by him, or to alter or convert it into, or to exchange it for, any other such policy or contract. Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect any of the provisions of section one hundred and seventy.

The insured under any policy of life or endowment insurance or the holder of any annuity or pure endowment contract who was induced to procure it by any action in violation of this section by an officer or agent of the company issuing or executing it may recover from such company all premiums paid on such policy or contract less any indebtedness to the company thereon or secured thereby and less any payments otherwise made by the company thereon, in an action brought within two years after the date of issue thereof.