insurance company

A company engaged in the business of making contracts by which it agrees to indemnify the other parties thereto from a loss or damage which they may suffer from a specified peril. Strictly construed, an insurance company regularly incorporated and doing business as an old-line company, not a benevolent society or fraternal order providing insurance benefits for its members. 29 Am J Rev ed Ins § 781. An investment company within the meaning of § 3(a) of the Federal Investment Company Act. 15 USC § 80a-3(a). As the term appears in a tax statute:–an incorporated organization, as contrasted with an unincorporated company or association; including a mutual company, a guaranty or surety company, a hospital service association, and an insurance association created by the legislature as an integral part of a workmen's compensation act. On the other hand, it has been held, under the statutory phraseology and facts and circumstances of a particular case, that for the purposes of such statute, the term may not be applied to a reciprocal insurance exchange, to a company dealing in industrial group insurance, to a mutual company, or to a corporation engaged in the business of servicing mortgages, investing in, and buying and selling bonds and mortgages, and originating and selling mortgage loans. Anno: 146 ALR 464 et seq. See benevolent insurance company; mutual benefit society; mutual insurance company; old line company; stock insurance company.