Any domestic stock life insurance corporation may become a mutual life insurance corporation, and to that end may carry out a plan for the acquisition of shares of its capital stock: Provided, however, that such plan (i) shall have been adopted by a vote of a majority of the directors of such corporation; (ii) shall have been approved by a vote of the holders of two thirds of the stock outstanding at the time of issuing the call for a meeting for that purpose; (iii) shall have been submitted to the Commissioner and shall have been approved by him in writing, and (iv) shall have been approved by a majority vote of the policyholders (including, for the purpose of this Part, the employer or the president, secretary or other executive officer of any corporation or association to which a master group policy has been issued, but excluding the holders of certificates or policies issued under or in connection with a master group policy) voting at said meeting, called for that purpose, at which meeting only such policyholders whose insurance shall then be in force and shall have been in force for at least one year prior to such a meeting shall be entitled to vote; notice of such a meeting shall be given by mailing such notice, postage prepaid, from the home office of such corporation at least 30 days prior to such meeting to such policyholders at their last known post-office addresses: Provided, that personal delivery of such written notice to any policyholder may be in lieu of mailing the same; and such meeting shall be otherwise provided for and conducted in such a manner as shall be provided in such plan: Provided, however, that policyholders may vote in person, by proxy, or by mail; that all such votes shall be cast by ballot, and a representative of the Commissioner shall supervise and direct the methods and procedure of said meeting and appoint an adequate number of inspectors to conduct the voting at said meeting who shall have power to determine all questions concerning the verification of the ballots, the ascertainment of the validity thereof, the qualifications of the voters, and the canvass of the vote, and who shall certify to the said representative and to the corporation the results thereof, and with respect thereto shall act under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Commissioner; that all necessary expenses incurred by the Commissioner or his representative shall be paid by the corporation as certified to by said Commissioner. Every payment for the acquisition of any shares of the capital stock of such corporation, the purchase price of which is not fixed by such plan, shall be subject to the approval of the Commissioner: Provided, that neither such plan, nor any payment thereunder, nor any payment not fixed by such plan, shall be approved by the Commissioner, if the making of such payment shall reduce the assets of the corporation to an amount less than the entire liabilities of the corporation, including therein the net values of its outstanding contracts according to the standard adopted by the Commissioner, and also all other funds, contingent reserves and surplus which the corporation is required by order or direction of the Commissioner to maintain, save so much of the surplus as shall have been appropriated or paid under such plan. (1937, c. 231, s. 1; 1991, c. 720, s. 4; 1995, c. 318, s. 1; 2001-223, s. 9.3.)