Any order or society entering into such insurance agreements shall maintain on all such contracts the reserve required by the standard of mortality and interest adopted by the order or society for computing contributions as provided in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-25-35, and the funds representing the benefit contributions and all accretions thereon shall be kept as separate and distinct funds, independent of the other funds of the order or society, and shall not be liable for nor used for the payment of the debts and obligations of the order or society other than the benefits herein authorized.  An order or society may provide that when a child reaches the minimum age for initiation into membership in such order or society, any benefit certificate issued hereunder may be surrendered for cancellation and exchanged for any other form of certificate issued by the order or society:  Provided, that such surrender will not reduce the number of lives insured below 500; and upon the issuance of such new certificate any reserve upon the original certificate herein provided for shall be transferred to the credit of the new certificate.  Neither the person who originally made application for benefits on account of such child, nor the beneficiary named in such original certificate, nor the person who paid the contributions, shall have any vested right in such new certificate, the free nomination of a beneficiary under the new certificate being left to the child so admitted to benefit membership. (1987, c. 483, s. 2.)