MACAU SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Carlos Eduardo Coelho, MdME
6.5 Multiple Insured or Potential Beneficiaries As a general rule, the insurance policy shall contain the identification details and address of the benefi- ciary, who can be the policyholder or anyone named by the policyholder (who does not need to be the insured person if this is different from the policyhold- er). Unnamed beneficiaries such as the heirs of the policyholder can be appointed. Life insurance policies have the specific possibility of not designating a beneficiary at the inception of the policy. If no beneficiary is designated and there are no objective criteria for such determination until the death of the policyholder, the legal and contractual benefits of the policy will be transferred to the estate of the policyholder (ie, to its legal heirs). Multiple beneficiaries and the respective proportion in receiving the benefits of the insurance are allowed. The designation of a beneficiary could be made by means of a contract, by a written instruction to the insurers or by will. The policyholder, subject to its own discretion, can revoke the designation of the benefi- ciaries, unless it is an irrevocable beneficiary (in which case the beneficiary shall have to consent). There are also the following specific regulations in respect of the interpretation of the clauses for desig- nating the beneficiaries: • if designating the heirs of the insured as the benefi- ciary, these are interpreted as the legitimate or tes- tamentary heirs, in accordance with general rules; • if designating the spouse as the beneficiary, said spouse is interpreted as the one to whom the insured is married at the moment of death; and • if the designation is made in favour of various beneficiaries, the insurer shall distribute the benefit equally, unless there is a declaration to the contrary by the policyholder. 6.6 Consumer Contracts or Reinsurance Contracts The position of consumer contracts is the same as detailed throughout this section, with there being no difference in respect of the legal requirements and distinguishing features.
Macau law contains no specific rules for reinsurance contracts, which are generally governed by the princi- ple of contractual freedom of the contracting parties. 7. Alternative Risk Transfer (ART) 7.1 ART Transactions There is no specific regime nor an established practice of local Macau insurers resorting to ART transactions. However, subject to regulatory approval, local insur- ers might consider ART transactions for the purposes of risk mitigation within their risk management and internal control systems. 7.2 Foreign ART Transactions There is no specific regime for the recognition of over- seas ART transactions. 8. Interpreting an Insurance Contract 8.1 Interpretation of Insurance Contracts and Use of Extraneous Evidence The interpretation of the general and special condi- tions of the insurance policy shall comply with the general principles of the interpretation of legal trans- actions (contained within the Macau Civil Code). As a general rule, contracts are interpreted with the mean- ing that a normal recipient placed in the position of the actual recipient would take from the clauses in the contract. Based on such principle, the interpreter shall consider: • the general knowledge that a reasonable person, normally clear, thoughtful and prudent in the spe- cific kind of transaction, would have; and • the facts and circumstances of which the parties to the contract were actually aware when they executed the contract. This general rule is subject to the following excep- tions: • the contract shall not be found to have a meaning that one of the parties could not reasonably expect to be attributed to it;
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