Insurance: State Compensation Insurance Fund: investments.

Existing law creates the State Compensation Insurance Fund administered by a board of directors for the purpose of transacting workers' compensation insurance, and insurance against the expense of defending any suit for serious and willful misconduct, against an employer or his or her agent, and insurance to employees and other persons of the compensation fixed by the workers' compensation laws for employees and their dependents. Existing law requires the board of directors to invest and reinvest, from time to time, all moneys in the State Compensation Insurance Fund in excess of current requirements, in the same manner as is authorized in certain provisions applicable to private insurance carriers. This bill would expand the board's choices for the investment of excess moneys by allowing the board to invest or reinvest in additional investments in the same manner as provided for private insurance carriers, including, but not limited to, interest bearing obligations issued by a nonaffiliate institution, all deposits and debt obligations of banks or savings and loan associations whose accounts are insured by an agency or instrumentality of the federal government, and bonds issued by any county, municipality, or school district in this state to represent assessments for local improvements authorized by law. The bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 11797 of the Insurance Code, proposed by AB 1873 of the 2009–10 Regular Session, to be operative only if both bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is chaptered last.