Insurance omnibus.

(1) Existing law defines the fire and casualty broker-agent license as 2 insurance license types: property broker-agent licenses, for insurance coverage on the direct or consequential loss or damage to property of every kind, and casualty broker-agent licenses, for insurance coverage against legal liability, including for death, injury, disability, or damage to real or personal property. Existing law requires the bond of a fire and casualty broker-agent to be in the amount of $10,000, as specified. This bill would remove references to fire and casualty broker-agent and substitute the terms property broker-agent and casualty broker-agent in order to make conforming changes. The bill would clarify that individuals and organizations licensed for both property and casualty are only required to obtain one $10,000 bond to act as a broker. (2) Existing law requires insurers to file certain documents with the Insurance Commissioner. Existing law also requires a copy of the instrument or record of the action making any changes to those documents, proved by certificates of custodian of the original, or by affidavit, be filed with the commissioner. This bill would make the above requirements regarding changes in the filed documents applicable to domestic insurers, and would make those requirements applicable to a foreign or alien insurer upon request. (3) Existing law requires an insurer, in order to be admitted in this state to transact specified workers' compensation transactions, among other things, to deposit cash instruments or approved interest-bearing securities or approved stocks readily convertible into cash, investment certificates, or share accounts issued by a savings and loan association doing business in this state and insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, certificates of deposit, or savings deposits in a bank licensed to do business in this state. This bill would include as an authorized workers' compensation depository a bank that is either domiciled in and with its principal place of business in this state or is a national banking association with a trust office located in this state. (4) Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, requires a nonresident applicant for an organizational insurance license to name at least one person from their home state who may exercise the power and perform the duties under their license. Additional persons endorsed to that license may be residents of another state, but may not be residents of California. This bill would instead require a nonresident applicant for an organizational insurance license to name at least one person from a state other than California who may exercise the power and perform the duties under their license. The bill would also require that additional persons endorsed to that license may be residents of other states, including California. (5) Existing law authorizes certain broker-agents to act as insurance solicitors. This bill would include personal lines broker-agents and limited lines automobile insurance agents as those persons who can act as insurance solicitors, as provided. (6) Existing law requires the Department of Insurance to make available for public inspection and publish on its Internet Web site, among other things, every adopted report of an examination of unfair or deceptive business practices that is adopted as filed, or as modified or corrected, by the commissioner, as provided. Existing law provides for transmittal of the adopted report by certified mail, a 10-day insurer comment period, and a 10 business day publication requirement, after the transmittal. This bill would clarify that the published document would be a market conduct examination. The bill would authorize electronic transmittal of the adopted report, as provided, provide for a 20-day insurer comment period, and require publication 20 business days after the transmittal. (7) Existing law creates a 15-member advisory committee to assist the commissioner in carrying out the assigned risk plan that offers automobile insurance coverage, as provided, to applicants who are in good faith entitled to coverage but are unable to procure it. All insurer representatives on the advisory committee are required to be salaried employees. This bill would instead require that each insurer representative serving be either a salaried employee or officer of the named insurer or a salaried employee or officer of another insurer from a group of insurance companies under the same management as the named insurer. The bill would also authorize a salaried employee or officer of the holding company of the named insurer to be designated as the representative. (8) This bill would make technical, conforming, and related changes and delete obsolete provisions.