Travel insurance.

Existing law authorizes the issuance of limited licenses as travel insurance agents for employees of railroads, steamships, airlines, and other organizations engaged in transporting persons as common carriers and to individuals or employees of persons engaged in selling transportation on those common carriers. This bill would revise and recast the provisions related to travel insurance by, among other things, changing the definition of travel insurance to delete references to transportation ticket policies in disability insurance policies and include interruption or cancellation of a trip or event, loss of baggage or personal effects, damages to accommodations or rental vehicles, and sickness, accident, disability, or death occurring during travel. The bill would authorize the Insurance Commissioner to issue a limited lines travel insurance agent license to any organization engaged in transacting travel insurance through travel retailers, as those terms are defined, and would define a limited lines travel insurance agent to mean an insurer designee that is licensed to transact travel insurance. The bill would require the licensed limited lines travel insurance agent and a travel retailer to follow administrative and disclosure requirements, such as including the agent's identification information and making certain disclosures to the consumer in the marketing materials and fulfillment packages, and requiring the agent to establish and maintain a register noting each travel retailer that transacts travel insurance. Existing law requires that a limited license to sell travel insurance be applied for and renewed in the same manner as is provided for a licensee to act as a property broker-agent or a casualty broker-agent, and that an applicant pay a filing fee, except that an applicant for a limited license as a travel insurance agent need not pass a qualifying examination. This bill would delete those provisions and would instead require that the applicant for a limited lines travel insurance agent license file with the Insurance Commissioner a written application for licensure, signed by the applicant or an officer of the applicant, in the form prescribed by the commissioner, a certificate by the insurer on a form prescribed by the commissioner stating, among other things, that the insurer has satisfied itself that the applicant is trustworthy and competent to act as its limited lines travel insurance agent, and an application fee and a renewal fee in an amount determined by the commissioner as sufficient to defray the reasonable costs incurred by the department to implement the provisions of this bill. The bill would authorize the commissioner to take disciplinary action against a limited lines travel insurance agent for a violation of the provisions of the Insurance Code by a travel retailer or a travel retailer's employee. The bill would make conforming changes and delete obsolete provisions.