For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following definitions:
(a) “Certified” means an originally signed or sealed statement, dated not more than 60 days before submission, made by a public official or other person, attached to a copy of a document, that attests that the copy is a true copy of the original, and that the original is in the custody of the person making the statement.
(b) “Commercial insured” means any person purchasing commercial insurance that, at the time of placement, meets all of the following requirements:
(1) The person employs or retains a qualified risk manager to negotiate insurance coverage.
(2) The person has paid aggregate nationwide commercial property and casualty insurance premiums in excess of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in the immediately preceding 12 months.
(3) (A) The person meets at least one of the following criteria:
(i) The person possesses a net worth in excess of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000), as that amount is adjusted pursuant to subparagraph (B).
(ii) The person generates annual revenues in excess of fifty million dollars ($50,000,000), as that amount is adjusted pursuant to subparagraph (B).
(iii) The person employs more than 500 full-time or full-time equivalent employees per individual insured or is a member of an affiliated group employing more than 1,000 employees in the aggregate.
(iv) The person is a not-for-profit organization or public entity generating annual budgeted expenditures of at least thirty million dollars ($30,000,000), as that amount is adjusted pursuant to subparagraph (B).
(v) The person is a municipality with a population in excess of 50,000 persons.
(B) Effective on January 1, 2015, and each fifth January 1 occurring thereafter, the dollar amounts in subparagraph (A) shall be adjusted to reflect the percentage change for that five-year period in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor. The commissioner shall issue a bulletin to all surplus line brokers advising of any adjustments and may adopt the calculations of the NAIC or other entity in doing so.
(c) “Domiciliary jurisdiction” means the state, nation, or subdivision thereof under the laws of which an insurer is incorporated or otherwise organized.
(d) “Domiciliary state of the syndicate’s trust” means the state in which the syndicate’s trust fund is principally maintained and administered for the benefit of the syndicate’s policyholders in the United States.
(e) “Home state” means, except as provided in paragraphs (2) to (4), inclusive, any of the following, with respect to an insured or applicant:
(1) (A) The state in which the insured maintains its principal place of business or, in the case of an individual, the individual’s principal residence.
(B) If 100 percent of the insured risk is located outside the state referred to in subparagraph (A), the state to which the greatest percentage of the insured’s taxable premium for that insurance contract is allocated.
(2) “Principal place of business” means, with respect to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) determining the home state of the insured, (A) the state where the insured maintains its headquarters and where the insured’s high-level officers direct, control, and coordinate the business activities; or (B) if the insured’s high-level officers direct, control, and coordinate the business activities in more than one state, the state in which the greatest percentage of the insured’s taxable premium for that insurance contract is allocated; or (C) if the insured maintains its headquarters or the insured’s high-level officers direct, control, and coordinate the business activities outside any state, the state to which the greatest percentage of the insured’s taxable premium for that insurance contract is allocated.
(3) “Principal residence” means, with respect to determining the home state of the insured, (A) the state where the insured resides for the greatest number of days during a calendar year; or (B) if the insured’s principal residence is located outside any state, the state to which the greatest percentage of the insured’s taxable premium for that insurance contract is allocated.
(4) Affiliated groups. If more than one insured from an affiliated group are named insureds on a single nonadmitted insurance contract, the term “home state” means the home state, as determined pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1), of the member of the affiliated group that has the largest percentage of premium attributed to it under such insurance contract.
(f) “Home state insured” or “home state insured applicant” means a person whose home state is California and who has received a certificate or evidence of coverage as set forth in Section 1764 or a policy as issued by an eligible surplus line insurer, or a person who is an applicant therefor.
(g) “IID” means the International Insurers Department of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
(h) “Insurer” means, unless the context indicates otherwise, “nonadmitted” insurers that are either “foreign” or “alien” insurers, as those terms are defined in Sections 25, 27, and 1580, and syndicates whose members consist of individual incorporated insurers who are not engaged in any business other than underwriting as a member of the group and individual unincorporated insurers, provided all the members are subject to the same level of solvency regulation and control by the group’s domiciliary regulator. The term “insurer” includes all nonadmitted insurers selling insurance to or through purchasing groups as defined in the federal Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986 (15 U.S.C. Sec. 3901 et seq.) and the California Risk Retention Act of 1991 (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 125) of Part 1), except insurers that are risk retention groups as defined by those acts.
(i) “ISI” means Insurance Solvency International.
(j) “Licensee” means a surplus line broker as defined in Section 47.
(k) “Multistate risk” means a risk covered by a nonadmitted insurer with insured exposures in more than one state.
(l) “NAIC” means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners or its successor organization.
(m) “Nonadmitted insurance” means any property and casualty insurance permitted to be placed directly or through a surplus line broker with a nonadmitted insurer eligible to accept such insurance.
(n) “Nonadmitted insurer” means an insurer not licensed or admitted to engage in the business of insurance in this state in conformity with Section 700; but does not include a risk retention group, as that term is defined in Sections 130(k) and 2(a)(4) of the federal Liability Risk Retention Act of 1986 (15 U.S.C. Sec. 3901(a)(4)).
(o) “Qualified risk manager” means, with respect to a policyholder of commercial insurance, a person who meets all of the following requirements:
(1) The person is an employee of, or third-party consultant retained by, the commercial policyholder.
(2) The person provides skilled services in loss prevention, loss reduction, or risk and insurance coverage analysis, and purchase of insurance.
(3) The person has any of the following:
(A) A bachelor’s degree or higher degree from an accredited college or university in risk management, business administration, finance, economics, or any other field determined by the commissioner to demonstrate minimum competence in risk management and satisfies either of the following:
(i) Has three years of experience in risk financing, claims administration, loss prevention, risk and insurance analysis, or purchasing commercial lines of insurance.
(ii) Has one of the following:
(I) A designation as a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) issued by the American Institute for CPCU and Insurance Institute of America.
(II) A designation as an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) issued by the American Institute for CPCU and Insurance Institute of America.
(III) A designation as Certified Risk Manager (CRM) issued by the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.
(IV) A designation as a RIMS Fellow (RF) issued by the Global Risk Management Institute.
(V) Any other designation, certification, or license determined by the commissioner to demonstrate minimum competency in risk management.
(B) At least seven years of experience in risk financing, claims administration, loss prevention, risk and insurance coverage analysis, or purchasing commercial lines of insurance, and has any one of the designations specified in subclauses (I) to (V), inclusive, of clause (ii) of subparagraph (A).
(C) At least 10 years of experience in risk financing, claims administration, loss prevention, risk and insurance coverage analysis, or purchasing commercial lines of insurance.
(D) A graduate degree from an accredited college or university in risk management, business administration, finance, economics, or any other field determined by the commissioner to demonstrate minimum competence in risk management.
(p) “State” means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
(q) “Verified” means a document or copy accompanied by an originally signed statement, dated not more than 60 days before submission, from a responsible executive or official who has authority to provide the statement and knowledge whereof he or she speaks, attesting either under oath before a notary public, or under the penalty of perjury under California law, that the assertions made in the document are true.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 162, Sec. 103. (SB 1171) Effective January 1, 2013.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018