BILL ANALYSIS
AB 41
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 41 (Solorio)
As Amended August 17, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |44-28|(January 27, |SENATE: |23-12|(August 19, |
| | |2010) | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: INS.
SUMMARY : Extends to January 1, 2015, the sunset date on the
requirement that insurers report to the Insurance Commissioner
(IC) information on their community development investments, and
requires major California insurers to develop and file with the
IC their company's policy statement regarding community
development investments.
The Senate amendments :
1)Require California insurers writing $100 million or more in
annual premiums to develop and file with the IC by July 1,
2011, a policy statement on community development investments
and community development infrastructure investments that
expresses the insurer's goals for these investments during the
current and following calendar year.
2)Require these insurers to biennially review their company's
policy statement and, if they revise or change that statement,
submit the new policy statement to the IC no later than July 1
of each odd-numbered year. The initial policy statement filed
with IC shall satisfy the requirement of this bill if the
insurer's policy statement has not changed.
3)Require these filings to be public information.
4)Add double-jointing language to avoid a chaptering out problem
with AB 1011 (Jones).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires insurance companies to provide information biennially
to the IC on all community development investments they make
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in the state. This requirement will sunset on January 1,
2011.
2)Defines a community development investment as one in which all
or a portion of the investment has the primary purpose of
community development or that it directly benefits low-income
or moderate-income people in California. Qualifying
investments include community facilities, economic development
that includes job creation, affordable housing, commercial
properties located in designated areas, and infrastructure
investments for community development.
3)Requires the IC to provide information biennially on the
California Department of Insurance's (CDI) Internet Web site
on the aggregate insurer community development investments.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Extended from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2015, the sunset
date on the requirement for insurance companies to report
their community development investments to the IC.
2)Required insurers to provide the IC with information on their
community development investments by January 1, 2014, rather
than every two years.
3)Required the IC by May 31, 2014, to provide information on
CDI's Internet Web site on the aggregate insurer community
development investments.
4)Required insurers writing $100 million or more annually in
premiums in California to develop and file with the IC a
policy statement expressing the goals of the company regarding
community development investments.
5)Required the IC to establish a link on its Internet Web site
to provide access to the public of the contents of each
insurer's policy statement and the data on community
development investments made by each insurer writing $100
million or more in premiums annually in California.
6)Allowed insurers that are members of a holding company system
to file community development investment data through a single
filing, provided the data accurately reflects the investments
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made by each of the affiliated insurers.
7)Allowed insurers to report community development investment
data through a filing made by a Community Development
Financial Institution when specified conditions are met.
FISCAL EFFECT : Minor and absorbable costs to CDI to provide
guidance to insurers, collect policy statements, and make them
available to the public.
COMMENTS : The purpose of this bill is to encourage insurance
companies to increase the amount of community development
investments made in California in order to improve the
livability and prosperity of communities while improving the
bottom line of insurers.
In 2008, CDI released the findings from a survey of insurers
that found that only 54 of 485 insurance Companies had adopted a
policy regarding community development investments. An
important finding from that survey is that insurance companies
that have adopted a comprehensive plan or specific goals have
significantly increased their community development investments.
AB 1910 (Coto) of the 2007-08 Session was similar to this bill.
AB 1910 was approved by the Legislature then subsequently vetoed
by the Governor due to concerns about the budget delay with no
specific concerns about the content of the legislation.
Analysis Prepared by : Manny Hernandez / INS. / (916) 319-2086
FN: 0006271