The Only Association Representing the California Insurance Wholesaler

Passage of AB 2956

While the passage of AB 2956 was important to all California agents and brokers, three significant points vital to California’s Wholesaler industry have been included as the result of CIWA’s work on your behalf:

• AB 2956 helps clarify that the portions of the California Code dealing with “broker” and “agent” are focused on admitted business and that there is a separate regulatory and licensing structure applicable to non-admitted (Surplus Line) business.
• The duty of a wholesaler to disclose, while otherwise the same as those of a retailer, is limited to disclosure to the retailer. (This is the first time that there has been any recognition in the code, when dealing with admitted placements, that there is such a thing as a wholesaler, and that a wholesaler may have different duties.)
  
• AB 2956 makes reference to a licensee being appointed “as an agent of the insurer for the particular class or type of insurance being transacted.” The reflection that appointments may be limited by class or type of insurance is a major step forward for us in our ongoing endeavor to gain recognition that an organization, especially in the wholesale world, may interact with an insurer as an agent in some transactions and as a broker in others.

Without combined efforts of the retail and wholesale communities, passage of AB 2956 would not have been possible. CIWA is proud to have worked under closely with IBA West, AIA, WIAA and others in this effort.

The collective voice and financial resources of CIWA helped make possible inclusion of these specific concerns for the wholesale community.

We need your participation to strengthen and continue these efforts. With your help, we can do even more.

For Legislative information please contact:

Hank Haldeman
The Sullivan Group

Mark C. Scott
Trans Cal Assocciates