Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Supreme Court Allows Lawsuits Over Seat Belts
Feb 23 2011 // The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal regulations setting vehicle safety standards do not bar lawsuits seeking damages from automakers for installing lap-only seat belts. The unanimous ruling held that a California...
Mulryan Named Chair of Calif. State Fund
Feb 21 2011 // The California State Compensation Insurance Fund is likely to face challenges of medical cost increases and the risk of eroding workers’ compensation reforms in the next year. Yet outgoing board chairwoman Jeanne...
Liens Stress California Workers’ Compensation System
Feb 21 2011 // Liens are “choking” California’s workers’ compensation system, with employers and insurers spending roughly $200 million per year in the state on loss adjustment expense to handle medical liens...
People
Feb 21 2011 // The California Insurance Wholesalers Association honored David F. Anderson, chairman of Anderson & Murison, with its Wholesale Industry Award. Anderson was a founding president of CIWA from 1991 to 1993. He served on...
Calif. Wants Insurance Companies to Invest in Communities
Feb 18 2011 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is offering insurance companies $4.67 million in tax credits to invest in underserved communities. In a letter to company CEOs, Jones pushed for insurers to place a portion of...
Calif. Insurance Agents & Brokers Association Changes Name to Cal Agents
Feb 16 2011 // Insurance Agents & Brokers Association of California has changed its name to California Agents & Brokers Insurance Association — or Cal Agents for short. “Cal Agents is a more succinct name to quickly...
State Geologists Put Calif. Earthquake Maps Online
Feb 14 2011 // Anyone with an Internet connection can now find out whether the house they want to buy is on one of California’s earthquake faults. The California Geological Survey announced that it was posting its fault zone maps...
Calif. State Fund Names Vargen Senior VP
Feb 14 2011 // California State Compensation Insurance Fund has promoted Jennifer Vargen from communications director to senior vice president of marketing and communications. Vargen began her State Fund career in 1988, and saw early...
Prepareth Not and Doom Your Summer Vacation
Feb 10 2011 // The Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA), Subtitle B, Part I, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, will usher in a new era of premium taxation and regulation for surplus lines insurance on...
Report: Calif. Health Insurers Deny 26% of All Claims
Feb 10 2011 // California’s largest, private health insurers rejected 26 percent of all claims –13.1 million — submitted for the first three quarters of 2010, according to new findings by the Institute of Health and...
Calif. Surplus Line Association Names New Officers
Feb 9 2011 // The members of the Surplus Line Association of California (SLA) have elected Patrick Hanley as their chairman. Hanley is president of Socius Insurance Services Inc. in San Francisco. Other officers elected for the 2011...
California Insurance Wholesalers Association Honors Anderson
Feb 8 2011 // The California Insurance Wholesalers Association has honored David F. Anderson, chairman of Anderson & Murison, with its Wholesale Industry Award. Anderson was a founding president of CIWA from 1991 to 1993. He served...
Calif. Workers’ Comp Division Mourns Passing of Nevans
Feb 8 2011 // California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC), a division within the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), has sadly announced the passing of acting Administrative Director Carrie Nevans. She was...
Mercury Insurance Suffers $23.6M Net Loss
Feb 8 2011 // Due in part to claims from California rainstorms and Florida sinkholes, Los Angeles-based Mercury Insurance reported a fourth quarter net loss of $23.6 million, compared with net income of $34.2 million for the same period...
Calif. Recovers $63.8M in Insurance Investigations, Exams
Feb 7 2011 // The California Department of Insurance announced it has recovered $63.8 million for consumers through consumer complaint investigations and market conduct examinations of insurance companies in the past year. The...
Calif. Commissioner Seeks Insurance Rate Review Authority
Feb 7 2011 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has released draft guidance for Senate Bill 1163. The new law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, requires health insurers to provide detailed information regarding proposed...
EPIC Launches National Public Entities Practice
Feb 3 2011 // California-based EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center), a retail property, casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage, has created a national Public Entites Practice and team to deliver property and casualty...
Calif. City May Give Red Light Camera Fines to Charity
Feb 2 2011 // A Southern California city may donate red light camera fines to local charities in an effort to convince skeptics that safety is the motive behind the cameras, not a money grab. A recent red light camera study by the...
George to Chair Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Feb 1 2011 // AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah announced that Steve George has been elected as the new chairman of the board of directors for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. George is the executive vice president of...
Liens Stress California Workers’ Comp System
Feb 1 2011 // Liens are “choking” California’s workers’ compensation system, with employers and insurers spending roughly $200 million per year on loss adjustment expense to handle medical liens claims, according...
