NAIFA-California Day on the Hill 2021- A HUGE Success. NAIFA-California members have a lot to be proud of for their effectiveness at this year’s Virtual State Day on the Hill (DOTH).  This year’s DOTH was held the last week of March and early June as dozens of members connected with State Assemblypersons, Senators and staffers virtually to discuss three pending pieces of legislations. AB551; AB743; and AB1498. Of the bills we addressed, thus far we have seen positive change on two, AB743 and AB1498 have both been suspended in committee meaning they will not move forward this legislative period. After discussing the details on the stall of these bills, it looks like they will be allowed to die completely and will not be resubmitted in current form.

What does this mean for you? AB743 was a bill requiring property casualty insurers to retroactively cover business interruption losses caused by the pandemic. Requiring a carrier to pay claims on risks that were neither underwritten nor premiums paid. This would dramatically affect property casualty pricing and inevitably drive carriers from the state, limiting choice and driving up premiums.

AB1498 was a misguided bill requiring life insurance carriers to send a certified letter as part of all policy lapse notifications. This was a bill with good intention but did little to nothing to help keep policies in force. NAIFA-California will be working with the author, Assemblyman Low to come up with workable solutions to keep more policies in force and benefits paid.

We do still have pending legislation with AB551 which give public employee plan administrators unfair, exclusive access to sell Individual IRA accounts to plan participants. This would give these plan sponsors a leg up on NAIFA members when offering IRA’s. This is unacceptable and NAIFA-California will continue to lobby to stop this unconstitutional effort to marginalize our members. 

Overall, the report from Sacramento is our members in attendance at DOTH made an incredible impact and coupled with our Lobbyist, Shari McHugh of McHugh, Koepke & Associates, we made a great showing and definite influence on these proposed bills. We will continue to keep you posted on AB551 and our anticipated success.

Now on to Washington DC… At the end of this month will have our federal lobbying day, the Congressional Congress (ConCon) the week of May 24^th. This virtual multi day event will have speakers from our national lobbying team as well as noted legislators and of course, our National President Tom Michel.

This year, your attendance is especially important as we fight for our literal existence as independent agents in our opposition of the proposed PRO Act. This misguided piece of legislation is very much like California’s AB5 which NAIFA California defeated almost 3yrs ago. The PRO Act would recharacterize independent agents as employees. The impact of this bill is immense. This would remove the independent nature of our services, change ownership of client relationships and dramatically affect your business practices.  NAIFA has developed a robust calendar of events as well as resources to help schedule your individual virtual legislator meeting. Please CLICK HERE to register for this very important event and have your voice heard.

Keep your eyes open for our next Government Relations Quarterly Update Zoom call and we will look forward to seeing you at the end of the month at the national Congressional Congress.

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