(a) (1) The commissioner may hire and assign department staff, and retain nondepartment actuaries and other consultants, to assist the commissioner with preparing to implement and implementing, directly or indirectly, principle-based valuation.

(2) There is in state government the Office of Principle-Based Reserving within the department. The commissioner may select, for the Governor’s appointment, a person to serve as the head of the office, who is an expert in preparing to implement and implementing, directly or indirectly, principle-based valuation. The position occupied by that person shall be an exempt gubernatorial appointment within the department exempt from the state civil service system within the meaning of Section 4 of Article VII of the California Constitution. The person’s salary or compensation shall be fixed by the commissioner and effective and payable without approval of the Department of Human Resources, pursuant to Section 19825 of the Government Code.

(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, the commissioner may annually assess all companies that are subject to this article to defray costs the department incurs preparing to implement and implementing, directly or indirectly, principle-based valuation, including, but not limited to, department salaries and overhead, and actuary and consultant fees and expenses.

(2) The commissioner shall annually set an “aggregate assessment amount” and an assessment amount for each tier listed in paragraph (4). The aggregate assessment amount shall be the amount necessary to provide sufficient moneys to carry out the projected workload to implement, directly or indirectly, principle-based valuation. The annual aggregate assessment amount shall be no less than one million dollars ($1,000,000).

(3) At least 90 days before finalizing the annual aggregate assessment amount and assessment amount for the tiers listed in paragraph (4), the commissioner shall provide notice of the commissioner’s preliminary determination of those amounts. The notice shall explain how the commissioner derived the amounts and provide no less than 45 days for interested parties to provide comments.

(4) Not less than 45 days after the due date for comments specified in paragraph (3), the commissioner shall by bulletin establish the annual aggregate assessment amount according to the company’s annual premium based on the below tiers. For purposes of this section, “annual premium” shall mean the gross annual life insurance premium written by a company in California during the immediately preceding year as reported in its annual statutory financial statement. The commissioner may adjust the initial assessment amount for each tier to ensure a sufficient annual aggregate assessment amount as defined in paragraph (2) if he or she adopts a change to the valuation manual pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 10489.96 that warrants the adjustment, and provides an accounting explaining the need for the adjustment.

Annual Premium

Initial Annual Assessment Per Company

$500,000,001 +

$75,000

$50,000

$400,000,001 - $500,000,000

$300,000,001 - $400,000,000

$40,000

$200,000,001 - $300,000,000

$30,000

$150,000,001 - $200,000,000

$20,000

$100,000,001 - $150,000,000

$10,000

$50,000,001 - $100,000,000

$5,000

(5) All examinations and analyses of reserves and principle-based valuation methodologies performed pursuant to Section 730 may be at the expense of the company, organization, or person examined, pursuant to Section 736.

(c) Before retaining an independent actuary or consultant under paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), the commissioner shall require a written declaration by the actuary or consultant that:

(1) The actuary shall not disclose to another party, other than the department, and shall protect from unauthorized use, any confidential information, as defined in Section 10489.99, obtained in the course of his or her work for the commissioner, unless authorized to do so by the commissioner or required by law.

(2) The actuary or consultant shall not disclose to another party and shall protect from unauthorized use, all confidential information obtained from the department in the course of his or her work for the commissioner.

(d) Before retaining an independent actuary or consultant under paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), the commissioner shall require a written declaration by the actuary or consultant that:

(1) The actuary or consultant will not perform professional services involving an actual or potential conflict of interest unless all of the following are satisfied:

(A) The actuary’s or consultant’s ability to perform the services fairly is unimpaired.

(B) There has been disclosure of the conflict to all present, or known prospective, clients or employers of the actuary or consultant whose interests would be affected by the conflict.

(C) All present, or known prospective, clients or employers of the actuary or consultant have expressly agreed to the performance of the services by the actuary or consultant.

(2) The actuary or actuarial firm with which the actuary is affiliated was not involved in developing the reserves or principle-based valuation methodology under consideration by the actuary.

(3) The actuary or consultant has disclosed any financial interest in the companies whose reserves or principle-based valuation methodologies may be affected by the actuary’s or consultant’s services.

(e) The commissioner may develop and amend regulations to implement or modify subdivisions (c) and (d). The initial adoption of the regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary in order to address a situation calling for immediate action to avoid serious harm to the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare. Any emergency regulation adopted or amended by the commissioner pursuant to this section shall be adopted or amended in accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code and shall remain in effect for 180 days.

(Added by Stats. 2015, Ch. 658, Sec. 24. (SB 696) Effective January 1, 2016.)