97-177. License covering applicant and any subsidiary or applicant relying on a guarantor; procedure; requirements.

(a) The Commissioner may, in the Commissioner's discretion, upon request by an applicant, issue a license to an applicant or to an applicant and one or more of its subsidiaries if all of the following requirements are satisfied:

(1) The applicant or a guarantor of the applicant executes a guaranty agreement, in a form prescribed by the Commissioner, for the payment of all workers' compensation liabilities covered under the Act. For any applicant or guarantor that is a corporation, there shall be submitted, along with the guaranty agreement, a board of directors' resolution from the respective corporation authorizing the guaranty of the liabilities of the subsidiary company or companies and granting signature authority to each person or officer executing the agreement.

(2) The applicant or guarantor files a statement with the Commissioner that lists the percentage of ownership of voting securities or proxies representing voting securities owned or held by the applicant or guarantor for each subsidiary, or in the case of a not-for-profit entity, documentation acceptable to the Commissioner evidencing control.

(3) The applicant and its guarantor or the applicant and its subsidiaries, whichever applies, satisfy the requirements of G.S. 97-170(c).

(4) All other applicable requirements for licensure under the Act are satisfied.

(b) A license issued by the Commissioner pursuant to this section shall include the name of the applicant, the name of each licensed subsidiary, and the date of issuance for each licensed subsidiary.

(c) If a self-insurer requests to add a subsidiary to its license, the Commissioner shall review the request in accordance with this section. Upon approval, the Commissioner shall issue to the self-insurer a new license that includes the newly licensed subsidiary and the date of license issuance for the newly licensed subsidiary, and the self-insurer shall return the original license to the Commissioner.

(d) A self-insurer shall neither include nor delete a subsidiary from its license without the Commissioner's prior written approval.

(e) If a controlling relationship or guaranty agreement terminates, the self-insurer shall retain all liabilities under the Act that were incurred by the self-insurer during the period of self-insurance and shall account for all such liabilities until discharged, as evidenced by reports filed with the Commissioner. Termination of a guaranty agreement does not affect the guarantor's liability for payment of liabilities arising prior to termination of the agreement.