SB 495: Insurance.

Official summary

Legislative Counsel’s Digest (official, as of the latest version). Written by nonpartisan legislative staff; reproduced verbatim.

(1)Existing law establishes the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, which regulates insurers and insurance practices. When an insurer obtains reinsurance, existing law requires them to communicate all the representations of the original insured, and also all the knowledge and information they possess, as specified, which are material to the risk.

This bill would require, on or before March 1, 2026, and on or before March 1 every year thereafter, an admitted insurer in a group with written premiums in the prior year from specified lines of insurance totaling $50,000,000 to submit a report to the commissioner that includes data and information necessary to understand its reinsurance program placement data and use of probabilistic catastrophic models for the previous year. The bill would require the report to include data from the latest available reinsurance treaty year. The bill would require the insurer to promptly respond to inquiries from the commissioner upon submission of the report. The bill would require the commissioner to post to the department’s internet website an aggregated report of the data in the report from insurers. The bill would require all other information submitted to the commissioner under these provisions be confidential, among other things, and exempt from the California Public Records Act.

The bill would require an admitted insurer to pay a civil penalty, to be fixed by the commissioner, but not to exceed $5,000 for each 30-day period the insurer is not in compliance with the reporting provisions. The bill would authorize an insurer to request, and the commissioner to grant, a 30-day extension to submit the report if needed due to unintended or unforeseen circumstances. The bill would authorize the commissioner to find that the failure to submit the report on time was willful and to increase the civil penalty to an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each 30-day period, up to a maximum of $100,000. The bill would allow the penalty to be appealed under specified provisions.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

The bill would make related findings and declarations.

(2)Existing law defines the measure of indemnity for a loss under an open fire insurance policy and specifies time limits under which an insured must collect the full replacement cost of the loss. For a residential property insurance policy, existing law requires the measure of damages available to a policyholder to use to rebuild or replace the insured home at another location to be the amount that would have been recoverable had the insured dwelling been rebuilt at its original location, as specified. In the event of a total loss of an insured structure, existing law prohibits a policy issued or delivered in this state from containing a provision that limits or denies payment of the building code upgrade cost or the replacement cost on the basis that the insured has decided to rebuild at a new location or to purchase a built home at a new location. Existing law requires the insured to give written notice to the insurer of any loss within 60 days after the loss unless the time is extended in writing by the insurer.

Sponsors

Sponsors by party (alphabetical): Democratic 2

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. October 10, 2025Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 542, Statutes of 2025.
2. October 10, 2025Approved by the Governor.
3. September 23, 2025Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
4. September 13, 2025Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 28. Noes 6. Page 3062.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
5. September 13, 2025In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
6. September 13, 2025Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 3450.) Ordered to the Senate.
7. September 13, 2025Joint Rule 61(a)(14) and 51(a)(4) suspended. (Ayes 59. Noes 20. Page 3413.)
8. September 2, 2025Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
9. August 29, 2025From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (August 29).
10. August 20, 2025August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
11. July 17, 2025Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
12. July 16, 2025From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (July 15).