PLEASANTON, CA, Dec. 15, 2016 --  IIABCal will host a member-only webinar next Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 10 am, to provide information and answer specific questions on AB 2883—the new law significantly affecting how business owners exempt themselves from workers’ compensation requirements—which takes effect and applies to all comp policies in force on Jan. 1.  Register for the webinar here.

IIABCal General Counsel Steve Young will lead an on-line discussion with one of the foremost authorities on California workers’ compensation law and practice, Mark Webb, founder and principal of Prop 23 Advisors (www.proposition23workerscomp.com).

AB 2883 amends the California Labor Code to allow exemptions from workers’ compensation requirements for an officer or director only if he/she owns at least 15% of the issued and outstanding stock of the corporation, or an individual who is a general partner of a partnership or a managing member of a limited liability company—and if that person elected to be excluded by executing a written waiver of his or her rights, stating under penalty of perjury that they were qualified for the exemption.

Most laws apply only prospectively, which for insurance purposes means they apply only to policies newly issued or renewed after the effective date of the change in law.  When AB 2883 takes effect on Jan. 1, however, it will apply to all workers’ compensation policies—even those already in effect—because of a drafting error that no one caught before the bill was passed and signed into law.

While various state agencies, including the California Department of Insurance, have provided helpful information, there are still far more questions about this new law than answers, and no one has better, more detailed, more thoughtful, or more difficult questions than broker-agents who provide workers’ compensation policies and services to employers, Young said.

The webinar, free to all IIABCal members who register in advance, is being designed to review the most frequent questions the Association is receiving on the new law, but with the bulk of the hour-long reserved for participants to ask their own questions.

“Mark Webb is one of the most knowledgeable, thoughtful and articulate experts in all of California on workers’ compensation issues,” Young said, “and we could not ask for a better or more informed industry leader to help advise IIABCal broker-agents.”

Prop. 23 Advisors provides a wide range of consulting services on workers' compensation legislative and regulatory issues, as well as governance, risk and compliance (GRC) programs, primarily for small to medium size firms.

Webb most recently worked as Vice President (Government Relations) and Chief Compliance Officer for Pacific Compensation Insurance Company.  He has also served as Assistant General Counsel (State Relations) with the American Internal Group (AIG), and Vice President, Western Region, with the American Insurance Association (AIA).  

He currently serves on the California Advisory Committee for the Workers' Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).   He has been a participating member of the Legal Committee of the California Workers' Compensation Institute (CWCI), the Claims Working Group for the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB), and is a past chair of the Workers' Compensation Committee for the Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC).

More information on AB 2883 is available below.

Here is the official Notice issued by the California Department of Insurance on Oct. 17, including a summary of the bill’s requirements and a new sample waiver form: http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200-bulletins/bulletin-notices-commiss-opinion/upload/NoticeAB2883.pdf 

Here is the complete text of AB 2883: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2883