Articles & Updates

Relaxed Rules for Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Arrangements Become Law, Providing New Options for Employers.

Gavin Newsom signed SB1159 into law on 9/17/20, requiring California businesses to report ALL positive COVID cases to their Workers’ Compensation carrier, whether industrial or non-industrial. The changes apply retroactively to July 6, 2020 and remain in effect until January 1, 2023.

Our Commercial Lines Producer, Jeff Okrepkie, shares insight on the increasing property premiums businesses across California face, particularly wineries. The article comments on the evolving insurance landscape the industry is seeing, from an increase in the use of the CA FAIR Plan to last resort "forced placed" coverage.

Our Commercial Lines Producer & VP, Manny Mello, comments in the Eureka Times-Standard on the increasing property insurance premiums in Humboldt County and throughout the state.  Read what he has to say here. 

The California Department of Insurance has approved special rules proposed by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) to provide some relief to employers during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The new rules will allow employers to temporarily reassign the payroll of qualified employees to 8810 Clerical and exclude the payroll for employees who are on paid leave during the Shelter In Place order.  Documentation will be important; below is a brief overview of the documentation that will be required.

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that codifies a court ruling from last year that set new ground rules for what constitutes an independent contractor, and which expands on that ruling. Now that AB 5 is the law, labor laws will apply to any independent contractors who have to be reclassified as employees.

Update: On August 30, 2019 Governor Newsom has signed new legislation into law (SB778) that extends the anti-harassment training deadline from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021. 

On September 30, 2018 California passed SB1343, greatly expanding the requirement that employers provide harassment prevention training to employees.  Employers with five or more employees must provide harassment prevention training as follows:

Mike Parr of our Santa Rosa office recently commented in the North Bay Business Journal on what to expect from North Bay Health Insurance in 2017. See what he has to say here.

Our very own Bruce Okrepkie was voted the "Best Business Community Leader" in North Bay biz magazine's annual readers poll. Take a look at some of the great things he's doing at our agency and for the community at large:

We're honored to be voted the "Best Insurance Brokerage" for the third year in North Bay biz magazine's annual readers poll. We take pride in serving our clients and it's an honor to receive this distinction from the community.

You can read the full write-up here: