For the purposes of this act:

(a) “Insurer” means any person subject to the insurance supervisory authority of, or to liquidation, rehabilitation, reorganization, or conservation by the commissioner or the equivalent insurance supervisory official of another state.

(b) “Delinquency proceeding” means any proceeding commenced against an insurer for the purpose of liquidating, rehabilitating, reorganizing, or conserving that insurer.

(c) “Foreign country” means territory not in any state.

(d) “Domiciliary state” means the state in which an insurer is incorporated or organized, or, in the case of an insurer incorporated or organized in a foreign country, the state in which the insurer, having become authorized to do business in the state, has, at the commencement of delinquency proceedings, the largest amount of its assets held in trust and assets held on deposit for the benefit of its policyholders or policyholders and creditors in the United States; and any such insurer is deemed to be domiciled in such state.

(e) “Ancillary state” means any state other than a domiciliary state.

(f) “Reciprocal state” means any state other than this state in which in substance and effect the provisions of this act are in force, including the provisions requiring that the commissioner or equivalent insurance supervisory official be the receiver of a delinquent insurer. A “reciprocal state” includes any state also which has, through its commissioner or equivalent supervisory official, entered into a binding and enforceable written agreement with the commissioner of this state which provides that (1) a commissioner or equivalent supervisory official is required to be the receiver of a delinquent insurer; (2) title to assets of the delinquent insurer shall vest in the domiciliary receiver, as of the date of any court order appointing him or her as receiver, and he or she shall have the same rights to recover those assets as provided under subdivision (b) of Section 1064.3; (3) nondomiciliary creditors may file and prove their claims before ancillary receivers; (4) the laws of the domiciliary state of the delinquent insurer shall be applied uniformly to residents and nonresidents in the allowance of preference of claims, except for claims to special deposits created under the laws of the domiciliary state; (5) preferences (including attachments, garnishments, and liens) for creditors with advance information shall be prevented; and (6) the domiciliary receiver may sue in the reciprocal state to recover any assets of a delinquent insurer to which he or she may be entitled under the law.

(g) “General assets” means all property, real, personal, or otherwise, not specifically mortgaged, pledged, deposited, or otherwise encumbered for the security or benefit of specified persons or limited class or classes of persons, and as to such specifically encumbered property the term includes all such property or its proceeds in excess of the amount necessary to discharge the sum or sums secured thereby. Assets held in trust and assets held on deposit for the security or benefit of all policyholders or all policyholders and creditors in the United States, shall be deemed general assets.

(h) “Preferred claim” means any claim with respect to which the law of a state accords priority of payment from the general assets of the insurer.

(i) “Special deposit claim” means any claim secured by a deposit made for the security or benefit of a limited class or classes of persons, but not including any general assets.

(j) “Secured claim” means any claim secured by mortgage, trust, deed, pledge, deposit as security, escrow, or otherwise, but not including special deposit claims or claims against general assets. The term also includes claims, which more than four months prior to the commencement of delinquency proceedings in the state of the insurer’s domicile, have become liens upon specific assets by reason of judicial process.

(k) “Receiver” means receiver, liquidator, rehabilitator, or conservator as the context may require.

(Added by Stats. 1988, Ch. 1466, Sec. 1.)