(a) (1) The department shall develop and implement a coordinated approach to gather, review, and analyze the archives of insurers and other archives and records, using onsite teams and the oversight committee, to provide for research and investigation into insurance policies, unpaid insurance claims, and related matters of victims of the Holocaust or of the Nazi-controlled German government or its allies, and the beneficiaries and heirs of those victims, and for losses arising from the activities of the Nazi-controlled German government or its allies for insurance policies issued before and during World War II by insurers who have affiliates or subsidiaries authorized to do business in California. Information compiled shall be placed in a centralized database for the retention of policy and claimant data, and the data shall be used to implement this section and Section 790.15. (2) The department has an affirmative duty to play an independent role in representing the interests of Holocaust survivors where necessary, including the duty to carry out research, investigations, and advocacy. The department shall cooperate with, participate in, promote coordination with, and to the extent feasible and consistent with the purposes of this section, work jointly with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the international commission on Holocaust survivor claims or any other entity involved in the documentation, resolution, settlement, or distribution of insurance claims, including the documentation of unpaid claims and the distribution of proceeds, and the establishment and maintenance of a database to contain information relevant to claimants and documents and historical information. The department shall work to recover information and records that will strengthen the claims of California residents. (3) The department shall employ insurance archaeologists, economists, attorneys, accountants, and other specialists, in this country and in Europe, to implement this section. The department shall work jointly with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and other organizations for this purpose. The departmentâs cooperation with other states shall be for the purpose of advancing survivorsâ claims while avoiding duplication of efforts, and shall be dependent upon contributions by other states. (4) In order to ensure that Holocaust survivors receive the most aggressive and independent representation possible in pursuit of their historic claims, in contracting with accounting firms, law firms, economists, or others to implement this section, the department shall, to the maximum extent possible, avoid any potential or actual conflict of interest by doing the following: (A) Seek and give preference to firms that are entirely free of any associations with firms representing insurers and nations from which Holocaust survivors are seeking just treatment of their claims. (B) If the department finds that it is necessary to contract with a firm or firms that have conflicts or potential conflicts of interest, those conflicts or potential conflicts of interest shall be disclosed to the commissioner, and the following requirements shall apply: (i) The contract shall contain a provision that expresses a formal commitment on the part of the firm to aggressively pursue a maximum just settlement for Holocaust survivors and their families without regard to any adverse impacts on insurers, affiliates of insurers, nations, or others that may have employed the firm or affiliates of the firm that is contracting with the commissioner to assist in carrying out the commissionerâs responsibilities under this section. (ii) If any conflict or potential conflict exists between the firm, or an affiliate of the firm, and an insurer, an affiliate of an insurer, a nation or others directly or indirectly involving Holocaust claims, the firm shall disclose both the fact of the conflict or potential conflict, and all relevant information desc
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