Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We’ll take our first question from Matt Carletti with Fox-Pitt Kelton; please go ahead sir.
Matt Carletti - Fox-Pitt Kelton
Hi, good morning.
Jim Scardino
Hi, Matt.
Matt Carletti - Fox-Pitt Kelton
A couple of question, one, it relates to the fee business, the SIGs and in the release you talked about how essentially going forward you’ll be down to one SIG in California. What are the plans for that business, I mean, it doesn’t seem like right now it’s the time where insurers elect to go that route given that is a pretty soft market, and one SIG doesn’t seem like a cost effective business operation. What’s the longer term plans for that business?
Jim Scardino
That’s a good question, thank you. We obviously, the product, so group self insurance is a product that does very well in hard markets. It is difficult in soft markets, because the capital structure and these things are such that you cannot go down as far as the voluntary writers or state funds are willing to do.
We cannot go down that far and maintain the financial integrity of these groups. The record speaks for itself. 2010, we’ll have one self insurance group. It is a sizable group. It is in an industry sector that is somewhat less elastic, let’s say in cycles, and it’s a group that we understand.
We plan to continue to manage if the economics are such that we were able to do that with a staffing infrastructure that is not uneconomic for us. We don’t want to abandon the fee business all together because we think in the future there may be some prospect, perhaps not in group self insurance, but in some other fee-related businesses to reinvigorate the segment.
Matt Carletti - Fox-Pitt Kelton
Okay, and then I guess the second question is, you talked about how really right now the road block to getting a capital infusion is the Attorney General, can you give us any update you can just on where that stands or what your communications have been and any sort of indication of timing if that at all possible?
Jim Scardino
Yes, we’ll have to further the disclosures in our Q. The investigation is ongoing. There had been no formal suit or nor indictments. The Attorney General has continued to ask for information. Our counsel has been in contact with the Attorney General’s Office, but the process at this point, it must still be described as a request for information and the evaluations that are going on at the AG’s office. I wish I could give the timeframe.
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