NU Online News Service, Mar. 30, 3:20 p.m.EDT

An 11-member New York task force designed to examine and issuerecommendations on troubled self-insured workers' compensationtrusts will have Paul Magaril, regional manager and counsel for theProperty Casualty Insurers Association of America, as a member, thegroup announced.

Mr. Magaril was appointed by Gov. David Paterson.

The task force was authorized under legislation passed in June2008 that toughened penalties and regulation of group self-insuredtrusts after some of them went into default.

Mr. Magaril said the legislation last June addressed immediateproblems concerning the insolvency of many trusts, and tightenedthe regulation of the trusts. The task force to which he wasappointed, he added, will look more at long-term problems andlong-term solutions concerning the regulation of group self-insuredtrusts.

Mr. Magaril said he was chosen for the task force because of hisbackground in New York workers' compensation. Before joining PCI,Mr. Magaril said he was legislative counsel for the New York StateInsurance Fund (NYSIF), the New York comp insurer of lastresort.

He said in 1998, as regulations governing group self-insuredtrusts were developed, he was among those who were "doing the mostkicking and screaming" because he did not think the regulationsproposed by the Workers' Compensation Board were sufficient.

Mr. Magaril said it will likely take a "good number of months"for the task force to analyze the issue and developrecommendations. He noted the recommendations are already almosttwo months overdue, even though the task force has only just beenformed and has not yet had a meeting.

According to the legislation, the task force was to issuerecommendations for reform by Feb. 1, 2009.

The task force's 11 members, according to the Workers'Compensation Board, and includes representatives from the Board,the state Insurance Department, the state Department of Labor, theNew York State AFL-CIO, the Business Council of New York State, andCon Edison Company of New York, Inc.