Question
Citizens have a Right To Know, at the SEC, where insurance firms invest. However, that EDGAR Database at SEC is absolutely impossible to use to get the info due to high degree of necessary economic/accounting expertise. This seems like a de-facto denial of public Right To know. How can a customer know which insurers do or do not invest in health damaging industries, or those that offend a persons religion or political beliefs…or which invest in competitors to one’s own business or personal investment properties?
Answer
To the extent you are unable to obtain the information you are seeking from the EDGAR database, you might try making a records request to the SEC under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), which applies to all departments of the executive branch of the federal government. Before making your request, you should review the SEC’s operating procedures relating to FOIA, which can be found at the following link:
The FOIA requires federal agencies to respond to a request for information within 20 days; however, federal agencies routinely ignore that deadline. As a practical matter, you will likely need to follow up on your request on a regular basis.
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.