Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1672 protects vulnerable investors from financial exploitation by allowing investment advisors or dealers to delay financial transactions if they suspect financial exploitation. Similar bills were filed in prior Sessions, but never passed. It appears the bill will finally pass this year. Some life insurers are interested in this…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1366 provides more flexibility on who pays taxes on trust investments. Specifically, the bill allows an independent trustee of any grantor trust to reimburse the grantor for all or part of the income taxes paid by the grantor as a result of the trust’s income. The life…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 898 increases the FIGA coverage limit and the FIGA emergency assessment maximum for condominium association and homeowners’ association FIGA claims. The bill passed its last Senate committee on March 2, 2020 without amendment. The House bill (HB 529) is identical and has also cleared all its assigned committees. …
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The OIR backed credit for reinsurance bill that incorporates substantive provisions from the 2017 Covered Agreement between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) passed its last Senate committee on March 2, 2020. It was not amended. The House bill (HB 1211) already passed that chamber and was…
STATE OF FLORIDAOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOREXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 20-51(Establishes COVID-19 Response Protocol and Directs Public Health Emergency) WHEREAS, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe acute respiratory illness that can spread among humans through respiratory transmission and presents with symptoms similar to those of influenza; and WHEREAS, in late 2019, a new and…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House moved their litigation financing bill (HB 7041) out of its last committee on February 27, 2020 with a 20-3 vote. The bill will now be heard on the House floor when set by the Rules Committee. The House Commerce Committee adopted two amendments to the bill. One…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After lengthy testimony and debate, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Senate pharmacist test and treat bill on February 27, 2020. This was the last committee stop for the bill. Some Senators expressed concern for patient safety and misdiagnosis by pharmacists and wondered if the bill would lead…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 27, 2020, the House Commerce Committee approved a committee substitute to HB 895 (10000) that stripped the bill of its original language which covered a myriad of insurance topics and replaced it with third party bad faith reform. The Commerce Committee was the last committee stop for…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 771, the House PIP repeal bill, cleared its last House committee on February 27, 2020 when the House Commerce Committee passed it with a vote of 17-7. Seven Republicans voted against the bill, including the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Donalds (R), and the House…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Up until this week the House was advancing two competing House bills to regulate peer to peer car sharing, both of which included the same insurance requirements. The bills differed on the application of the daily rental car surcharge and sales tax to peer to peer car sharing. …