Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During the August 16th Cabinet meeting, Insurance Commissioner Altmaier presented the OIR’s 2018 legislative agenda to the Florida Cabinet. The only issue on the agenda was assignment of benefits (AOB) reform indicating the regulator believes that AOB reform is the most critical issue facing Florida’s insurers. In fact, Commissioner…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Senate Bill 62, dealing with assignment of benefits (AOB) in property insurance was filed by Sen. Hukill on August 9, 2017. Sen. Hukill has been a tireless advocate for AOB reform the past few sessions. She was also the sponsor of the 2017 AOB bill that the OIR, Citizens…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During its June 20th Board meeting, the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors adopted rate and policy changes to be submitted to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) for 2018. Despite lower reinsurance costs and lower rates for wind coverage and primarily because of rising water claim costs,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 9, 2017, Governor Scott signed the property insurance policy transfer bill, HB 805. The bill makes it easier for insurers to transfer homeowners’ policies to an affiliated company. It was supported primarily by Nationwide Insurance. The bill is effective July 1, 2017 and allows – under certain…
By: Greenberg Traurig, FIC Lobbyist Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (“Citizens”) recently announced they will begin offering two new programs in an effort to mitigate rapidly rising claims costs due to water losses. Citizens will now offer consumers emergency water removal services and add a managed repair contractor program to their claims services. Citizen notes that…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 5, 2017, the last day of Session, the Florida Legislature passed HB 1021. Part of that bill changes the building code adoption process. The building code adoption changes were part of a myriad of additions to HB 1021 added by the Senate and when the bill returned…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant The Legislature has approved the 2017 flood insurance package which includes a six-year extension in deregulation of rates for flood coverage from private insurers. The House on May 4 on a 117-0 concurred in Senate amendments, which had been approved a day earlier, to the House flood bill (HB 813…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 4, 2017, the Senate added changes to the building code adoption process to HB 1021, a bill passed by the House on April 19, 2017 that dealt with construction but that did not contain building code changes. Thus, it appears HB 1021 is now the vehicle for…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 4, 2017, the Senate added changes to the building code adoption process to HB 1021, a bill passed by the House on April 19, 2017 that dealt with construction but that did not contain building code changes. Thus, it appears HB 1021 is now the vehicle for…
By: Sam Miller, FIC ConsultantHB 813 (e1) It is the House’s turn to decide whether to accept its bill promoting private flood insurance as an option to the NFIP as rewritten by the Senate or refuse, forcing further negotiations even though the regular session is rapidly winding down. The Senate May 3 passed 31-0 the…