The Florida Home subcommittee on insurance coverage superior two hotly debated payments Thursday, one supported by insurance coverage brokers however one other that was opposed by brokers and carriers alike.
And one other subcommittee voted to repeal the auto insurance coverage private harm safety regulation and improve the minimal legal responsibility protection limits. However it’s removed from sure if House Bill 1181 or the Senate model will move each chambers of the Legislature. Gov. Ron DeSantis appears set to veto the PIP measure if it does move.
On property insurance coverage, the Home Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on insurance coverage and banking authorized a brand new model of House Bill 643, by Rep. John Snyder, a payroll and staffing firm proprietor. The invoice, whether it is signed into regulation, would ease the workload for brokers trying to find surplus strains protection for hard-to-place properties, by repealing the “diligent effort” at the moment required by state regulation. The statute now requires brokers to hunt protection from not less than three admitted carriers earlier than writing with a surplus strains insurer. That will be eliminated underneath the invoice.
The Florida Affiliation of Insurance coverage Brokers has supported that a part of the invoice.
“The diligent effort requirement has simply been a bureaucratic roadblock that has added delays,” B.G. Murphy, authorities affairs director for FAIA, stated after the assembly.
Nicely-known plaintiffs’ lawyer Chip Merlin argued towards the invoice, contending that it will weaken shopper protections by permitting insurance coverage brokers to maneuver policyholders too rapidly to dearer and less-regulated surplus strains.
“This invoice favors these corporations that don’t wish to spend money on the admitted market in Florida,” Merlin stated within the assembly.
An earlier model of the invoice additionally would have repealed the statutory requirement that brokers be appointed with three carriers earlier than writing insurance policies with the state-created Residents Property Insurance coverage Corp. That part was faraway from the pared-down Home committee substitute adopted Thursday, however it stays in a Senate invoice, SB 1184.
The Senate Banking and Insurance coverage Committee has authorized that invoice, and it’s now within the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Part of HB 643 that noticed intensive debate within the Home subcommittee on Thursday would give Residents’ policyholders an upfront choice on litigation versus state-managed arbitration in claims disputes. Present regulation permits both Residents or the insured to decide on, post-claim, when a dispute might be determined by the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, a state company that’s greatest identified for arbitrating disputes between companies and state businesses over enforcement actions.
HB 643 would put the arbitration choice within the coverage language.
“Every insured should be notified in writing, on the time of getting into right into a coverage with the company and upon every renewal, that they need to determine whether or not to resolve disputes by way of arbitration earlier than the Division of Administrative Hearings,” the invoice reads. “Such notification should be included, in boldfaced 12-point kind instantly previous the insured’s signature, within the following assertion: “AN INSURED MUST CHOOSE AT THE TIME OF ENTERING INTO THIS POLICY OR UPON RENEWAL WHETHER TO RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH ARBITRATION BEFORE THE DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS. THE INSURED MUST INDICATE THIS SELECTION BY MARKING ‘ACCEPT’ OR ‘DECLINE’ BELOW. THIS DECISION CANNOT BE CHANGED DURING THE TERM OF THE POLICY.”
Whereas some representatives stated that arbitration favors the rich who can extra simply afford attorneys, the invoice’s sponsor stated the alternative is true: Litigation within the courts can take years and end in giant lawyer charges, which solely well-heeled policyholders can maintain. A Residents spokesman stated the insurer is reviewing the invoice.
In the meantime, the panel additionally authorized HB 1047, regardless of considerations from lawmakers that it raised too many unanswered questions and wanted extra work.
“The invoice shouldn’t be prepared for prime time,” stated Rep. Mike Caruso, who voted towards the measure.
Amongst different modifications, the invoice, by Rep. Kim Berfield, would tremendously scale back the variety of training hours required for an insurance coverage agent’s license. Berfield stated Florida now requires extra hours than some other state. The following-closest state, New York, mandates simply 90 hours of training for brokers. So, after intensive analysis, Berfield landed on 60 hours, she stated, with out additional clarification.
The FAIA has opposed the invoice, noting that Florida’s ever-changing and crisis-prone property insurance coverage market shouldn’t be left to inexperienced dilettantes. Rules already enable exemptions to the 200-hour rule for these with intensive expertise working at an insurance coverage company, FAIA’s Murphy defined. The FAIA doesn’t have a monetary curiosity in offering training programs for brokers, Murphy stated.
The part of the invoice that obtained probably the most debate was one that might amend the 2023 tort-reform statute provisions on alleging dangerous religion by insurance coverage corporations. Insurance coverage teams and shopper advocates each opposed the wording.
The invoice would enable “adequate proof” of a declare to incorporate pictures or surveillance video of an accident, or medical payments. However a number of committee members decried a provision that might let insurers object to the proof inside 10 days, whereas policyholders would then have simply 10 days to reply. It additionally would enable carriers to cancel or non-renew insurance policies earlier than repairs are accomplished if the insured now not has an insurable curiosity within the property.
“What about an older individual whose home is gone after a storm, who has moved in to her kids’s home out of state, and the insurance coverage firm mails the discover to the home that’s not even there anymore?” Caruso requested. “She has simply 10 days to answer a letter she by no means even acquired?”
The Florida Justice Reform Institute’s president, William Giant, spoke on the assembly and stated the invoice would threaten the HB 837 tort-reform regulation authorized in 2023, which raised the bar on plaintiff’s bad-faith claims. That 2023 regulation offers insurers 90 days to tender the coverage limits in claims, and that has labored properly for 2 years, Giant stated. The Florida Insurance coverage Council additionally opposes HB 1047.
Nonetheless, the subcommittee voted 12-6 in favor of the invoice Thursday, with members suggesting that the bugs might be labored out within the subsequent committee to listen to the invoice.
Picture: Snyder explains HB 643 on the Capitol Thursday. (The Florida Channel)
