News
Safeguard Our Seniors Heads to Governor's Desk
Senator Mike Bennett, Representative Maria Sachs and CFO Alex Sink, among others, have been pursuing legislation for several sessions to increase regulatory protections for senior citizens in annuity transactions. Although the proposals appeared at times to be stalled in the current session, they were amended onto a broader insurance bill at the end of the session …
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Property insurance rates rising? Bill advances to Crist
By Julie Patel Sun-Sentinel Staff Writer State lawmakers passed a sweeping measure last week to strengthen the state’s property insurance market by making it easier for insurers to raise rates. The bill, SB 2044, goes to Gov. Charlie Crist. He has said he doesn’t support anything to allow rate increases, but he hasn’t made a …
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Insurance bill not assured of Crist veto
By JOHN FRANK – Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE — The veto watch began Monday for an industry-backed insurance bill that received limited vetting as it won approval in the final moments of the legislative session. It’s a remake of last year when lawmakers left town and dumped a big property insurance bill in Gov. Charlie …
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No sunny outlook for Florida’s insurance market
By Benjamin Zycher April 25, 2010 The sun doesn’t always shine in the Sunshine State. But for many career public officials, maybe the sun will come out tomorrow, and every day until the next election; and after that, the weather will be someone else’s problem. That mindset explains the willingness of Gov. Charlie Crist to …
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Risky insurance regulation
Florida bends over backward to keep shaky insurers afloat Published: Friday, April 23, 2010 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 6:56 p.m. Whose side are Florida’s insurance regulators on: the consumers’ or the companies’? That a question that the public and the Legislature should be asking, in light of a Herald-Tribune …
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Property insurance bills seemingly collapse in Florida Legislature
Posted: April 21, 2010 – 8:19pm By Brandon Larrabee TALLAHASSEE – Efforts to ease regulations on property insurance premiums appeared to collapse Wednesday, with both the House and Senate postponing votes on measures that would overhaul insurance rules. But a key House lawmaker said some changes could still gain approval before the legislative session ends …
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Senate's insurance bill fair: But House bill would let premiums skyrocket
As usual, the property insurance bills before the Legislature are long and technical, but it’s easy to tell which one is better for consumers. The House continues to push for deregulation, which would allow all of Florida’s 200-plus property insurers to charge whatever premiums they wanted — without review by the Office of Insurance Regulation. …
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Tussle in Tallahassee over insurance rates control
By LLOYD DUNKELBERGER H-T Capital Bureau Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 11:51 p.m. TALLAHASSEE – Call it Round 3 between the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist. Earlier in the session, Crist vetoed a campaign fundraising bill championed by top Republicans. This week, lawmakers and the …
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Editorial: Homeowners at risk
04/06/2010 © Tallahassee Democrat (Requires Login) Lawmakers seem increasingly prepared, and so they should be, to challenge Gov. Charlie Crist’s threat to once again veto legislation that would open up the property insurance market and make it stable enough to ensure property owners would actually get a payout if the worst comes to pass. In …
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Senate bill would allow major home insurance rate hikes
March 25, 2010|By Julie Patel, South Florida Sun Sentinel The Senate’s insurance committee passed a bill Wednesday that would essentially allow home insurance rates to rise by a statewide average of up to 33 percent in the next three years. “Couple that with the 10 percent annual increase passed by this committee last week, and …
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Crist and Senate at odds over insurance rate bill
By CATHERINE WHITTENBURG cwhittenburg@tampatrib.com Published: March 25, 2010 TALLAHASSEE – A Senate panel voted on Wednesday to let property insurers raise their rates without approval from regulators, despite public urging from Gov. Charlie Crist that lawmakers reject the plan. Crist vetoed a similar bill last year that would have empowered large property insurers to set …
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Balance insurance reform: No free-market solution for a broken market
Unfortunately, the Legislature doesn’t want to revisit one of the most creative proposals for Florida’s property insurance problem. So consumers will have to hope that the Legislature tries to improve the current system in a way that doesn’t give all the benefits to the insurers. Some legislators would “fix” the problem by letting all companies …
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Gov. Charlie Crist calls for consensus in State of the State speech
THE STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS BY STEVE BOUSQUET Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE — In his farewell State of the State speech, Gov. Charlie Crist made a last-ditch appeal to the Legislature on Tuesday to embrace his style of pragmatic bipartisanship to confront Florida’s problems. Rebranding his populism as “problem-solving” over ideology, the lame-duck governor …
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Lawmaker's Ugly Challenge
Published: February 28, 2010 The mean season begins Tuesday when Florida lawmakers gather in Tallahassee for what will likely be a blistering two-month session. The Legislature is grappling with a deficit that could reach $3.2 billion. Leadership wants no new bills that would have a negative fiscal impact. There will be no additional revenues. It’s …
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Insurance Doctrine Shifting Back Toward Market
News Service of Florida – Dec 29th, 2009 Nearly three years ago, the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature did something that seemed to some a little un-Republican. Lawmakers had been blistered for two years by complaints from constituents who saw their homeowners rates going through the roof following the 2004 hurricane season, which brought Charley, Ivan, Frances …
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