OIR Expands Forms Certification Process
The Office of Insurance of Insurance Regulation has issued a second order allowing property and casualty insurers to certify their forms’ compliance with Florida law rather than going though the regulatory process. The current order applies to all property and casualty lines of business other than workers’ compensation. A similar order issued earlier this year was limited to those commercial lines of business subject to the streamlined rate process previously enacted by the Florida legislature.
The OIR’s order creates a one-year opportunity for P&C insurers to proceed with forms absent affirmative regulatory approval. Under the order, an insurer may certify to the OIR that a form meets applicable requirements of Florida law. The certification must be made by the company president, CEO, general counsel or chief compliance officer. It must be submitted to the OIR at least 30 days prior to the insurer’s using the affected form in the market. If a Notice of Change in Policy Terms also applies to the proposed form, the notice of change also should be submitted.
At its recent business development symposium, the Office of Insurance Regulation encouraged commercial insurers to take advantage of its earlier order. The OIR pointed out that only 36 out of 1200 commercial filings involved certifications. This is likely due in part to the prior order still being relatively new and insurers still evaluating how to prepare and submit certifications.
With this most recent order expanding the certification process, insurers will increasingly consider how to use the certification process to make filings, particularly when the filings relate to statutory changes or other common filing issues.